Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost: The Healing of the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13).

The Healing of the centurion's servant

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters:
The Lord’s signs and wonders prove Him to be what He claimed to be, the Son of God. But the present miracle account, like all others, is not intended solely to demonstrate the Lord’s power to heal. The healing of the centurion’s servant contains a number of short lessons concerning characteristics of the life in Christ. Christians who hear this short section of the Gospel must be attentive to the way in which these instructions may be applied to their own lives.
The basic elements of the story are few. The centurion, a Roman, has complete confidence that Jesus is able to heal his servant. When the Lord expresses willingness to go to his house, the centurion humbly objects, declaring himself unworthy of such a visit. At the same time, he reveals his profound faith in Jesus: “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” He then explains his status as a centurion – he has soldiers under him and is himself under authority. The Lord’s reaction must have surprised those who witnessed the scene. He declares that He has not found such great faith in Israel; those chosen to be the children of the kingdom would be cast out and replaced by others. Finally, He tells the centurion to go his way and that his servant is healed. St. Ambrose sees the healing by the Lord’s word alone as proof of His equality with the Father, saying: “… as the Father spoke the Son made, so, too, the Father works and the Son speaks”. And St. Basil the Great emphasizes that it was the Savior’s word and not His presence that healed the sick man.
The centurion is a striking figure. He enters the narrative as a man already possessed of a deep faith in Jesus’ power to heal, even by a word. He asks nothing for himself but only for his servant, his social and military inferior. His status notwithstanding, he feels profoundly his own unworthiness.
How the centurion came to his faith is not explained by St. Matthew, but details in St. Luke’s account of the same miracle may offer a clue. It should be recalled at this point that although the synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – sometimes differ in detail when reporting the same incident, those differences do not diminish their authenticity. In the present case, St. Matthew simply relates what went on between Jesus and the centurion. St. Luke tells us of certain preliminary steps, such as the centurion’s dispatching his Jewish friends to plead his case. “Neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee”, he says (Luke 7:7). The centurion’s frequent contact with the Jews must have given him some familiarity with their faith; perhaps he was aware of their messianic expectations. It is unlikely that Jesus and His work among the people could have escaped his attention. His own faith, so forcefully portrayed in just a few words, may have arisen from a strong sense that Jesus was the very one awaited by the nation he had come to love.
St. Luke’s account tells us that the man’s Jewish friends – identified as elders – considered him worthy of Jesus’ good favor, although they are impressed by something other than his faith, saying: “He was worthy for whom He should do this: for he loves our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue” (7:4-5). They present a plea from a man who has an exalted position and has contributed materially to their institution. The things that really matter – the centurion’s humility, faith, and concern for another – seem not to have made much of an impression on them. It is not difficult to see the similarity between the mind of those religious leaders and that of some in our own times. And not a few pastors have heard requests on behalf of others who were deemed worthy for the wrong reasons.
Clearly, when the centurion speaks to Jesus of his position, he is not boasting. Quite the contrary. “I am a man set under authority.” That is the key expression. He derives his authority from another and applies it in the line of duty. St. John Chrysostom describes the implications: “’I am a man set under authority’: that is, Thou art God, and I man; I under authority, but Thou not under authority. If I, therefore, being a man, and under authority, can do so much; far more He, both as God and as not under authority”. The same saint is certain that this Gentile, unlike his Jewish friends, suspects Jesus’ divine dignity.
The Christ preached by the Apostles was the Christ who gave Himself out of love for mankind. He is the One who receives all who come to Him in faith and humility, those who love Him. He is not moved to respond to our petitions because of some supposed worthiness on our part. Our accomplishments, position, wealth, and fame do not commend us to Him. Neither does our belonging to a particular race or nation, and neither does membership in His Church, if we make no effort to live in accordance with His will, have no faith or humility, think of ourselves as deserving His salvation, or think only of ourselves and never earnestly desire the well-being of others. Such was the image of Christ that the apostles and disciples proclaimed as they undertook their great missionary enterprise after having been filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. For St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the centurion’s faith and approach to the Lord provide an example for us all: “Wherefore we must purify ourselves first, and then approach this converse with the Pure…be like the Centurion who would seek for healing, but would not, through a praiseworthy fear, receive the Healer into his house. Let each one of us also speak so, as long as he is still uncleansed, and is a Centurion still, commending many in wickedness, and serving in the army of Caesar, the World-ruler of those who are being dragged down, and saying: ‘I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof’”. Amen.

