Bearing the Burden of Being Christian

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’” Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.   (John 5:1-15)

Jesus said:  And he said to all, “If any one would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.   (Luke 9:23)

The Paralytic in John 5 is commanded to rise, take up his bed and walk.  It turns out that his cross, the cross on which he had been crucified, is his own bed to which he had been nailed for 38 years of paralysis.   He picks up that cross so that he can walk with Christ and  follow Christ wherever Christ may go.

Today’s Gospel lesson shows us how “taking up the cross” might be a very different experience than we usually imagine it to be – and it is possible that taking up the Cross is a blessing rather than a burden.  For most of us, there are enough trials and temptations each day of our life to make life difficult, and some would feel almost impossible to accomplish.  Why then would we want to take up the Cross to add to our burdens, sorrows and troubles?

What we learn from today’s Gospel lesson is that there are two kinds of burdens – the ones we should lay down and not carry because we follow God’s blessed Sabbath rest, and the burden we must carry In order to follow Christ – the cross that it is necessary for us to carry to follow Him. The issue is whether we can see what is the cross in my life that I have to take up in order to follow Christ. There are some burdens we must bear as Christians to be faithful to our Lord.

It is also true that in taking up the Cross we can find ourselves liberated from our own heavy burdens – our thoughts and ideas of justice, revenge, repentance, forgiveness, hatred and retribution.  These are the burdens we can lay down in order to hear and obey Christ.

Additionally, If we allow it to, the Cross can carry us through some of life’s trials.  Yet, this thought makes us squirm with discomfort for we are terrified at the thought of being lifted up on the Cross and we prefer an easier way in which there is no pain and no cost to us.

Today’s Gospel reaffirms the truth that God’s commandments are not heavy and difficult burdens.  God liberates us from our wearisome burdens.

Today’s Gospel lesson takes place at the sheep pool called Bethesda – a pool of water near one of the gates allowing passage into Jerusalem.  The sheep gate is first mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah, written about 450 years before the time of Christ.  Nehemiah records the building of the sheep gate.  He is one of the prophets who advocated that Israel must keep the Sabbath Day holy:

 When it began to be dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the sabbath. And I set some of my servants over the gates, that no burden might be brought in on the sabbath day. (Nehemiah 13:19)

Nehemiah’s prohibition against carrying a burden on the Sabbath day near one of the city gates is the basis of our the Gospel lesson in John 5.   The people in the Gospel account were practicing what Nehemiah commanded the to do when they confront the paralytic for carrying his bed on the Sabbath near the city gate.  They probably thought he was a bed salesman carrying his wares!   The Prophet Jeremiah adds:

Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the Benjamin Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. Thus says the LORD: Take heed for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the sabbath or do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction. ‘But if you listen to me, says the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but keep the sabbath day holy and do no work on it, then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall be inhabited for ever.   (Jeremiah 17:19-25)

No wonder the people were so upset with this paralytic carrying his bed on the sabbath!

So why would Jesus, the Son of God, tell this paralyzed man to carry his bed on the Sabbath at the very place where God had said through His prophets that it shouldn’t be done?

The answer becomes clear when Jesus asks the paralytic, “Do you want to be made well?   Do you want to become healthy?”

For Jesus the paralyzed man’s burden is not his bed, but his paralysis.  His burden is also that though he is part of the people of God, he has no one to help him.   His sickness is the burden of His life.  And on that Sabbath Day, Jesus gave the paralyzed man rest from his burden for Jesus freed him of his paralysis.  [see my post The True Sabbath Rest]  When the paralyzed man picked up his bed, he was also finally laying down his burden, his paralysis and was given health.  For his paralysis had also burdened the man with bitterness and doubt, opening his heart to the oppression of Satan.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. For we who have believed enter that rest . . . For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”  . . .  So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience.  (Hebrews 4:1-11)

Yet some of those people in Jerusalem could not see how Jesus freeing the man from carrying his burden, his paralysis, was keeping God’s law.  That is why Jesus said to them:

“I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?”  (Luke 6:9)

And Jesus spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath, or not?” But they were silent. Then he took him and healed him, and let him go. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on a sabbath day?” (Luke 14:3-5)

Carrying a bed on the Sabbath as is shown in the Gospel might not be a violation of the Sabbath but rather might be a sign that one is entering into the Lord’s rest.  The burden which concerns God might surprise us, as Jeremiah says:

“When one of this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, says the LORD.’    (Jeremiah 23:33)

The people’s mistaken understanding of the Torah made them into a burden, which this paralyzed man also had to bear in addition to the burden of his paralysis.  But the paralytic shows himself to be following God’s command because he listens to the words of Christ and obeys them:

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.   (John 5:24)

We have to discern what are the burden we carry from which God will free us?  Our sins, our debts, our guilt, our desire for revenge.

