Sermon on the Gospel Relating to the Impotent
Preaching in the Russian Church; Lectures and Sermons by a Priest of the Holy Orthodox Church: Chapter XIII
“Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.” (John, v. 14, 15.)
Jesus went up to Jerusalem. These are the words which begin the Gospel appointed to be read at the Liturgy this Sunday. How many thousands must have hurried to those feasts in honor of the One true God, in that splendid city of types and symbols of things not yet made clear, and to be manifested in the midst of pagan and barbarous nations! It must have been a great multitude that almost continually went up to Jerusalem. So did our Lord Jesus Christ go with them. He was in the crowd, sometimes known, but most often His own received Him not. Those who went up to Jerusalem in those days went to the only one Temple, where the only divinely authorized priesthood had offered the one acceptable type of the all-available sacrifice. To be understood, in plainer language, we may say of them that they went to church. There is nothing extraordinary; the going is a simple fact of going to church. But how did they go? Absurd? Does it seem to you so? Certainly, it seems that most people go along in the same way. At the bottom of the movement which makes people go somewhere, there is an intention, and I think that when people go to church they go with a fixed purpose. If you ask how they go, with the purpose of disclosing their one or several intentions, then I answer with the word of God as recorded by St. Paul: For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But for our edification and salvation on this as well as on several other memorable occasions, we are permitted to see and to learn how our Lord Jesus Christ went up to Jerusalem, and consequently how He went to Church.
He went to Jerusalem at the feasts in order to give a larger number of people an opportunity of seeing and hearing the Truth. He went to the house of His Father, and openly manifested His power as the Son of God. Before the doctors and lawyers, He testified to the Old Testament prophecies as the Messiah. He passed by the way of sufferers so that He might help them, and where He was not expected, there He was found. He gave courage to those who had lost hope, and those who hoped on and long He rewarded with His grace. Where an angel by stirring the water cured a sick one in a year, He, the Lord of Angels, heals both body and soul, be it of one, or a hundred, or a thousand, and now as He did then and ever will as long as one be found who will surrender himself as others have done: Lord, thou canst make me whole!
But let us return to Bethesda, not because it is the public hospital where lay a multitude of the needy, but because, as impotent folk ourselves, we will find there on this occasion the bread of life and the very source of the never-ending stream of living water. Let us follow Christ through the five porches, where a certain man was which had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity. When Jesus saw him lying, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, He saith unto him: Wouldst thou be made whole? The sick man answered Him: Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming another steppeth down before me.
Why is it that Jesus passed by all the others and stopped by this one? He did so in order to show His power and also His love for mankind: His power, because the disease had become incurable and the weakness of the sick one was beyond hope; His love for mankind, because the Provider and Merciful One, in preference to others, looked upon such who were especially worthy of pity and charity. Let us not quickly pass by this place without giving our attention to the thirty-eight years during which this sick one continued in his weakness. Let all who struggle with continual poverty, or pass their lifetime in sickness, or those who find themselves in difficult and threatening circumstances, or cast down in the storm and tempest of sudden troubles, let them all hear of it. No one can be so faint-hearted, so mean and unfortunate as not to bear all that happens to us manfully and with all cheerfulness, when looking upon this special one at the watering place of Bethesda. If he suffered for twenty years, or ten, or only five years, would they not be sufficient to break the strength of his soul? But he remains in that condition for thirty-eight years, and does not break down in spirit, but shows great patience.
Hear his wisdom, for indeed a Christian may lend ear to this sick one’s philosophizing. Jesus came up and said to him: Wouldst thou be made whole? Who does not know such a thing? Why of course the impotent desired to become well. Then for what reason does he ask? Certainly not because of ignorance: for Him who knows the secret thoughts of people, that which was apparent and open to all was to Him the more so simple. Why does He ask? As He said to the centurion: I will come and heal him, not because He did not know at first what his answer would be, but because foreseeing and knowing well the answer He wished to give the centurion the opportunity to disclose before all his piety, which was concealed as if under a shadow, and to say: Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof. So also this impotent, of the nature of whose answer He knew, the Lord asks does he wished to be healed, not because He knew that not himself, but for the purpose of giving the sick one a chance to speak out of his misfortune and to become a teacher of patience. If the Savior had healed this man silently, we would have lost much by not learning of the strength of his soul.
