Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

 

Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic 

On the Abolition of the Sabbath by Christ

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“Let no one therefore judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a feast, or new moon, or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come” (Colossians 2:16–17)

Christ is risen!

Beloved faithful,

In today’s Gospel we see that Jesus Christ healed, on a Sabbath day, a paralytic who had been lying for 38 years. For this the Jews were angered, because the Lord had broken the commandment of the Sabbath. If, however, you listen attentively to what we shall speak today, you will clearly understand that the observance of the Sabbath is not given to Christians, but to the Jews; and at the same time you will understand that both the Savior and the Holy Apostles abolished, by word and deed, the observance of the Sabbath.

First, I will show that from Adam until Moses, for a period of 4,108 years, none of the ancient patriarchs kept the Sabbath as a feast. In order to understand this great truth, we will appeal to the testimonies of Holy Scripture, through which we will show that when God created man, He did not give him from the beginning a commandment to observe any day, but only placed him in the Garden of Eden — that is, in Paradise — to cultivate it and to guard it (Genesis 2:15). Then He gave him the first commandment: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). Moreover, after Adam broke the commandment of God and was driven out of Paradise, he received no commandment from God to observe any day. On the contrary, his whole life now became a continuous labor under the form of a curse, and he received this command and sentence from God, who said to him: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

We have no testimony in the Bible to show that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other patriarchs chosen by God up to Moses observed the Sabbath.

But perhaps someone will say that Abraham kept the commandments of God. Yes, he kept them with great holiness, and for this he was blessed by God to become the father of many nations. But not the commandment of the Sabbath; rather, see which commandments Abraham heard: “Go out from your land, from your kindred, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Another commandment: “This is My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations, which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised” (Genesis 17:10).

Another command given to Abraham is this: “Let it not be grievous in your sight because of the child and because of the bondwoman; whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her voice” (Genesis 21:12), that is, to cast out the bondwoman Hagar with her son. At another time God commands Abraham: “Take your son, Isaac, your only son whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22:2).

Therefore, as we see from what has been shown so far, none of the commandments which Abraham received from God refers to the observance of the Sabbath. The first place where Holy Scripture speaks about the Sabbath as a day of rest is in Exodus, where Moses speaks to the people in the wilderness, saying: “This is what the Lord has said: Tomorrow is a rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; what you will bake, bake today, and what you will boil, boil; and all that remains, lay up for yourselves to be kept until morning” (Exodus 16:23). If they say to you that in the Decalogue, in the fourth commandment, it is written: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” and from this they say that the Sabbath existed before Moses as a feast, and therefore it says “remember,” then you should tell them that when the Jews reached the wilderness of Sin, they received the commandment concerning the keeping of the Sabbath; Moses, on Mount Sinai, reminds them of this commandment of the Sabbath which they had received earlier in the wilderness of Sin, and not at all that the Sabbath existed from Adam until Moses.

It is also good to remember this: that the Sabbath was not given for all the peoples of the world to observe as a feast, but only to the Jews, as a remembrance of the great benefits of God, by which He brought them out of the slavery of Egypt. This truth is shown by Holy Scripture, saying: “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the day of rest and to keep it holy” (Deuteronomy 5:15).

Therefore the other nations do not have this ordinance given to them by God to observe the Sabbath day. The Old Law was given for a limited time, that is, until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made (Galatians 3:19). Therefore the Sabbath was not given as a feast to all nations, nor for all times. The Old Law, together with the Sabbath, has entirely ceased to be valid in the Law of Grace. This truth is shown by the Holy Apostle Paul, saying: “The shadow of the Law has passed, and Grace has come” (Hebrews 8:5; Colossians 2:16–17); “the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (Hebrews 8:13).

This cessation of the Old Law was prophesied by the holy prophets. Concerning this, the great prophet Jeremiah says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah — not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That covenant they broke, though I remained faithful to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law within them, and on their hearts I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:31–33).