Sometimes, however, we act as if our burdens are prayer, fasting, confession, Sunday worship, reading scripture, forgiving others, apologizing for our sins, giving to charity, seeking forgiveness, being generous.

We ask: Do I have to come to church on Sunday?  Jesus asks, do you want to be made well?

We ask: Do I need to tithe to the church?  Jesus asks, do you want to be made well?

We ask: do I have to go to confession?  Jesus asks, do you want to be made well?

We ask: do I have to forgive those who sin against me?  Jesus asks, do you want to be made well?

We ask: do I have to fast and pray and practice self-control?  Jesus asks, do you want to be made well?

We ask: Do I really have to stop looking at pornography or stop getting drunk or stop my bouts of anger and rage?  Jesus asks, do you want to be made well?

We ask:  Do I have to stop hating people who are worthless and do I need to show mercy and be kind to those I don’t know and don’t like?  Jesus asks, do you want to be made well?

Jesus says to us:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30)

Sometimes we wrongly believe that the way out of our problems, our passions, our sins, is more effort on our part.  If only we have more faith or fast more or pray more, then God would help us.  But the paralyzed man couldn’t save himself, no matter how hard he tried, his problems were insurmountable to him.  He couldn’t get into the pool of water first no matter how much he wanted to.  This man had plenty of faith, after all he had been waiting at the pool for 38 years for someone to help him get into the water and be healed.  He believed God was present there and continued in this hope for 38 years!  Nonetheless, his salvation lay outside himself.  It wasn’t more effort on this part that were needed – he needed Christ, he needed to wait on the Lord, he needed Jesus to be his spiritual partner.

It is possible, my brothers and sister, that there are people all around us, like this man paralyzed for 38 years and patiently waiting for help – people for whom we can be Christ and reach out to them and help them.  And it is possible that we have been struggling with some burden for many years feeling there is no one to help me, and the solution might be outside of myself – in seeking help from a neighbor or a stranger.  The lessons for us in this Gospel periscope are many, we need to know when we are to be Christ to another and when we need someone else to be Christ for us.  As St Paul said:  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  (Galatians 6:2)

The True Sabbath Rest

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’” Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.  (John 5:1-15)

Jesus Christ on several occasions heals the sick on the Sabbath Day, which causes the religious leaders of His day to doubt that His power to heal comes from God since He breaks the Sabbath law.  In John 5:1-15, not only does Jesus heal a paralytic, but He commands the healed man to carry his bed and it is the Sabbath Day.  In these actions, Jesus is challenging the religious authority’s understanding of the Torah and accusing them of being hard-hearted while suggesting that keeping the Torah should lead to loving both God and neighbor.  From the 4th Century we have comments of a Syrian monk who explains in a sermon the true nature of Torah:

In the shadow of the Law given to Moses, God decreed that everyone should rest on the sabbath and do nothing. This was a figure and a shadow of the true Sabbath given to the soul by the Lord. For the soul that has been deemed worthy to have been set free from shameful and sordid thoughts both observes the true Sabbath and enjoys true rest, being at leisure and freed from the works of darkness. There, in the typical Sabbath, even though they rested physically, their souls were enslaved to evils and wickednesses. However, this, the true Sabbath, is genuine rest, since the soul is at leisure and is purified from the temptations of Satan and rests in the eternal rest and joy of the Lord.

Just as then God decreed that also the irrational animals should rest on the Sabbath – that the ox should not be forced under the yoke of necessity, that they should not burden the ass (for even the animals themselves were to rest from their heavy works) – so, when the Lord came and gave the true and eternal Sabbath, he gave rest to the soul of heavily burdened and loaded down with burdens of iniquity, of unclean thoughts, and laboring under restraint in doing works of injustice as though it were under slaver to bitter masters. And he lightened the soul from its burdens, so difficult to bear, of vain and obscene thoughts. And he took away the yoke, so bitter, of the works of injustice, and gave rest to the soul that had been worn out by the temptations of impurity.