The Healing of the Boy with a dumb and deaf spirit

The Fourth Sunday Of Great Lent

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/great-lent-sunday-04_2001+demoniac-boy.html

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today is the fourth Sunday of Great Lent and on this day we read about the healing, at the request of his father, of the boy who is possessed of a demon. There are many things to understand about this scripture, but we can only touch on a few of them now. For now I want you to consider what it was that this demon did to the boy. The father comes to Christ and describes his plight, a pitiable plight. This boy is cast into the fire and into the water by this demon, this deaf and dumb demon. According to the fathers, deaf because he would not allow the boy to hear the word of God, and dumb because the boy could not speak out in praise of God.
And what is the fire? It's not just material fire as it was for this boy, but also the fire of anger, lust, those hot sins in which we seem to have so much pleasure partaking, and that seem to have such a hold on us. That is fire. Jealousy, hatred, rage. Those kind of things are fire.
And what is the water? Well, the water is equally pernicious to the soul. It is to be thrust into worldly cares – as blessed Theophylact says, "the crushing waves and billows of worldly care." That's what the water is. There's not a sin that you can think of that is neither fire nor water. Nothing.
Now this boy was completely possessed. He was incapable of free thought. He was incapable of free action because this demon controlled him. It took him where it wanted, it made him fall down where it wanted, it threw him towards the water or towards the fire, and the boy's father could only with great difficulty save him from being burned or being drowned. It's not too much different, really, for us. We unfortunately addict ourselves to sins — fire and water. Our plight is also a terrible one. We're addicted, we must admit this. We must admit that we need help. We must see ourselves for who we truly are and then we can come to Christ for healing.
Christ says to the man who wants his son to be healed, "All things are possible to him that believeth." This is true. We understand this. We accept this. We're Christians. We say, " Absolutely, God can do everything. God can heal any man, God can raise a corpse from the dead, make the lame to walk and the blind to see." Ah, but then we lose our faith when it comes to fire and water, as this man did as well. Because when we look at ourselves , we doubt. We doubt that God can heal us . He can heal somebody else, and He can certainly do physical things. We believe that. We read the lives of the saints, we read the scripture, we believe that when Tabitha was raised from the dead she really was. We believe that when Lazarus came out of the tomb, God had brought the breath of life back into him. We believe.
But do we believe that God can deliver us from our sins, from our passions, from things that we have been doing "of a child"? Most of our sins are from childhood. They're built from childhood. We're built into little sinning-machines when we're little, and it's very, very hard to extricate ourselves from our passions and our difficulties later. This boy was of a child being thrown into the fire and into the water, and it's the same with us. Now do we believe that God can deliver us from our passions? Do we really believe? The evidence that I have as a pastor is to the contrary. Most of us struggle mightily with this disbelief. And because of that, we don't make the progress we should. We must believe.
We have the examples of the lives of the saints to show that God has taken people who have sinned sometimes much worse even than we, and made them great, made them perfect and holy. We have the example of St. Mary, which, unfortunately, so many of you will not hear this coming week. (Note: The Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete, with the life of St Mary of Egypt, is chanted on Wednesday evening, the fifth week of Great Lent, which follows the Sunday of St John Climacus, the Sunday on which this sermon was preached. At St Nicholas, this service is at 6:30 PM , year after year, and too many miss this service, and have despondency over their sins, and continue to have weak faith, year, after year) Because … I don't know why you won't. But many of you will not be present on Wednesday night to listen to an example of how God can completely heal a person. Mary didn't doubt. This was a woman who'd been a prostitute, and worse than a prostitute. She'd had thousands of lovers. Every impurity possible that can be imagined and many that, I'm sure, we could not even imagine, she had partaken of and defiled herself over and over. And what did she do when she came to repentance? She believed that God could change her. She believed that God could deliver her from fire. She didn't have too much trouble with water; for her it was the hot passions that were going to destroy her and burn her up. But she believed.
Now we must believe. These words are difficult words because it's difficult for us to believe, to really think we can change. Over and over we doubt ourselves. Over and over we doubt that God can remove from us a certain sin. Or sometimes, to be perfectly frank about the matter, sometimes there is a sin that we like and that we don't really want to let go of. And when we do that, there's this guilt in us that pushes us away from holy things and then causes disbelief.
