Epistle to the Galatians
4:22-27
Gospel According
to St. Luke 13:10-17
None of us likes to be sick. It’s very frustrating to want to get up and
do what you want to do and not to be able to do so. Illness separates us from our usual
activities and relationships, and even from our selves. When our lives revolve around our own pain
and disability, we aren’t really ourselves anymore. And that’s just a miserable way to be.
When Jesus Christ was teaching in a
synagogue on the Sabbath, he saw a woman who was bent over and could not stand
up straight. She had been that way for
eighteen years. Just think of how she
felt, how limiting and frustrating that illness had to be. The Lord said to her, “Woman, you are loosed
from your infirmity.” Then He laid hands
on her and she was healed, was able to stand up straight again, and she
glorified God.
But there were those standing around
just waiting to criticize the Lord, for He healed her on the Sabbath day, when
no work was to be done. Christ answered
these critics by pointing out that everyone takes care of his donkey and ox on
the Sabbath. “So ought not this woman,
being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen
years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” The truth of His teaching was so clear that
those adversaries were put to shame and the people rejoiced.
In these weeks of the Nativity Fast,
of Advent, we are preparing to celebrate the wonderful news of the Incarnation
of the Son of God, of our Lord’s birth at Christmas. And we see in this gospel text a beautiful
image of what Jesus Christ has done for us by becoming a human being. For every one of us is like that poor woman
bound with an infirmity for eighteen years, unable to straighten herself up.
For we live in a world of corruption, of
illness, pain, and death. We don’t like
to think about it, but there are harsh, impersonal realities from which we
can’t isolate ourselves. The horrors of war, crime, and terrorism; the
ecological effects of pollution; cycles of violence, abuse, and brokenness in
families and in society; and the inevitability of the grave: We don’t have to
look far to find ways in which we are held captive.
We
all have diseases of soul, of personality, of behavior, and of relationships
that cripple us, that keep us from acting, thinking, and speaking as the
children of God. For we have all fallen
short of God’s purposes for us, as has every generation since Adam and Eve. And we are all bent over and crippled in
profound ways in relation to the Lord, our neighbors, and even ourselves.
Joachim and Anna knew all about long-term
struggles and disabilities, for like Abraham and Sarah they were childless into
their old age. But God heard their
prayer and gave them Mary, who would in turn give birth to the Savior who came
to liberate us all from sin and death. Today
is the feast of St. Anna’s conception of the Theotokos which we celebrate as a
foreshadowing of the coming of the Lord to loose us from the infirmities that
hold us captive and hinder our participation even now in the life of the
Kingdom.
The story of the Old Testament
unfolded through the family of Abraham, who was told by God that he would be
the father of a large, blessed family. Many
Jews continue to think of life after death as being accomplished through
ongoing generations of children and grandchildren, not by victory over death
itself. But if God’s blessings extend no
further than the grave, then we will never be loosed from bondage to the wages of
sin, which is death.
The history of the Hebrews was
preparatory for the coming of the Christ, the Messiah in whom God’s promises
are fulfilled and extended to all who have faith in the Savior, regardless of
their family heritage. Christ did not come
to privilege one nation over another, but to fulfill our original calling to be
in the image and likeness of God; and, yes, that means to share in the eternal life
of the Holy Trinity as distinct, unique persons. God breaks the laws of nature in order to do so, enabling elderly
women to conceive and bear children and a young virgin to become the mother of His
Son Who Himself rises from the dead. Yes,
this is a story of liberation, of breaking bonds, and of transcending the brokenness
and limitations of life in the world in the world as know it.
Fortunately, the Lord did not treat
the woman in today’s reading according to her physical condition as simply a
bundle of disease, even as St. Anna’s fate was not to be defined by barrenness.
Instead, He gave her back her true
identity as a beloved person, a daughter of Abraham. And on that particular Sabbath day, that’s
what Jesus Christ did. He treated her as
a unique, cherished child of God who was not created for a corrupt, impersonal
existence of pain, disease, and despair, but for blessing, health, and
joy. She glorified God for this
deliverance, as did those who saw the miracle.
The good news of Christmas is that
the Lord is born to do the same for us and for the whole world, to set us free
from the slavery to decay, corruption, and weakness that distort and weaken us
all. He comes so that we are no longer defined
by our infirmities and can leave behind our bondage and enter into the joyous
freedom of the children of God. He comes
to restore us as living icons who manifest Christ’s glory and salvation in
unique, personal ways. Have you ever
noticed that icons portray people as distinctive persons, that the personality
and character of the Theotokos or St. John the Baptist or St. Luke shines
through their icons?
The same should be true of us. We become not less ourselves, but more truly
ourselves, when we open our lives to Christ’s holiness and healing. In contrast, sin and corruption are pretty
boring. No matter how creative we try to
be, there are only so many ways to hate, lie, cheat, and steal. You can only say so much about murder and adultery. Holiness, on the other hand, is infinitely
beautiful and fascinating. For the more
we share in the life of the Holy Trinity, the more we see that the process of
our fulfillment in God is eternal, that there is no end to it or to Him. And since our fundamental calling as human
beings is to grow in the likeness of God, we become more truly ourselves—as
distinct, unique persons-- whenever we turn away from slavery to sin and
passion in order to embrace more fully the new life that Christ has brought to
the world.
Unfortunately, people in our culture
usually do not view Advent and Christmas as opportunities to be loosed from our
bondage to sin and death. Too often, we turn
them into occasions for strengthening our addiction to money and possessions,
to excessive food and drink, and unhealthy relationships with others. Of course, that’s really a way of saying that
self-centered indulgence is nothing but bondage to ourselves, which ends up
leaving us hollow and miserable. And
that’s not surprising because we weren’t created to find eternal fulfillment
and peace in the things of the world, even in one another. That’s why we must resist the cultural
temptation to be so busy with shopping and planning and partying this time of
year that we ignore the glory and gravity of our Lord’s Incarnation. For He comes to make us all the sons and
daughters of God, to extend to us all the blessing and joy of the heavenly
kingdom, to loose us from our weakness and infirmity, and to conquer sin and death
in us.
So let us not remain stooped over, bound,
and barren this Advent. Instead,
let us use the remaining weeks of this holy season to prepare to receive the
Christ who heals us, who sets us free, and who makes us the unique, distinctive
children of God we were created to be in the first place. Let us embrace our spiritual disciplines with
joy, fighting our passions and serving Christ in our neighbors, especially
those who are lonely and in need. For
we, too, have become the daughters and sons of Abraham in Christ Jesus; we too
are have been loosed and are to glorify God by living as those who have found
new life in the Second Adam, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, the One who comes to us
at Christmas. Now is the time to get
ready for Him.