For the Lord calls man to his rest, saying, “Come, all you who labor and are heavily burdened and I will refresh you” (Mt. 11:28). And as many persons as obey and draw near, he refreshes them from all these heavy and burdensome and unclean thoughts. And they are at leisure from every iniquity, observing the true, pleasing, holy Sabbath. And they celebrate a feast of the Spirit, of joy and ineffable exultation. They celebrate a pure service, pleasing to God from a pure heart. This is the true and holy Sabbath. Let us, therefore, entreat God that we may enter into this rest (Heb 4:11) and that we may be freed from shameful and evil and vain thoughts sot that thus we may be able to serve God out of a pure heart and celebrate the feast of the Holy Spirit. Blessed is he who enters into that rest. Glory to the Father, who is so well pleased, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, forever. Amen. (Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies, pp. 204-205)

The true burden the paralytic of John 5 carried for 38 years was his illness and the fact that he had no one to help him.  His paralysis laid upon his heart a burden of bitterness which allowed Satan to torment him, bringing him to doubt and despair. Christ gave him rest from his burden.  Commanding him to carry his bed was proof that his burden had been lifted.  Now on that Sabbath, carrying his bed was not carrying a burden but  was proof that he had entered into the Lord’s rest.  Now the man no longer was burdened by Satan with bitterness, doubt and despair.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. For we who have believed enter that rest . . . For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”  . . .  So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience.  (Hebrews 4:1-11)

The Courage to Be Human

John 5:1-15
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’” Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

This Gospel speaks about obeying God rather than looking for mere miracles/magic in one’s life, and not making rules and rubrics more important than God Himself.

But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’  (Jeremiah 7:23)

The Paralytic heard the voice of God when Christ spoke to him and he obeyed the voice of God.  Notice in the Gospel lesson Jesus doesn’t say anything about healing the paralytic.  Jesus issues a command and the paralytic walks in the way that God commanded him – literally!  He was made well – it was well with him – because the paralytic obeyed God’s voice.  Hebrews 3:7-11 describes exactly what it is like when God’s people do not hearken to His voice:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'”

The Paralytic did not harden his heart but rather he heard God’s voice and obeyed for immediately he got up and picked up his bed.  He chose to obey this voice which apparently he recognized immediately as God’s – and as the events unfold it becomes obvious that prior to this, this man did not listen to God’s voice.

At the very end of today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus tells the healed paralytic, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”   This seems to imply that the paralytic had gotten himself into the condition in which he was in and had suffered for 38 years.  Somewhere in his life, he had made choices that had long term consequences.  He had been ignoring God’s voice for a very long time, but at this moment he changes his life.

But there is a message of hope – even if you are in the condition you are in because of your choices, it is possible to change, to make other choices, to get things right in your life.  To learn from the past and to take path in life, even if late in life.

Jesus asks us as he asked the paralytic 2000 years ago, do you want to be made well?  Are you willing to make the spiritual changes in your life to start on a new path – to start life over again?  Are you willing to listen to the voice of God and walk in His ways?

Are you willing to change, or make the changes necessary for a new life?

And we can ask ourselves:

Do I want to give up my grudges, when I have not yet gotten vengeance on those who hurt me?  Do I want to give up my righteous anger, when I have not vindicated?  When I have not yet been validated by others recognizing the righteousness of my case?

Do I want to give up the pains, sorrows and excuses for my behavior?  Or do I want to hold on to them because they help me justify my behavior?

Do I want to give up my lusts and desires?  Or perhaps like St. Augustine I want to say, “Deliver me, O Lord, from my sexual lusts, but not just yet for I still enjoy them”?

We are human beings, we do have free will, free choice and personal responsibility.  In any given situation we can rise above our biologically determined desires  and say no to our self.  We can choose a behavior, a morality, we can refuse to do something we feel driven to do – whether by hormones or emotions.

About 20 years ago a radio talk show psychologist said:  “You know the final excuse that really gets my hackles to full quivering attention?  It’s when callers protest that they are ‘only human.’  ONLY human?  As if one’s humanness were a blueprint for instinctive, reflexive reactions to situations, like the rest of the animal kingdom.  I see being ‘human’ as the unique opportunity to use our mind and will to act in ways that elevate us above the animal kingdom.”  (Dr Laura Schlessinger, HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?, p 9)

The attitude of that psychologist fits well into Orthodox spirituality which sees us humans as being specially gifted by God precisely to rise up above our animal nature.  It doesn’t deny that we have animal desires, instincts, genetics.  It just says but God has blessed us with hearts and minds that can choose to rise above the limits of our animal nature.

