Homily on the Fourth Sunday of Pascha: Sunday of the Paralysed Man John 5: 1-15.
In today’s Gospel, we have the account of the healing of the paralysed man. In this account, a man that has been infirm for thirty-eight years is healed by our Lord and Saviour. What is significant in this account is that the healing occurred on the Sabbath, and as the man was carrying his bed in the Temple just after his healing, technically he was breaking the Levitical Law. Now the Jews in the Temple were desperate to find out who had performed the healing as they were obsessed with the idea that no man should work on the Sabbath. Indeed, this is not the first time that our Lord and Saviour healed on the Sabbath, or was accused of doing so, or was accused of not respecting the Sabbath as these verses clearly show: Matthew 12:10; Luke 13:14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 13: 10-17; Matthew 12: 11; Luke 6:7; Matthew 12:2; Luke 14:5; John 9:16; Mark 3: 2-3. What is significant though is that Christ by His disregard for the Levitical Law is showing that it is not a binding Law, and as such, people are only bound to the Law of Love which is the Law that comes from the All-Holy Trinity - these being two commandments Christ gave in Matthew 22: 37-40. Unfortunately, in Christ’s day the two rival sects of Judaism
(the Pharisees and the Sadducees) had conflated following man-made regulations with loving God, meaning that they had forgotten the reality that the Ten Commandments were the Law of God- not the customs that came about to differentiate the Israelites – these customs being the Levitical Law! However, it is evident through Christ’s Gospel that the All-Holy Trinity does not seek man to follow a legalistic faith where fealty is expressed by following a set of rules- as is the case in some religious belief systems! This is why Saint Peter had the revelation in Acts 10: 9-13. In this revelation, the All-Holy Trinity makes it clear to Saint Peter that all things are clean to eat. This then shows the All-Holy Trinity’s desire for all mankind to be released from the impossible tenets of the Levitical Law. On a side note, to all those vegans that insist that it is wrong to eat animals, this account clearly shows that this belief is false as Saint Peter is commanded to kill and eat that which was on the sheet!
Moreover, this vision is the starting point of a controversy that began to rock the early Orthodox Church. This controversy was whether Gentile Christians were to follow the Levitical Law or not. In Acts 15 we have the account of the first Orthodox Church Council – the council of Jerusalem. In the end, the council -with the guidance of the All-Holy Spirit - decided that the Gentiles should not be forced to conform to the Levitical Law and should not eat food that was strangled or offered to idols. This then shows us that we, as Christians, are set free by the Two Commandments of Love expressed in Matthew 27: 37-40.
There are many in the True Orthodox movement that have made these two Commandments of Love to seem a terrible burden; a yolk upon the neck of the faithful (Mathew 11:30). Meaning that these priests and bishops, like the Pharisees, have equated the All-Holy Trinity’s Law of love to be synonymous with a set of rules that must be followed no matter how hard it is to live up to them. Yes, there are doctrines of the faith that cannot be broken -such as not killing or the Creed- however, things like the fast and what prayers a layperson is to say can and must be decided based on the person’s circumstances. Also, concerns around how the Divine Liturgies are celebrated must be considered – is it really pastoral to celebrate the Divine Liturgies in languages that no one understands? Remember, the history of our Church is filled with some pharisaical men who thought that the only way to fulfill the Two Commandments of Love is to follow a strict set of rules -thus ignoring the pastoral needs of the faithful. Do not forget Christ is adamant that those who cause the faithful to stumble should be fearful for:
“It would be better for them that they have a millstone hung around their necks and be thrown into the sea (Luke: 17: 2).”
Undoubtedly, many of the great Saints of the Orthodox Church realised that there needed to be some sort of balance, as not all people can or should be expected to live in monastic obedience! The Church always realised that it must, and should deal with the people as it finds them – a truth revealed by Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:13. Furthermore, one needs to look at how our Lord and Saviour treated those He encountered in His ministry. Oftentimes, He approached those who would have rendered Him unclean in the eyes of the Levitical Purity Laws, such as the Samaritan woman (John 4: 4-26) as well as Saint Mary Magdalen (Luke 7: 36-50). In His interactions with people, Our Lord and Saviour has given us a model in His Gospel of Truth of how to pastorally deal with people seeking help and guidance – unlike the Pharisees He did not tell those seeking His help first to get ritually pure before He would heal them! Had He done so I am sure that the Pharisees and Sadducees would have approved of Him more than they did as it is clear that His refusal to conform to the Levitical Laws infuriated them to no end! Finally, Saint John Chrysostom was aware of the need for a balanced approach in ministry for in His great Paschal Homily, he says:
“Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The Table is full-laden; feast, you sumptuously.”
This is why the Holy Fathers have commanded that this homily be read during the Matins of Pascha – not only to remind us that all are welcome at the Paschal feast as they are, but also to remind us clergy that we need to approach those we minister to in a loving Christ like manner – as icons of Christ as modelled for us in His earthly life.
Finally, let us who are True Orthodox stop fighting amongst ourselves as there are many Jurisdictions that do not talk to other Jurisdictions because in their eyes they feel that the other Jurisdictions do not follow the rules exactly as they do. Remember, we as the True Church of Christ are called to deal with each other pastorally and in so doing, realise that it is acceptable if one Jurisdiction uses the Slavic or the Greek Typicon. However, what we are not so good at this time is adapting these Typicons to the people that we are ministering to. Remember, there have been many liturgical reforms throughout the ages which have been done on account of a pastoral need. Saint John Chrysostom shortened the liturgies of his day because the people were falling asleep in the services. Indeed, in parishes the priest must ensure that he is fulfilling the needs of the faithful; for it makes no sense in celebrating the Liturgy in the Greek language if the Liturgy becomes Greek to the congregation! If the young and old are to come back to Christ’s Church, we need to teach them and teach them in a way that they understand. What I mean here is that we must make the Divine Liturgies accessible by using the vernacular language and start training choirs to sing as well as encouraging new musical compositions to be used for the choir and people’s responses. If we do this, then we will grow, and people will come to the font that gives eternal life, which is the All-Holy Trinity.
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