Now these are hard words, and our Lord knows this. So because of that, the words of this man are recorded. Mark these words well, because they give hope. "Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief." What is that – a riddle? No, this is what God does to the soul. He takes our unbelief, and if there's the merest, slightest seed of belief in us, he makes it grow. In St. Matthew's Gospel, He explains after the healing that if your faith is as a mustard seed, God will do anything. A mustard seed is tiny; you can barely see it. It's like a celery seed – very, very small. But it's very pungent and it seasons the whole dish, and it grows into a great, great tree, from a very small beginning. So if you have unbelief, beg God to help you believe. Now you must also do the other things as well. There's an important example of the Christian life, really in microcosm the entire importance of the incarnation, at the end of the healing of this boy. Be careful now with Scripture! It often teaches an incredible depth of knowledge in two or three words. Very laconic. Not like me; it takes very little space to say great things!
What happened to the boy after he was healed? The father had a small amount of belief, and God said, "I will heal him. I charge thee, deaf and dumb spirit, come out of him, and don't ever come back." Very important. We'll talk about that another time. But the boy falls to the ground. It's like he's dead. The people think he's dead. But Christ takes him by the hand and raises him up. God becoming man raises us up. God takes on our infirmities and makes us able to live. This you must understand. This is the implication of the incarnation. This is why we can be saved. God has made our flesh able to live – He lifts us up. The whole meaning of the incarnation – it makes us able to live!
Then what happened when the boy was lifted? It says, "he arose." The boy stood up, he was helped and then he stood up. And this is our work in the Christian life. This is our labor in response to God's help. Now if you do not labor you will have troubles with disbelief , because belief, or purity and belief, are tied perfectly together with labor. This is why when the man came to him with the boy, our Lord said, "Oh faithless and perverse generation." He says that in St. Matthew's Gospel. Faithless and perverse. From perversity, acting unnaturally – sin is perversity by the way – comes disbelief and faithlessness. From purity comes faithfulness . They're in a circle, either in the vicious circle, the spiral ever downwards because of lack of purity and faithfulness, or in this blessed circle, where God, when He sees our desire to stand up, helps us and fills us more with knowledge. And our faith is increased, and our knowledge is increased. And we are so thankful when we have God revealed to us that we become better. And we become more pure. And as we become more pure, God, who reveals Himself to the pure, further reveals Himself to us.
You must understand this mechanism of salvation if you are to be saved. You must believe, and you must act upon your belief. God will raise you up, but then you must stand. Now I can only exhort you to stand – I cannot make you stand. God will help you to stand, but He will not make you. It is an act of your will that you must stand, and you must work, and you must walk in the Christian life. Now if you have trouble with belief, you can look into yourself and see the core of this disbelief. You will see, if you look carefully, it is because you are not living the Christian life. Not effectively, not as much as you should. It's a lot of laziness, a lot of inactivity as far as fulfilling the commandments. This is why you're having trouble with belief.
Now, maybe you have trouble with some passions and you desire to change. All right, God has an answer for you. The man said, "Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief." We all doubt. It is unfortunately part of our human nature. We see so much that's wrong with us, and it's hard for us to believe we can be changed. To me, this is the sweetest thing about Christianity. God will change us. We won't be like this in the other life. We'll change. There will not be suffering. There won't be problems with anger, with lust. There won't be sadness. There won't be dysfunction. God will change us. We must believe this.
If we do not believe, we're not really Christians, and God won't change us if we don't believe. Or at least, if we don't have that small mustard seed of belief. Cultivate it well, brothers and sisters. Cultivate this seed. Feed it with activity, with fasting, with prayer, with desire, with forcing yourself to pray when you don't want to, to come to church when you don't want to, to make time for confession when it's too easy to be, shall we say, drowned in the water, in worldly cares. Cultivate this seed of belief. Then God will hear your prayer. When you say, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief," He will hear it. And He will strengthen your belief. And then when you feel His hand in yours, stand. Amen.
Mark 9:17-31 And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; {18} And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. {19} He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. {20} And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. {21} And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. {22} And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. {23} Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. {24} And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. {25} When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. {26} And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. {27} But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. {28} And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? {29} And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. {30} And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it. {31} For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.

