Homily Two on the Tenth Sunday of Luke
(27th Sunday After Pentecost)
By St. John of Kronstadt
(27th Sunday After Pentecost)
By St. John of Kronstadt
Today, the Gospel account was read of the Savior's healing of a crippled woman who had suffered from this affliction for eighteen years. The healing was accomplished by a word and the laying on of Jesus Christ's hands on the crippled woman (Luke 13:10–17).
Reading this story about the healing of the crippled or bent woman by the Savior, I recall, my brethren, the prayer of repentance of Manasseh, the king of Judea, in which he, confessing to God his iniquities, likens these iniquities to iron bonds that have so crippled him that he cannot lift up his head: "I am bound with many iron bonds, so that I cannot lift up my head." And, indeed, the bent woman mentioned in today's Gospel reading depicts all of humanity, crippled by sin, and signifies you and me, my brethren. The Savior who healed the woman from her crippling condition is also our Savior, who daily frees us from the bonds of sin. Ah, who among us has not experienced, does not daily experience, how our sins and the enemy of the human race cripple our souls, if not our bodies, preventing the soul from freely gazing toward its heavenly homeland, but forcefully bending it to the earth, clinging and even, as it were, nailing it to earthly goods and pleasures. Thus, the bent woman, healed by the Savior, signifies our soul, crippled by sin and the devil.
And what would have become of our souls if Jesus Christ had not come to earth to save the human race from the violence of the devil and the passions; what would have happened if He had not continually saved us, loosing the bonds of sin? We would all be like this bent woman, bound with many iron chains and, like animals, crawling on the ground, looking only at the earth and not gazing toward the heavenly homeland and having no higher, heavenly thoughts, desires, or aspirations; but drowning only in earthly, vain cares and deeds. But what am I saying? Are there not even now among Christians who lack the spirit of Christ, people with only earthly thoughts and aspirations, words and deeds? Yes, and how many. Who are they? All those who are obsessed with and concerned about earthly happiness and the accumulation of money, about fashionable clothing, the splendid decoration of their temporary dwellings, the variety and beauty of their tableware, about formal dinners, evening gatherings, feasts, about card games, dances, the theater, various pleasures, and frivolous pastimes. Don't you see that all these and similar people resemble the bent woman mentioned in the Gospel — in that they don't look to heaven, but look only to the earth, like animals, as if they are not in the image of God, as if the earth is their eternal homeland, as if they have never heard of the heavenly homeland, as if they are not called to it by the Gospel, the Church, Jesus Christ, and the Apostles, as if they were created precisely to dress up, to kill time in vain talk, in games, in laughter, or in the acquisition of wealth? But these crooked ones are crooked by their own will, by whim, by passion, and therefore they themselves are guilty and inexcusable for their crookedness. The woman mentioned in the Gospel, however, was crooked physically, although perhaps also for spiritual sin, and therefore deserved pity for her weakness. This one could not free herself from her hunched position, straighten up and look straight at the sky, but our hunched ones, or rather, all of us, can, by the grace of God, free ourselves from the crookedness of passions and lusts, stand straight on the path of Christ's commandments and look upward; leave earthly attachments and love with all our hearts the Lord God, who created us in His own image and likeness, and our neighbor, especially his soul, as ourselves, and the heavenly city of Jerusalem.
My brethren! Why did the Lord God create us with an upright posture, with our heads raised upward, and not bowed down to the ground, like animals? Let us constantly look to heaven, as those created for heaven, and strive towards heaven. Is this a natural position for the human body, when it is bent and inclined toward the ground and cannot stand upright? No, it is painful, unnatural. Understand the purpose of this.
Furthermore, in this Gospel narrative, we are drawn to the hypocrisy of the elder of the synagogue, who was indignant at the Lord for healing a bent woman on the Sabbath, as if on the Sabbath it were a sin to do good deeds or everyday necessities that cannot be delayed, for example, watering a horse, ox, donkey, and so on. The hypocritical elder of the synagogue did not consider it a sin to envy the divine Miracle Worker, His miracles, and the woman who received His blessings, but he considered doing good on the Sabbath a sin. Even today, many Christians consider it a sin to do anything on a feast, for example, some necessary work, but they do not consider it a sin to envy their neighbors, to feud, to take revenge, or to drink to the point of intoxication, to sing obscene songs, to spend time absentmindedly, in selfish gambling, in reading idle books, in idle talk, in ridicule, in foul language! Or they consider it a sin to eat anything forbidden even due to bodily weakness on a fasting day, while, without conscience, they despise or judge their neighbor — such as acquaintances — offend or deceive them, cheat, shortchange, or give in to carnal impurity. Oh, hypocrisy! hypocrisy! Oh, the misunderstanding of the spirit of Christ, the spirit of Christian faith! Does not our Lord God demand first and foremost internal purity, meekness, and humility from us? Should not the inside of the cup and dish be cleansed so that the outside may be clean as well? Is not outward fasting given to aid internal virtue? Why, then, do we pervert the divine order? Oh, let us detest hypocrisy and purify ourselves from every filth of body and spirit, creating holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