We are indeed dealt some things in life – our genes or even our epi-genetic make-up,  the time and place of our birth, the family we are raised in.  We have no control over these things and they do influence our lives.

However, our situations in life are not completely determined by external conditions, they also result from our character, courage, morality, values, life-style and choices.

It is possible for us to change many things about ourselves and the choices we make.

St. Symeon the New Theologian writes:    “Baptism does not take away our free will or freedom of choice, but gives us the freedom no longer to be tyrannized by the devil unless we choose to be.  After baptism it is in our power either to persist willingly in the practice of the commandments of Christ, into whom we were baptized, and to advance in the path of His ordinances, or to deviate from this straight way and to fall again into the hands of our enemy, the devil…. We are created good by God – for God creates nothing evil – and we remain unchanging in our nature and essence as created.  But we do what we choose and want, whether good or bad, of our own free will.”

Jesus calls us to grow and to change:

A Call to repentance

Call to forgiveness

Call to the truth

Call to love.

 

Each of these are telling us to change, to become what we are not yet.  Each is a call to be courageous enough to be human – rise above your instincts, your desires, your DNA and become what God created every human to be – God like.

We, like the paralytic, need to hear God’s voice, recognize it as God’s, and to walk in His ways.

Be Godlike: Be a Helper

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the   Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.  Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.  (John 5:1-15)

Let us consider just one phrase from the Gospel lesson:

The Paralytic tells Jesus,  “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool…” 

Some of you know that throughout Great Lent we sang hymns which describe God as being to us “a helper and a protector.”   The words come from our Scriptures.  God is our helper in life.  We are not alone in the world or when we are in crisis, God the Lord of the universe is also helper to each of us.

The Gospel of the Paralytic brings to mind, what if God is not there to help us?  The Paralytic was lying amid invalids for 38 years the Gospel says, and the paralytic laments that in all this time, there was no one to help him.

In Genesis 2, we know that God created the 2^nd human being for a purpose – to be a helper to the first human being.  Adam too had no one to help him, but God decided to fix that situation by creating a 2^nd human being to help the first.

Some unfortunately conclude from the creation of the 2^nd human being, who also is a woman, that God intended all women to be subservient to men, but the narrative only addresses an issue of being left alone and being a helper.  The next human being is to help those who exist before them.  Each human being comes into existence to be a helper, not just women.  For God in Scripture as we already noted is said to be a helper to us.  We each are created to be God like which implies we too are to help one another. Being a help is not subservient, but being god-like.   No human being should ever truly be left with no one to help them – if we each were being fully human.

After creating the 1^st human, God says in Genesis 2:  “It is not good for man to be alone.”

Now I am by nature a true introvert and very shy.  So whenever I read that verse in which God says, “It is not good for man to be alone”…..  I always think, I don’t know God, maybe you should have let that experiment run a little bit longer.  It may be that being alone wasn’t good, but I know where the story is going, and what happens with the creation of the 2nd human being and subsequent human beings does not bring about even more goodness!

 But the aloneness of the first man is the first thing that God ever determines is not good.  In Genesis 1, after everything God created the Scriptures repeats the refrain, “And God saw that it was good.”  All this goodness abounding, but then God sees that being alone for a human is not good, and that humans need helpers for one another.  God sees what is not good for humans as well as what is good for us.

So besides God being our helper, God creates for each of us helpers other beings to be just like God.  Our fellow human beings are created so that we each might help one another.  God saw the goodness in this.

God commands us:  “Be fruitful and multiply” –  God wishes to have a world full of helpers, of His people whom He loves, all willing to serve and help Him as well as each other.

Our Scriptures totally envision a universe full of helpers.   The Old Testament Scriptures do not envision God living alone in the vastness of any empty heaven.     That idea of a God all alone unto himself is a particular image of a pure and perfect oneness, a monad lost in mental monologues completely detached from His creation comes from the imagination of philosophers.   It is not the God of Scriptures.  For the God of Genesis too digs into the mud of the earth to create humans, as well as trees and everything else.  Our God is not OCD when it comes to messiness!