Let us now see in what way Jesus Christ and the Holy Apostles abolished the Sabbath of the Old Law by teaching and by deeds. We hear the Savior saying: “My Father works until now, and I work” (John 5:17). When did Christ say these words? When the Jews were seeking to kill Him because He was breaking the Sabbath (John 5:16).

Therefore, if the Savior was working on the Sabbath, He showed that His Father also works on the Sabbath. Then what blame could there be for those who follow Christ and work and do not keep the Sabbath? If someone accuses us that we work on the Sabbath, let such people hear that the Jews also sought to kill Jesus because He broke the Sabbath (John 5:18). We hear the Savior saying: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me” (John 12:26). And if the Father and the Son work on the Sabbath, who can accuse God of breaking the Sabbath?

Who can accuse Christians that they follow Christ — that is, if they work on the Sabbath and do what Christ the Lord did? What blindness there is in those minds that do not see what Christ did on the Sabbath! Did not the Savior heal on the Sabbath the paralytic from today’s Gospel? And not only did He heal him, but He also set him to work, commanding him to take up his bed and go to his house (John 5:8–9). The Old Testament did not permit such a thing (Jeremiah 17:21; Nehemiah 13:15). The man born blind was also healed on a Sabbath day (John 9:14), and the man with the withered hand was healed on the Sabbath (Luke 6:6–10; Matthew 12:10–13; Mark 3:1–5). And the woman bent over for 18 years was also healed by the Savior on the Sabbath (Luke 13:14).

The disciples of the Lord, following the example of their Teacher, as they went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, plucked ears of grain and rubbed them in their hands to eat (Mark 2:23–24; Luke 6:1–3). When the Pharisees and scribes accused Jesus that He did not keep the Sabbath, He answered them that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath (Luke 6:5), and He said to them: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). This is why the great Apostle Paul says: “Let no one therefore judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a feast, or new moon, or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16–17).

Beloved faithful,

In order to convince you more clearly that Jesus our Savior and His holy disciples and Apostles abolished the feast of the Sabbath, read Holy Scripture in the following places: the First Commandment—Matthew 12:1–3 and 10–18; the Second Commandment—1 Corinthians 10:14 and 1 John 5:21; the Third Commandment—James 4:12; the Fifth Commandment—Matthew 15:4; 19:18; Mark 7:10 and Ephesians 6:1–2; the Sixth Commandment—Matthew 19:18; Mark 10:19 and Romans 13:9; the Eighth Commandment—Matthew 19:18; Mark 10:19 and Romans 13:9; the Ninth Commandment—Matthew 19:18; Mark 10:19 and Romans 13:9; and the Tenth Commandment—Romans 13:9.

Do you see that nowhere in the Holy Gospel or in any epistle of the Holy Apostles do we find clarification, or even an allusion, to the fourth commandment concerning the Sabbath day? These clearly prove to us that in the time of the Savior and of the Holy Apostles the observance of the Sabbath was not obligatory for those who believed in Christ. And in order to understand that Sunday, the first day of the week, took the place of the Sabbath in the Christian Church, read in Holy Scripture these places: John 20:1–15 and 26, and you will see that on Sunday, the first day of the week, the Lord rose; on Sunday, the eighth day after the Resurrection, the Savior appeared to the Holy Apostles while the doors were shut, and He was touched in the side by Thomas (John 20:27); on Sunday, on the road to Emmaus, Luke and Cleopas traveled with the Lord (Luke 24:13–31); on Sunday, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended (Leviticus 23:15–16; Acts 2:1–4); on Sunday the Apostles broke bread, that is, they partook of the Holy Mysteries (Acts 2:46; 20:7–12); on Sunday the Apocalypse was revealed to Saint John the Evangelist (see Revelation 1:10). On Sundays the Christians gathered collections for the saints, according to the command of the great Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 16:1–2).

