Today’s reading is from The Gospel according to St. John 5:1-15
The Gospel for this the third Sunday after Pascha is one that we are all quite familiar with. It is rich with symbolism and meaning so we will try to focus on just a few points.
Let us put ourselves at the scene of this miraculous event in the life of Christ. First we want to know when it happened in the context of the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The story takes place in chapter 5 of the gospel according to St. John but the gospel is 21 chapters long. Quite simply this tells us that the story takes place before the resurrection, or the crucifixion for that matter. Now as I have reminded you in the past it is up to us to find the reason why the Church has chosen this lesson for this day. Nothing is coincidental, everything has a meaning and purpose in the church’s liturgical cycle.
It seems clear that the gospel while not speaking directly of the resurrection is already an allusion to it. The Life of Jesus is marked, even defined by his willingness and ability to grant life to all who come to him with a humble heart. Now some of you are saying to yourselves “wait a minute” this man wasn’t dead, Jesus didn’t give him life. But we are mistaken. Our Lord takes broken lives and broken dreams, broken hearts and even broken bones and he heals each of these. In healing all of these He gives life. As we have said in the past you are not truly dead unless you are spiritually dead and you are not truly alive unless you are spiritually alive. Seen in this light it becomes quite clear that resurrection though not explicit, is the theme of this and many stories of healing. We find the man here is very sick and lying on the ground…..he cannot even move, he has been in such a state for 38 years….38 years…….38 years. After this amount of time sickness has become almost a part of who he is as a person. To add insult to injury he must watch as others come and go and are healed of there illnesses while he is stuck. If no other image sticks with you today remember this one…….The ill man who must move in order to be healed. It is quite a shocking statement, it is also an impossibility ! If one is nearly paralyzed there is almost nothing he can do to move himself toward the thing which can heal him.
I ask you to remember this statement not just today but every day of your life because at times we are each sick in the spirit. We are the ones who know what we need to do in order to be made well, but since we are already so sick we cannot heal ourselves. It is simply not within our strength to succeed. Some people come to confession and they say: I need to be less angry, I need to be more patient, I need to have less lust, I need to have more love. Repeat after me: It is not within my power to succeed. This is the very definition of “self-help.” For a Christian the idea of self-help is a lost cause. I cannot help myself because I am broken. I cannot heal myself because in truth I am in desperate need of healing. Where can I go? Who can offer me healing? Who can offer me salvation?
Enter Jesus Christ: He comes to the man and asks him if he wants to be made well. The man doesn’t respond with a yes, he is so used to disappointment that he simply says “I have no man to put me into the pool” Some of you might be thinking “i’m sure someone will help him one of these days” NO……it is clear that he has been like this for quite some time and no one is coming to help him because those who come to the pool have come to heal themselves and perhaps their loved ones. But thank God for the Lord Jesus. He does not need to lift even a finger. The Word of God simply raises the man by the very power of his word……….. These are the same words He now gives to us, take these words and live. You who were dead in sins be made alive by his words. Take up your stretcher and walk…….the flesh is passing but the spirit lives on. We are called to healing in our spiritual lives and even more than that We are called to become runners of the spiritual marathon. We are called not only to ask for spiritual healing, but to even become spiritual athletes. We are those who by the grace of God in faith and hope, contest for the faith, as the saints did. We do it in our daily lives.
So above all we must again Thank God for Our Lord Jesus Christ who has the ability to heal us not only of our physical but of our spiritual sicknesses…..to raise us from our beds. Since He is the source of healing, each of us has to find new ways throughout our life to take new inspiration and power from His presence. We are called to look for new ways to bring Christ into our lives. One might do this by taking on the practice of reading one chapter from the gospels daily. Another might do this by spending more time in prayer at some point in the day. Another does this by serving the poor and the needy. Another does this by serving the Church. These along with the keeping of His commandments and the participation in the sacraments, are potent ways to bring ourselves into the presence of Christ.
He desires our healing. He desires our salvation. He desires to be with us and that we would be with Him. All of this is possible. We must remember that these things He does in our lives are very minor for the Lord of life and the conqueror of death itself. Because He lives, we also will live. Just as a loving father does not give his son a snake when he asks for a fish, likewise, if we will only ask for the gift of life with faith, with our whole heart, the Lord Jesus will never give us death.
I will leave you with a quote from St. Leo the Great of Rome. He writes,
“We must strive to be found partakers also of Christ’s Resurrection, and ‘pass from death unto life’ while we are in this body. We must die, therefore, to the devil and live to God: we must perish to iniquity that we may rise to righteousness. . . .
As we have borne the image of the earthy, so let us also bear the image of Him Who is from heaven, we must greatly rejoice over this change, whereby we are translated from earthly degradation to heavenly dignity through His unspeakable mercy, Who descended into our estate that He might promote us to His.” Thus has Christ fulfilled Adam’s quest for restoration….
“Let God’s people then recognize that they are a new creation in Christ, and with all vigilance understand by Whom they have been adopted and Whom they have adopted. These thoughts, dearly beloved, must be kept in mind not only for the Paschal festival, but also for the sanctification of the whole life… so that rising ever anew from all downfalls, we may deserve to attain to the incorruptible Resurrection of our glorified flesh in Christ Jesus our Lord. . .”. AMEN.
Christ is risen!
Originally delivered on May 18, 2008
Source: Sermons