The Scriptures envision a heaven, God’s Kingdom, full of all kinds of beings – angels, bodiless powers, invisible and spiritual beings, even gods.  All are to be God’s helpers.  The kingdom of Heaven is bustling with the activity and life of a multitude of beings.  God is not alone, dwelling in solitude thinking soliloquies.  God is not an introvert.  Christianity – never envisioned this monad God living within His own oneness and singularity.    Rather in Christianity God is always imaged as a Trinity of Persons.  Perfect relationship, three divine Persons loving not only one another but creating an entire universe with whom to share their divine life and love.

We Christians understand that God created us to be relational beings, sharing in God’s life and love but also sharing life and love with one another.  To be human is to be a helper to others, including to God.

If we think about the Gospel of the Paralytic, we can ask:

Is the paralytic truly alone?  Is there truly no one to help him at all?

How long can a human live without food or water?  Maybe a month.

How long was the man laying with invalids?  38 years.

So someone was giving him food and water.  He has basic bodily functions and needs.  To be there for 38 years means someone was caring for him.  Maybe no one met his expectation of helping him to be healed, but the Gospel surely suggests that there is someone, or maybe several someones who have helped him survive for 38 years. These are all invisible care givers in the narrative.

Today’s Gospel lesson reminds us we are to be helpers to one another.  We are to help each other so that we can live in this world until that day that we meet Christ Jesus our Lord.

And then we have to help each other continue to live. It is not enough just to be opposed to abortion, for example.  We need also to care enough to help people to continue life, to continue living, even if in difficult circumstances.  We have to be the invisible people of the Gospel lesson who helped the Paralytic to live 38 years despite his problems, challenges, illness, differences.  He is not alone.  It is not true that there is no one to help him.  There is us and we are to be helpers to every such person in our lives.

Of course there is a problem in the Gospel lesson:  the paralytic is in basic competition with the rest of the invalids trying to get into those healing waters first when a miracle might occur.   All the others humans at this pool, including all the other helpers have become competition to this one man.  He sees none of them as his helpers, as his fellow human beings.  They are only competitors whom he has dehumanized.

Again, we can think about God’s words in Genesis 2, “It is not good for man to be alone…”        Really?  Wouldn’t this one paralytic be better off if there were no others around him?  No one to compete with him?

And the answer is no, for it is only this great crowd of people which draws Christ to that location, to that one person.  And now God truly becomes the helper to this one human being, not by lifting him up, but by telling him to raise himself up.  Christ does not say to this person, “let me help you up”.  No, rather he shows the person that he is capable of doing things, and so shows him that he is totally capable of helping others.   God turns this man into someone capable of helping others, Christ turns this one person from a pathetic paralytic into a full human being.  Christ totally recreates this one person into a true human being.

And what do you think, did he become a helper to others – to one other at the pool?

The man who complained with such great self-pity, “there is no one to help me”, do you think he simply walked away from that pool and all those suffering people?  Or do you think he became a Christ to even one someone else and ministered to them?

As hear the Gospel proclaimed, we are to think not just about past history, but about who am I in this Gospel lesson?  Am I the paralytic before the encounter with Christ, full of self-pity and always wanting someone else to help me?  Or am I the healed person capable of coming back and helping others?  Am I the invisible helper who works quietly and silently behind the scenes for 38 years, helping even one someone else to survive?

In the Liturgy of St. Basil we pray to God saying:

For You, O Lord, are the Helper of the helpless, the Hope of the hopeless, the Savior of the bestormed, the Haven of the voyager, the Physician of the sick. Be all things to all people, O Lord Who knows each of us, and our request, our home and our need.

Indeed, we pray that God will be a helper and a protector to us.  And then we hear Christ say, “love one another as I have loved you.”  We are to become and be that helper to each other.

Christ the Physician

On the Fourth Sunday after Pascha we read the Gospel lesson of John 5:1-15, the paralytic.  

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the   Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.  Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

The healings which Christ performed vary greatly in how they are accomplished.  Sometimes Christ merely says a word and the person, who may be at some great distance from Christ is healed.  At other times, as in the Gospel lesson of the paralytic, Christ uses physical material to heal a person.

3rd Century Syrian Drawing of the healing of the paralytic.

“What kinds of skills and methods does the healer bring to the therapeutic encounter? By his explicit and deliberate use of physical means in many of his healing miracles (e.g., John 9), Christ blessed matter as a medium through which the healing grace of God can operate in addition to non-physical means of healing. This is only reasonable and consistent with the reality of the incarnational axiom of Gregory of Nazianzus, ‘For that which He has not assumed, He has not healed; but that which is united to his Godhead is also saved.’ By fully assuming our human condition, including its physicality, Christ blessed the material aspect of his creation making of it a means of salvation and healing.

