Christ Healing the Whole Person

6th Sunday of Matthew - Sunday Sermon 8-4-2013

by Fr Ted Toppses

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

Let us review today’s Gospel of Matthew 9:1-8

At that time, getting into a boat Jesus crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say 'Rise and walk?' But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" he then said to the paralytic -- "Rise, take up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

This Gospel Lesson opens our minds to begin to understand the question, “What is Sin?”

It is important to understand that the first sin occurred when human beings disobeyed God and took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  This knowledge of how to be disobedient to God, shattered the innocence of mankind and created a destructive path of disease of soul and body where death could come instead of life. 

The English word “sin” in Greek is “Hamartia”.  Hamartia is rooted in the idea of missing the mark.  This is understood to be like an archer shooting at a target but falls short or misses his intended target.  The intended target of all Christians is to do the will of God, to seek God in all things, to live and behave in the excellent way that God gives us.  We sin by falling short or straying away from God in our thoughts, words or actions knowingly or even unknowingly.  We may know we have sinned and sometimes in our life we do things to harm others and do not realize what we have done.  Sometimes we stray from God unintentionally and we do not realize we are separating ourselves from the Lord.

Forgiveness of sin is the restoration of the soul towards God in everything.  In the sacrament of confession, God Blesses the person with freedom and forgiveness from their sin and empowers the person to live a Godly life again.  Forgiveness can happen through our private prayer, through the liturgy and other church services. 

The private service and sacrament of Confession is a powerful tool for forgiveness and gives the penitent person surety of forgiveness and guidance for true fulfillment of our lives by Living and uniting ourselves with Jesus Christ.

In the Gospel today Jesus saw the faith of the people who brought the paralytic to Him and said "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." And later when the people thought He was blaspheming Jesus says "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say 'Rise and walk?' But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" he then said to the paralytic -- "Rise, take up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

When we pray for each other we are doing what the people in today’s Gospel did, who brought the paralytic to Christ.  We are interceding in a way that is similar to the intercession of the saints or the Theotokos.  Our faith and prayers can help bring about restoration of another person to God.

Let us remember, St. Seraphim of Sarov who said, “save yourself, and a thousand around you will be saved as well.”

In this life we should ask ourselves…

Which is greater a disease of body or of soul?

What harms a person more bodily death or spiritual death?

Our life here is temporary and we all will taste physical death.  Spiritual death is when the soul goes to the place of damnation rather than being blessed by the presence of God in Heaven.

Understanding our concern for the whole person including spiritual life, we can begin to comprehend that Christ’s first mission was to free us from sin.  Illness and disease is a distortion of creation and part of the fallenness of this world.  Christ wants to restore the whole man, and first frees the man by forgiving his sins.  Christ also frees the body through physical healing as well. 

When the crowds saw the miracle they glorified God and were amazed.  The crowds may not have realized that the whole man was restored and blessed in today’s Gospel reading, through forgiveness of sins as well as physical healing.  Even though this man would later be subject to physical death, Christ freed him and gave him the path to truly live after this earthly life.

We should take from this Gospel at least these few things.

1^st We should seek freedom from sin through forgiveness by Christ in order to truly live.

2^nd We should always pray for one another and be committed to bringing each other to Christ.

3^rd  We should understand that Christ desires that we would come together to Him in faith that we may be given God’s blessing, and grace to live Life Eternal in the Kingdom and Presence of God.

Amen