Sunday of the Paralytic

(Acts 9: 32-42; John 5: 1-15)

By Dr. M. R.  Brett-Crowther

The epistle shows us Peter, a man renewed by the Resurrection, now renewing others.  In Acts, the work of Peter and Paul is described so that the two saints achieve parallel results.  This gives them a kind of equality, which outweighs their conflict in developing the work of Christ. Today’s epistle shows a greater parallel.  The story of the two healings is like those of Jesus’ own acts.  The second one, about raising Tabitha or Dorcas to life, resembles the story in Mark 5: 37 ff and Luke 8: 51 ff – the raising of Jairus’ daughter.  The first story, the curing of Anaeas a paralytic at Lydda, is like the healing of the paralytic in today’s gospel

Before we look at this, let us note that the epistle shows that the Church was developing and at peace, and that there was a habit of doing charitable work, which Dorcas or Tabitha had practised.  The Apostolic Church believed itself to be fulfilling its faith in the resurrection, so nothing difficult about healing the paralysed, clothing the naked, or raising the dead.  All of this had already happened, and Jesus had given his followers the power to make it happen.

The miracle, which Jesus had performed in healing the paralytic, was another source for the Church’s confidence.  Jesus was fulfilling the prophets of the law; and the gospel suggests this in several ways.  The 38 years in which the man had been waiting for a cure reminds us of the 38 years in which the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness (Deutoronomy 2:14).  The pool of Bethesda was in a building with 5 porticos. Such a building may have been destroyed when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but what John implies by this may be a reference to the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old Testament.  The paralytic himself may represent a broken Israel needing redemption.  The main point is that this healing act is controversial (vv 10-18). It leads to the decision of Jesus’ enemies to put him to death.

The pool was deep, a kolumbethra, a place into which it was possible to dive, kolumban.  The five arched porches would have given shelter from the sun to those blind, lame and paralysed who waited for the moment when they could be helped to enter the waters to seek healing.  A spring gushing from time to time would be ‘disturbed’ as by an angel, and this was when those who had helpers could seek to enter the waters for their healing.  This crippled man after 38 years of waiting probably had no patient helpers left. He was degraded, weak and isolated.  His condition was helpless, hopeless.  For Jesus nothing is impossible if he is approached in faith. And it was the Lord’s habit to seek out the rejected and to approach them with merciful concern. This was what had inspired Tabitha or Dorcas to conduct her own merciful activities: this was the early tradition of the Church, that Jesus did good, changed things by merciful action.

What is needed is a decision by the patient.

‘Do you want to be well again?’ Jesus asks.

Locked in his isolation and misery, the paralytic needed such a shock. He excuses his inertia  by saying that no-one is available to help him.  Jesus ignores the excuse.  He gives the paralytic his big chance.

‘Get up, pick up your sleeping mat and walk.’'

Do we want to be changed?  Do we want to make a deep division between our old life and our new possibilities?  Do we have faith?  Orthodox Christianity emphasizes synergeia –that is, the co-operation between ourselves and God. His grace cannot heal us unless we want to be healed, to be changed.  Sometimes this is a very abrupt experience.  The cure of the paralytic takes place on the Sabbath.  Jesus breaks the laws to make the laws.  Jesus demands acceptance as God. His grace cannot heal us unless we want to be healed; and being healed may take us very far from familiar things, to something new and demanding.

