The title just about says it all, but a little extra general information:
My father is a Russian Orthodox priest, and these are the sermons he gives during Sunday Divine Liturgy.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
During the Paschal season, the Gospel readings come primarily from the Gospel of John. The first three Sundays of Pascha commemorate the resurrection of Our Lord: there's Pascha itself, on which we read from the first chapter of John, then Thomas Sunday, and the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers. The themes of the Sundays that follow are for the instruction in the Mysteries of the faith of those who have been newly illumined by baptism, as it was the custom in the early Church, as well as to this day in Orthodoxy, to baptize catechumens on Holy Saturday. It is interesting that in the 3rd-century house Church in Dura Europos, Syria, on the walls of the baptistery, there is an illustration of the Paralytic carrying his bed. So it is evident that it was a very early custom to associate these stories from the Gospel of John with Holy Baptism, which was traditionally performed during this season.
Indeed, the Gospel of John is brimming with references to the sacramental use of water which allude to baptism. In John 2, Jesus turns the water into wine, just as in baptism the water becomes a saving bath through the power of the Holy Spirit. In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus how we must be born again of water and the spirit--a clear reference to Baptism. In John 4 the Samaritan woman encounters Christ at Jacobs well where she is enlightened concerning the Messiah and the living water he proffers. In John 5 there is the healing of the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda, which we read about today. And in John 7 Jesus calls all who thirst to come and drink of the Living Water. Then there is the story of the healing of the blind man at the Pool of Siloam in chapter 9, and finally, we read of the blood and water that issued from Jesus' side when the soldier pierced him in John 19. All of these "signs" point to the mystery of baptism in which the waters become grace-bearing through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Today we commemorate the Healing of the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda. As we read, an angel came down and troubled the water and whoever first entered the water would be healed. Likewise, in Holy Baptism the priest invokes the Holy Spirit upon the water and they who enter are healed of the paralysis of sin.
Jesus asked the impotent man--wilt thou be made whole? There must be a willing-- or at least a willing to be made willing--for God to work. And where there's a will, there's a way! Some people "enjoy poor health" as my uncle used to say. They don't want to get well because of the attention they receive or the responsibilities good health would entail like getting a job and working for a living. And it is the same spiritually. Some people--sad to say, most people, and probably all of us to some degree-- do not desire to be cured of their sinful passions. They love their sin, and in many cases, their lives are so involved and intertwined with their passions that they have no desire to be set free. It was that way with the rich young ruler whose love of money kept him from taking up the cross and following Christ.
There also must be a recognition of our own impotence in order for God to work. The paralytic was unable to even place himself in the pool. Even our faith is the gift of God, as Paul says in Ephesians. This man was powerless to help himself, but Jesus with his quickening word restored the man to health in an instant. And so it is with our baptism. We must recognize that we are like the impotent man--powerless to save ourselves, and utterly dependent on the mercy of God.
Baptism is union with the death of Christ. We enter into the stillness of the water--a figure of the stillness of death--after all our struggling and striving have ceased. Perhaps it took the impotent man 38 years to finally concede his impotence. In any case, by the time Jesus appeared on the scene he had stopped trying to save himself. He recognized that neither himself, nor any man he looked to, could help him. That made him ripe for a miracle of Christ.
"Rise, take up thy bed, and walk".
As we said, this story, illustrating the sacramental power of water, is an allusion to baptism. As impotent men we go down into the waters of baptism and arise as new creatures to walk in newness of life. The Apostle makes this connection in Romans 6:
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
All the gifts and grace we impotent ones will ever need to live the Christian life are bestowed upon us in baptism. But like the programs and features on a computer or phone, they need to be unlocked. However, unlike computers and phones, we don't have to pay to unlock them. They are unlocked as we, like the impotent man, rise up and walk!
So, Jesus asks each one of us, Wilt THOU be made whole? Then, "Rise, take up thy bed and walk"! Walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Light. Walk by faith. Walk in love. Walk in joy. Walk in peace. Walk in wisdom. Walk in newness of life!
Glory to Jesus Christ!
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