St. Panteimon the Unmercenary Healer

Every healing mystery (sacrament) of the Church utilizes a physical element whether it is the water of baptism, the oil of anointing for the sick, the touch of a priest’s stole (Greek – epitrachelion) during  absolution in confession, or most importantly, touching the very Body and Blood of the Lord himself in the elements of consecrated bread and wine during the Eucharist. It is in this context that healing modalities commonly used in the therapeutic encounter must be examined.” (Daniel B. Hinshaw, Suffering and the Nature of Healing, p 175)

God Does Not Despise the Brokenhearted

In the previous blog, We Are Commanded: Sin No More!, I commented on the Gospel lesson of the healing of the paralytic from John 5:1-15.

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the   Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.  Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

The Gospel lesson begins with Jesus entering into Jerusalem, God’s holy city.  What he finds there is a multitude of sick, infirm and invalids of all kinds, littering the porches around a pool of water, near the Sheep Gate of the city.  The Good Shepherd sees the suffering of His sheep.  It is the world of the Fall in which chaos threatens the lives of God’s chosen creatures.

Humans, I think, are far more comfortable with order, reason and justice than living in a world of chaos, unpredictability and meaninglessness.  For example, we find disease which occurs for an understandable reason to be more acceptable – his lung cancer is the result of smoking cigarettes heavily for years.  It helps us make sense of the world, and gives us some assurance that the world is somewhat predictable and not unrestrained random acts.   The driver in the fatal crash was drunk.  It gives us a sense of predictability or that things don’t just randomly happen.

In some ways in such thinking we are also making a judgment – his disease is the result of his own behavior.   We feel a bit protected from such a fate if we ourselves don’t smoke.   If the world were always so reasonable, we would be more at ease even with illness.   The troubling aspect of the world is that things don’t always happen for an understandable reason.  Illness strikes all kinds of people.  Not everyone gets their just deserts.   Good and bad, rich and poor, young and old, all fall victim to various sorrows, illness and death.  Not all suffering can be explained let alone justified.  Sometimes the innocent get hurt.

We find disease that strikes randomly to be terrifying.   There is no explanation for it, there is no protection from it.  Epidemics and pandemics terrify us and easily cause public panic.

In the Gospel lesson of John 5:1-15, one man suffers from his disease for 38 years.  Thirty-eight years with no hope of cure. How can one understand such a long sentence of condemnation?  His health is not dependent on any longer on his behavior and choices.  The disease is with him always no matter what he does.  Death almost seems merciful.  The hymns of our church mention he is as good as dead; his bed is his living grave.

Christ appears on the scene and reveals to this one man that He has power and authority even over the chaos which threatens creation with destruction.  He can relieve the man’s sickness and suffering.

It is why the Gospel lesson speaks to us – we need relief from the suffering of the world, from randomness, from the threat of overwhelming chaos and destruction.  We hope for a world of meaning and purpose.

This man’s sickness leads him to an encounter with God.  Had he not been paralyzed for all those years, had he not been lying with the crowd of maimed, distorted invalids, he too would never have encountered Christ in a meaningful way.

But it is his illness that leads the man to heed Christ’s words.  His endless and meaningless suffering is revealed as the very reason for his encounter with Christ.

Any of us who suffer can find out way to God through the suffering.  We put our hope on Him alone.  We find ourselves in the presence of Christ, in need of His mercies, blessed with His kingdom, comforted by His words.

Most often, and both naturally and wisely, we wish to avoid sickness and suffering.  But if we find ourselves in the midst of mass human suffering or alone with our own suffering, we can take heart that in that condition Christ can still find us.  In that condition, and perhaps even because of that condition, we find our way to Christ, and He to us.  No illness is without that hope, though none of us would wish for the suffering.

Our moment of despair is captured best in the verse from Psalm 51:17 –

The sacrifice acceptable to God

is a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart,

O God, you wilt not despise.

We are Commanded: “Sin No More!”