The Jews were right to challenge Jesus.  He was breaking the law by doing any work on the Sabbath. The man by carrying his bed was breaking the law, as well as helping his own recovery to take place. When Jesus convinced the paralytic that he could recover, he showed mercy to him. By doing such healing work against the law, Jesus was trying to develop in Israel a sense of the fulfilment of the law by the greater law of love.  And when Jesus tells the man ‘See you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you’, he reminds the man that he cannot take for granted the change in his life.  Unless we are renewed in the Resurrected life of Christ, evil will beset us, because that is the way things are: evil abounds.  Like the man who had been paralysed, we must go away and tell others that it was Jesus who has healed us. It is never enough to wrap ourselves in faith like a blanket.  We must walk in  faith, in the world outside. Christos Anesti!

Healing of the Crippled Women by Jesus Christ

by OCP on March 17, 2013

Varghese Mathai
OCP Articles
17/3/13
(St. Luke Ch.13.10-17)
As we have crossed the Mid-Day of the Great Lent, the church had chosen a very thoughtful miracle for devotional thoughts and to straighten themselves through repentance and confession for their relief from sickness in respect of Body mind and soul. The miracle is one out of the six unique miracles recorded in his book by the evangelist St. Luke.
In this hectic pace of the modern world we are miniscule items among the millions who feed the selfish ‘my world’ to flourish. In the churches, communities, offices and everywhere else, it becomes a mechanical approach. But Jesus sees, calls, touches and heals us in compassion with real love for his children.
We can see here different approaches by the Almighty God our Lord Jesus Christ and How should be our approaches towards Him?
1.The compassionate and genuine way of Jesus
It took 18 years for a crippled woman who was a regular churchgoer to be accepted, loved and healed from her infirmities. The first day when Jesus had seen her, He called and healed her thus freeing her from shame and sickness. He is our creator and He knows very well our weakness and also know when and how to heal us. No more details are given in the scripture about this lady, but we can assume that she used to come to the Synagogue regularly and with a firm faith that A day she will be getting freedom from this bondage and shame.
2. His reaction towards hypocritical Church leaders
The religious leaders could not and did not do anything for her. The temple priests were upset that Jesus had healed her on Sabbath day, to which Jesus out rightly called them “You hypocrites”. He did so because they would untie their animals and care for them on Sabbath Day, but refused to rejoice when a human being was freed from satanic bond and healed. They could not see beyond the law to Jesus’ compassion in healing the crippled woman. Actually healing is the work of God and it can be through the intercession of the Holy Chosen Authorized consecrated people, but their evil deeds have forbidden them to heal this lady in the name of the Almighty God for the last 18 years.
3. How important the faith is and the premise for obtaining healing
The healing power of Jesus Christ is shown on the basis of a living faith, not confessed directly to Jesus Christ by the crippled woman. But found out by Jesus Christ, certainly who knew that this woman came regularly to the synagogue. Jesus Christ, has taken the initiative of healing. He knows the suffering of every person and settles, at the same time, the place, time and way of comforting suffering and healing the human’s disease. In this case, the initiative to heal the woman also shows the freedom of God, as well as the sympathy for the one who suffers, for the sick one.
4. Handicap or physical illness are the will of God and to suffer it patiently
In most of the healing miracles of Jesus we can notify that the ailing individuals had directly pleaded or confessed to Jesus or somebody had interceded or pleaded on their behalf. But this lady who was suffering for the last 18 years had any grievance or grief for her crippled body but was eager to come regularly to the synagogue to give her strength to suffer what the Lord had given her. Whereas, think about ourselves? Sometime at the time of distress ad trouble we even used to exclaim that to me only is given all these troubles.
5. No limitation on time or days for Good Deed and a continuous process.
The fact that the Savior reproves the leader of the synagogue, who said that healings should not be done during a Sabbath day, He shows that good must be done any time, on a feast day too, We must do good to our fellow beings both on a week day and on a feast day because merciful love for our fellow beings must be shown at all times as we are created in the image of the Merciful God and we must be merciful too.
6. A crippled body bounded by Satan but Straight Soul which he could not bound
We can see that Jesus Christ had straightened the sick body only because the soul of the crippled woman was straight. How much trouble she might have faced throughout these 18 years to come to her Lords house? Satan was troubling and forbidding her always so that she may not approach the Holy place. This is why the Savior relates that “bounded by Satan for the last 18 years of her body only”. A straight soul to a cripple body straightened and was healed (Her body only required healing). Jesus had not mentioned herein that her soul was bound by Satan, but Satan was not allowing her physically to approach her Savior.
7.A Straight body with a crippled soul bound by Satan
Here the Gospel warns about our straight body, but with a crippled soul. This must be healed and improved. This miracle calls us during this Advent period, to improve our soul through the Sacrament of Holy Confession, for receiving forgiveness of the sins and to untie the Satan’s bondage. We are also called to do good and merciful deeds, to help the sick, helpless, and crippled. So, the Gospel of the healing of the crippled woman is a Gospel of mercy, of doing Good. The crippled woman is a teacher of strong faith, of humble prayer and of long patience.
8. Showing gratitude for the blessing received.
The Gospel says: and she began praising God. So, we also learn from her the need to be grateful; when we receive the blessing from God. We should not rejoice and forget about the benefactor, but thank God, the benefactor and giver of life and salvation.
Let us show our gratitude towards Almighty God by Worshipping Him and it is through this gratitude that we show the confirmation of the good received, that we spiritually grow, that we spiritually edify ourselves through the fact that the gifts received from God. Let us be also be merciful as He is and express this by helping the needy from the savings we have made thorough abstaining from luxury food. Let us remember that our lent will be incomplete if it is not accompanied with prayer repentance and charity deeds and for a successful Holy Advent.