Christ does not rule the present only, but He offers to the future also His condescending and great care. In the impotent He showed us a teacher of patience and courage for all times to come, having put him to the necessity of answering the question: Wouldst thou be made whole? But what of him? The impotent was not offended; he did not become angry; he said not to the inquirer: Thou seest me infirm, thou knowest that my sickness is of long-standing, and thou inquirest, do I desire to regain my health? But did you come to laugh at my misfortunes and to make light of other people’s troubles? You know how faint-hearted the sick become when they lay in bed even one year; but whose sickness lasts for thirty-eight years, does it not become natural for such a one to lose all better knowledge, wasting away in the course of so long a time? The impotent, however, said nothing like this, nor even thought of it, but he answered with much modesty: Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool. See how many troubles unitedly grieved this man: his disease, his poverty, and the absence of a lifting, a helping hand. While I am coming, another steppeth down before me. This is that which is the saddest of all, and it ought to have softened even a stone. Does it not seem as if you can see this man each year creeping along until he has crept up to the very side of the pool, then stopping each year just before the reach of a bright hope? And it is the more burdensome, as he experienced this not for two, or three, or ten, but for thirty-eight years. He did everything in his power, but did not obtain the result; the labor was accomplished, but the reward for labor went to another one during all these many years; and, what is more burdensome, he saw others healed.
The good fortune of others around us compels us to plainly see in the contrast our own misfortune; it was the same then with the impotent. Nevertheless, for so long a time he struggled with sickness, with poverty, and with loneliness, seeing that others were healed, while he himself, although he always tried, but never could reach his desire, and not hoping in the future to liberate himself of suffering, with all this against him he did not retreat, but renewed his endeavor each year. And we, if we once pray to God and do not obtain what we have asked for, we immediately become disappointed and fall into extreme carelessness, so that we stop praying and lose fervor. May we according to worth praise the impotent, as we may in the same way condemn our negligence? What justification and forgiveness may we expect when he was patient for thirty-eight years, while we become despondent so soon? To this one it has been said: Arise, take up thy bed and walk. And if we be or be not infirm in body, or soul, mind, character, or condition, it is in every instance demanded of us all to take up our cross and to follow Him, our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, after a faithful following, we shall see ourselves gloriously resurrected.
Because Jesus did these things on the Sabbath the Jews persecuted Him. When persecuted for doing the works which proclaimed Him to be the Redeemer of the world, did our Lord justify Himself before His enemies and prove the Divine right of His most exalted mission? If He did not, then how could we, even to this day, hope in our salvation? Let us see how Jesus, on this occasion, has justified Himself; for the manner in which He proves His innocence shows us whether He belongs to the number of such who are ruled, or to the free, to those who serve, or whether He is of those who command. His action seemed to be a great iniquity, a sin against the law; for he who once gathered wood on the Sabbath was according to the law stoned to death for carrying a burden on the Sabbath (Num., xv. 32, 36). Now Christ was accused of the same crime, namely, that He did not keep the Sabbath. Does He ask forgiveness as a servant and as a man under subjection, or does He appear as one who has power and independence as a Master, who is above the law and who Himself giveth the commandments? How does He justify Himself? My Father, says He, worketh even until now, and I work. Do you see His might? If He was lower or lesser than the Father, then what He had said would not be counted in His acquittal, but it would be to a greater accusation and to a greater condemnation. If one does something which is lawful to be done only by one who is above Him, and then having been taken and given to judgment, he says: as another higher one has done so, I also have done so, he would not only free himself from the charge in this way, but he would subject himself to a greater accusation and sentence, because to take upon one’s self that which is above one’s dignity can be done only by a self-conceited and proud person. Therefore, if Christ was lower than the Father, then what He had said would not be to His justification, but to a greater condemnation. But as He is equal with the Father, there is no fault in the words of Jesus Christ.
To understand the better what has been said, let us remember that His disciples had once broken the Sabbath in the field by pulling ears of corn and eating them; now He violated it Himself; the Jews accused them, and now they accuse Him. We will now investigate as to how He clears them and how He justifies Himself, so that we may learn from the difference between one and the other of the superiority of His justification. How did He justify His disciples? Have you not read what David did when he hungered? (Matt., xii. 3.) Defending creature-servants, He calls to mind David, a fellow servant like unto themselves, but justifying Himself He reaches out with His speech to the Father: My Father worketh, and I work. Perhaps someone might ask: What kind of work does Jesus speak of, if after six days God rested from all His works? (Gen., ii. 2.) It is the everyday, the continual guidance and providence, for God not only made all nature, but He also keeps His creation. Do you refer to the angels, the archangels, or to the higher powers, and, in a word, to all things visible and invisible? Yes, all are under His providence, and if it would go outside the realm of His activity, then it falls to pieces, becomes destroyed, and would perish. And so our Lord, desiring to show that He is the provider and not the object of providence, the worker and not the object of activity, He has therefore said: My Father worketh, and I work, thereby proving His equality with the Father, and to whom with the Holy Ghost be all glory now and to ages of ages. Amen.
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