The Gospel lesson of the healing of the paralytic from John 5:1-15 is reading in the post-Paschal season as a further meditation on what it means to be baptized into Christ.   Great Lent is the time period in the Church for preparing catechumens for baptism.  Pascha is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection which is experienced by the new converts to Christianity in their baptisms.  The weeks after Pascha are a time to reflect on what it means to be baptized and to live a new life in Christ.  The Gospel lesson of the paralytic reads:

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the   Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.  Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

The above passage from John’s Gospel presents us a startling image.  Jesus enters Jerusalem, God’s Holy City.  The only city on earth where God’s temple existed was the sign of God’s dwelling on earth.   The temple was the sign of God’s presence with His people.  And yet, in the city of God, in the city of God’s covenant, where God’s blessings upon His chosen people should have been most obvious, something was terribly wrong.  For here in the city God loves are droves of sick, blind, lame and invalids of all kinds.  Should it not be true that in the place where God dwells with His people, sickness, sorry and sighing should flee?  Should not these people all be blessed and living in an earthly paradise?   But this Jerusalem into which Christ entered was not heavenly.

The sick, infirm and invalids were all signs that something was wrong with God’s people.  Jerusalem was no different than any other city – filled with poverty and disease.  All signs that the covenant in fact was not being lived by the chosen people.  The suffering of the people is a sign that they are not obeying God.

Amidst the swarm of suffering people, Christ sees one man who had been infirm for ages, wallowing in self-pity and hopelessness.  Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be well?”

The question seems a bit strange, but as the story unfolds we come to realize Christ is really asking the man, “Are you willing to obey God?”  For obedience to God is the terms of the covenant to receive the blessings God promises (see for example Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 8).  It is only obedience to God that can bring about wholeness and health and humanity.

So Christ, the son of God, commands the paralytic to get up, and to lift and carry his bed  and then to walk.  This paralytic has to decide, will he attempt to obey this man commanding him?  Is the man speaking to him crazy?  How can he, a paralytic, walk, let alone carry his bed?   And even if he obeys, he will be lifting his bed on the Sabbath, which according to tradition is forbidden work on the Sabbath.   What should he do?

He obeys Christ and finds Himself able to lift his bed and to walk.  His healing is surely a sign that he is now living in obedience to God!  And while he is overjoyed, he immediately finds himself in conflict with the religious establishment who point out he is doing forbidden work.   But the healed man says the man who healed me COMMANDED me to do this.  I simply obeyed and now I experience the blessing of the Lord.  My infirmity is gone.

His interlocutors do not see a blessing from God.  They want to know who commanded the paralytic to break the Sabbath – they don’t even ask who healed him.  They completely miss the sign right in front of them and fail to  observe that God’s promised blessings are present.     Little do they care about God’s blessings and presence and promises, because they can’t see them!  They aren’t looking for God’s commands but are mostly witch-hunting for those who break the commandments.

This paralytic who obeyed the voice of God when Christ commanded him, now is faced with a lifetime choice.  He experienced the blessing of obeying God: his illness disappears and he is restored to health!  So now, will he choose to live a life of loyal service to God?

Christ gives him precisely that commandment: “Sin no more!”

The man is tested again.  He was told to get up and walk.  He obeyed what must have seemed like an impossible command.  He hears the same voice of Christ with a second command: “Sin no more!”   Is this commandment as impossible as the first?  Which is easier to command: a paralytic to walk or a healed man to sin no more?

All who have been baptized into Christ have obeyed His command that we be born again of water and of the Spirit.   Now, we who have been spiritually made whole and fully human in Christ, can we obey His commandment to cease sinning?

Today we aren’t obsessed with obeying God’s commandments as those Jews were at the time of Christ.  We are however very interested in the blessings of God in this world.  We want that magic which heals us or blesses us in any and every way.  The difficulty is the same one that the paralytic who was healed faced:  are we willing to obey God and sin no more?

See also: The Healing of Soul and Body

Next:  God Does Not Despise the Brokenhearted

The Paralytic: Enduring Suffering

The Gospel Lesson for the 4th Sunday after Pascha comes from John 5:1-15.

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the   Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.  Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

St. John Chrysostom (d. 407AD) says in a sermon:

“Having lately come across the incident of the paralytic who lay upon his bed beside the pool, we discovered a rich and large treasure, not be delving in the ground, but by diving into his heart: we found a treasure not containing silver and gold and precious stones, but endurance, and philosophy, and patience and much hope towards God, which is more valuable than any kind of jewel or source of wealth.” (Christ’s Power to Heal: The Paralytic, p 2)

 Chrysostom like many of the fathers praises the paralytic for his patient persevering in the face of prolonged suffering.  Perhaps it is true at that time that there were actually few cures for diseases and patiently enduring suffering was seen as heroic and godly since there was no alternative.  It is more difficult for us today to be patient in the face of suffering as we want immediate cures or at least instant relief from suffering and we don’t appreciate the Stoicism embraced by the ancient Christians that a man of perfection is already beyond caring about pleasure or pain.