The Blind Man - The 6th Sunday Of Pascha

Gospel:John 9:1–38
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parent sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?” Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.” Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.” Then they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”
They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parent answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?” Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from, yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does His will He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.” They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshipped Him.

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As with all of His miracles, there is great significance to Jesus Christ healing the blind man. It is the only time we hear of a person whose sight was received after having been blind from birth. In those days, there was a pervasive belief that sickness was a direct result of sin. Therefore, the Lord is questioned whether the sin of the man or his parents is the root cause of his blindness. And while humanity’s sin, the primordial sin, is the reason for all sickness, suffering, and death, Jesus Christ discredits the notion that it was the personal sin of either this man or his parents that led to his impairment. Rather, the man’s lack of sight will serve a greater purpose—to glorify God. Although few of us need to be healed of physical blindness, all of us need to be cured of our spiritual blindness—the sin that keeps us from living a life in Christ.

For Consideration

• What is happening in this Gospel lesson?
• Why do the Pharisees react negatively to such a miracle? How does the man who was granted sight respond to the Pharisees’ questions? Why can’t the Pharisees accept the blind man’s explanation of who Jesus is?
• What does this Gospel lesson mean to our lives?

To Do Together

• Blindfold, Please—Take turns blindfolding different members of your family and having another family member guide them around. After everyone has had a turn, discuss what it was like not being able to see. Discuss how we can be spiritually blind and how we can work to see properly as Orthodox Christians.
• Witness—The once-blind man, having received his sight, responds to Jesus Christ’s critics with great conviction. Discuss as a family how to defend your Orthodox Christianity in a world that increasingly grows hostile and indifferent to religious beliefs.
• Support—As we learn in today’s Gospel there are often many misconceptions regarding people with disabilities. When questioned by the disciples as to whose sin caused this man to be born blind, Jesus states, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” How can the works of God be revealed through our weaknesses? As you discuss this, visit Arms Open Wide: Orthodox Christian Disability Resources Web site (http://armsopenwide.wordpress.com/). This online resource was developed to support those with disabilities in the Orthodox Church. We can shed much light on our blindness to the special needs of those around us by reviewing some of its resources.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If we are to see again, a miracle must take place. Jesus must touch our eyes as He touched the eyes of the man born blind. Then we will begin to see. Then we will come to realize that without Jesus no man can truly see and with Him no man can be truly blind. He is the opener of the eyes of the soul, and without Him it is always darkness.
—from Gems from the Sunday Gospels in the Orthodox Church by Anthony Coniaris

