Healing for Body and Soul

On the Fourth Sunday of Pascha (the Third Sunday after Pascha) we read the Gospel story of the paralyzed man at the Pool of Bethesda, whom Jesus healed after 38 years of waiting.  In his homily, below, Fr James Graham discusses the second part of the story–the part after the healing–and its implications for our lives.

Celebrate the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning at 9:30 with our parish community, and stay after the liturgy for food and fellowship.

HEALING FOR BODY AND SOUL

Homily for the Third Sunday after Pascha

Acts of the Apostles 9:32-42…………….John 5:1-15

     Sometimes when we read the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man at the Pool of Bethesda, we pay so much attention to the events leading up to the healing that we fail to pay any attention to what happened afterwards.

    

And two aspects of the second half of the story definitely merit our attention.

     The first is the reaction of the religious authorities.  They don’t seem to notice or care that the man has been healed and can walk again after 38 years.  They care only that he is breaking the religious law by carrying his sleeping mat on the Sabbath.  That counts as work, and work is forbidden on the Sabbath, the day of rest.

     The second is the reaction of Jesus.  Jesus doesn’t want to be noticed after He heals the paralyzed man, so He blends into the crowd.  But He isn’t finished with the man.  When we encounter God, we need to learn something.  So Jesus goes looking for the man, and finds him in the Temple area.  Then He warns him, “You have been made well.  Take care not to sin anymore, so that nothing worse may happen to you.”

     Obviously, the religious authorities and Jesus have very different ideas of sin.  The authorities are concerned that the man has violated the Law by working on the Sabbath.  They don’t seem to connect physical healing and spiritual healing.

     On the other hand, Jesus doesn’t seem concerned with the Law.  But for him the physical healing of the paralyzed man is just the first step.  He has to make sure that the man understands how profoundly his life has been changed—how his physical healing is just the sign of a deeper spiritual healing.

     I don’t think that Jesus means that sin leads directly to illness.  Or that illness is direct punishment for sin.  But sin can literally make us sick.  It can paralyze our ability to make moral decisions.  It can make us sick with guilt.  It can poison our relationships with other people and with God.  It can lead us to do stupid, hurtful, and dangerous things.

     Very often we don’t think much about the connection between sin and health, between our spiritual condition and our physical condition.  It doesn’t seem that the paralyzed man does this either.  Before he’s healed, he just complains that no one will help him, and afterwards he just seems to be glad that he can walk.  He’s focused entirely on his physical condition.

     The religious authorities also don’t seem to connect the physical and the spiritual, except that for them the spiritual dimension is missing entirely.  There is only the physical aspect of sin:  it’s just a matter of breaking the law, rather than of dealing with what’s in the heart.  (To be fair, this is an over-simplification, though it does seem to be the intent of the passage.  For observant Jews, keeping the Law faithfully demonstrates a good relationship with God.  Similarly, for Christians observing the requirements of Church law shows faithfulness to Christ.)

     What Jesus shows the paralyzed man—and us—is that both of these attitudes are wrong.  We can’t take health—or any other part of physical existence—for granted and leave God out of it.  And we cannot reduce our relationship with God to following the rules.  We also cannot judge other people and their relationships with God according to how well we think they follow the rules.

     When Christ comes into our lives, He brings healing for body and soul.  He frees us from paralysis, from sin, from obsession with rules.  But He not only frees us from things; He also frees us to do things:  to live holy lives of love and mercy and justice; to be humble and respectful and generous; and to give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and ever and to ages of ages.  Amen