Fr. John Breck in his writing offers a more biblical  view which makes more sense to the modern Christian that suffering is not to be denied or ignored but that it might in itself have some redeeming value.

“Suffering can make us aware of our total dependence on the inexhaustible love and mercy of God. Like no other experience known to us, it focuses our attention on our weakness and vulnerability, and on God as the unique source of mercy, grace and ultimate healing. As a corollary, suffering can bring a heightened self-consciousness and, with it, an awareness of our personal limitations. More than perhaps any other experience, pain and suffering signal the fact that we are not in control. This is a profoundly humbling experience, one that can lead to either despair or to previously unknown heights of faith and hope. Suffering can also have the effect of purging and purifying the passions, that is, the desires and deceptions that corrupt our relationship with God, with others, and with ourselves. At the same time, it draws our attention to the present moment, forces us to reorder our priorities, and invites us to seek above all ‘the one thing needful’ (Luke 10:42). Suffering also brings awareness to our mortality. In Christian monastic tradition, the monk rises to pray with the admonition, ‘Remember death!” There is nothing morbid about the memory of death. Rather, it is a joyful expression of hope, based on the conviction that by his death, Christ has once and for all destroyed the power of death. Suffering can also foster ecclesial communal ties with others on whom we depend. In return, their own spiritual growth can be enhanced by the experience of sharing another’s pain through their prayer and gestures of care. Finally, suffering offers the possibility to share in the life and saving mission of the crucified and risen Lord. For the dying patient, this means to take up one’s cross and to follow Christ to his own passion and death. To endure one’s suffering for the sake of Christ, in the certainty that one will rise with him into the fullness of life, is also to offer to others the most eloquent and effective witness or martyria possible.”  (The Sacred Gift of Life, p 216)

The Paralytic and the Will of Christ

John 5:1-15

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the   Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.  Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

The Egyptian monk, Matthew the Poor, tells us:

“In prayer, God’s personal will and ours meet. Christ’s will is sharply focused upon our own salvation, renewal, and rescue. Nothing can thwart Christ’s will for us except our failure to pray. All the sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed who prayed and asked Christ to heal them are those whom he healed. Never did Christ cast out any man who believed in him and asked him. The will of Christ, which is ever present, is always willing and able to save completely all those who come to him by prayer in faith. Through prayer, our will becomes like that of Christ. Through prayer we gain his Spirit and are conformed to his will. His power thus rests upon us.”    ( Orthodox Prayer Life, pg. 35)

Bethzatha and Baptism

John 5:1-15

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the   Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.  Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

St. John Chrysostom writes about the Paralytic being healed, and refers to the healing of soul that takes place at baptism.  Like the paralytic we too may have long been suffering from the effects of our sin and had no one to help us.  No matter the sin or how long its effects had controlled our lives, in Christ our soul is healed and forgiven.  God who created the world out of nothing is able to restore a soul reduced to ashes.  At baptism we are lowered into those healing waters, over which we have prayed and upon which God has bestowed His Holy Spirit, transforming them into the waters of the Jordan in which Christ was baptized and upon which He left His divine grace.

“Now, an angel came down and stirred the water, and put the power of healing in it, in order that the Jews might learn that the Lord of angels is much more able to heal the diseases of the soul. However, just as here it was not merely the nature of the water that healed (if it were, surely this healing would have occurred every time), but water supplemented by the power of the angel, so in our case: it is not merely the water that acts, but, when it has received the grace of the Spirit, then it frees us from every sin. Around this pool ‘were lying a great multitude of the sick, blind, lame, and those with shriveled limbs, waiting for the moving of the water.’ At that time, however, sickness was an impediment to him who wished to be healed; now, on the contrary, each one is capable of approaching of himself. It is not an angel who now stirs the water, but the Lord of the angels who does everything. And it is not possible for the sick man to say: ‘I have no one’; he cannot say: ‘While I am coming to go down, another steps down before me.’ But, even if the whole world should come, grace is not used up, nor is the power diminished; it remains the same, now, still what it was before. And just as sunbeams give light every day and do not dwindle in size, nor does their light become less because of its lavish spending, so it is much more true that the power of the Spirit is not lessened by the number of those who receive its benefit.”   (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on St. John 1-47, pgs. 352-352)