A Closing Prayer

Being blinded in the eyes of my soul, O Savior, I come to You, O Christ, as did the man who was born blind. And in repentance I cry to You “Of those in darkness You are the most radiant Light.” —Kontakion of the Blind Man

Sermon on the Healing of the Ten Lepers

Archpriest Alexei Uminsky   Dec 17th, 2011

Luke 17:12-19 (Gospel)
Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

We heard in the reading from the Epistle how we are to give thanksgiving to God for having brought us into this marvelous world. All that we see around us was created for man – both the angelic world, and the visible world, and the invisible world – that he might live, giving thanks to God, and that his entire life might become the same sort of thanksgiving, the same sort of divine service, as the divine service at which we are now present. This is why it is called the Eucharist, which translated from the Greek means “Thanksgiving.” Our life, through the liturgical services, communion with God, and partaking of Christ’s Holy Mysteries, thereby becomes a giving of oneself to God and of thanksgiving to Him.
This is how the Samaritan acted: he brought to God the gift of healing that the Lord had given him, and this was true thanksgiving. When we thank God for something, we must remember very well that the good gift that the Lord has given us becomes good for us when we can give it back to Him in order to use it for service. True thanksgiving is when we, having received a good gift, give thanks, serving Him ceaselessly with this very gift, giving this gift back to Him. By this means all our spiritual gifts are multiplied in us; everything is healed in us that is leprous, distorted, and frozen, that does not belong to the spiritual, because only the Lord can heal us.
We need to understand very well the cost of our prayers, the cost of God’s help, of His good gifts. We receive along with them an enormous responsibility, for every gift of God to man is his judgment. You will recall that in another parable the Lord called three people to Himself and gave each talents: five to one of them, three to another, and one to the final one. In some cases they increased, and in another it decreased. Later the Lord judged each of them according to these good gifts. For those that had increased them, they were increased even more; but the one who had appropriated it said: “This is mine. I do not want to show it to anyone and I do not want to share it with anyone, lest something should suddenly happen. I will use it for myself.” This person will be treated completely differently.
Unfortunately, we often do not understand this. We think that our prayers to God, our desire to receive something essential for life from God, are our own doing and belong to us. We can take that which we asked for from God and say: “How nice that I now have this. I had been leprous and bad, and now I am something else. How nice that I have this, how pleasant it is to live with this.” Unfortunately we live mindlessly like this, but then it turns out that we no longer possess something that we had enjoyed. There was a moment at which we received enlightenment from Christ, but then we parted ways with this light, and it suddenly appears that we have not had it for a long time, that we long ago lost it and have become worse than we were before we met Christ.
We ask ourselves why. For the same reason: because we did not return to give back the extraordinary gifts that the Lord had given us – forgiveness of our sins and the healing of our life. We receive them often without understanding the great mercy that the Lord is showing us; we do not return to thank Him, to serve Him with this gift, but rather try to live with them independently, making use of these gifts for our own lives. And it turns out that we lose them.
This Gospel reading should truly teach us what thankfulness to God is, what service to God is, what our participation in the Eucharist is, because precisely here is where that deep thankfulness is expressed, when we give ourselves to Him, thereby taking Him into ourselves and living with Him. Then our life will be like that of the angels, who live exclusively in thanksgiving to God, exclusively in glorification, and cannot live in any other way, since Divine beauty is so imprinted upon the spiritual world that there could be no other angelic life. Therefore the man who has imprinted this glory of God onto himself can live in no other way than to offer constant thanksgiving to God, that is, constantly giving himself to God to the end.