But does it say anywhere that God will leave another feast day to His people? Hear what Holy Scripture says: “Therefore God has left another rest for His people” (Hebrews 4:9; 4:11; 8:13; Revelation 14:13). Therefore, in the New Testament another day of rest is appointed by God for Christians, namely Sunday, or the first day of the week. As we see, much spiritual blindness existed in the time of the Savior among the Pharisees, scribes, and lawgivers, who, seeing so many miracles and signs performed by our Savior on the Sabbath, did not recognize that Christ is God, who had given them the command to observe the Sabbath in the wilderness and who now came to loosen and abolish the Sabbath, the Old Law, and to establish another feast day for the human race that would believe in Him. This blindness and darkening of soul is found in all sectarians who, not wishing to keep Sunday — the day on which the Lord rose — as a day of rest, cling to the shadow and despise the Grace of the New Covenant.

Beloved faithful,

In what follows, we will show even more clearly the matters concerning the Sabbath and the error of those who keep the Sabbath of the Old Law, which was a shadow and a prefiguration of those in the Law of Grace. This truth is shown by the great Apostle Paul when he says: “Let no one therefore judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a feast or new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16–17).

Here is what I wish to tell you on this matter. The word “Sabbath,” “Saturday,” from Hebrew, means “rest.” After the exodus from Egypt, God commanded the Jews to celebrate this day as a remembrance of the seventh day on which God rested from His works after the creation of the world (Genesis 2:2–3; Exodus 35:2–3), and especially to remind the Jews of their deliverance from the bondage of the Egyptians (Deuteronomy 5:13–15).

We Christians likewise celebrate the seventh day of the week, but not the old Jewish Sabbath, rather the new, Christian one — that is, the day of the Resurrection, when the renewal of the human race was accomplished. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15); “for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). We celebrate not the Sabbath, but Sunday, because on this day we were delivered — not from Egyptian bondage, in which neither we nor our fathers were ever — but from a general and far heavier bondage, from the bondage of the devil, from which we are freed, as the Holy Apostle Peter teaches, through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:21).

On this day, and not on the Sabbath or any other day, Christ through His death destroyed him who had the power of death — that is, the devil — and delivered those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage (Hebrews 2:14–15). On this day, and not another, Christ was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain; you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Behold, then, why we Christians celebrate the day of the Resurrection — as the day of the new creation of man, as the day of our deliverance and of the whole new world from the bondage of the devil, from sins, from the curse, and from spiritual death. But perhaps some sectarians will say that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He rested from all His works which He had made and set in order (Genesis 2:2–3). But in this place of Holy Scripture it is not said that God commanded men to honor the Sabbath. It says that God rested on the seventh day from His works — that is, He ceased creating — and that He blessed and sanctified this day in order to remind people of the completion of creation, and nothing more.

In Paradise, for man all days were alike — all were days of happiness, and at the same time days of work, to cultivate and guard the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). And after the fall into sin of the first people and their expulsion from Paradise, they were to labor as a punishment and to be nourished with toil all the days of their life (Genesis 3:17), therefore also on the Sabbath. And indeed, nowhere in Holy Scripture is it seen that our forefathers — Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others — celebrated the Sabbath.

Only in the time of Moses, after the Jews came out of Egypt, did God give them in the wilderness, for the first time, the commandment concerning the Sabbath (Exodus 16:23–26). And this, because the Jews were always ungrateful, so that they might remember and give thanks on that day to God who brought them out of the bondage of the Egyptians (Deuteronomy 5:12–15).

If it is written in Holy Scripture that God says through Moses: “Remember the day of rest” (Exodus 20:8), let no one think that the observance of the Sabbath existed from the beginning of the world. No, truly. Rather, on Sinai He reminds them of this commandment, because the commandment of the Sabbath had been given a little earlier to the Jews in the wilderness of Sin, while they were still under Moses’ leadership (see Exodus 16:23–30), and He repeated on Mount Sinai the commandment which He had given earlier in the wilderness of Sin, as we have shown above. Therefore God said: “Remember!”

We must understand that the Jews were obliged to celebrate the Sabbath; otherwise they fell under the curse of the law (Deuteronomy 26–27). We Christians are no longer under the law, but under the Grace of Christ, who redeemed us from this curse (Romans 6:14). The Holy Apostle Paul teaches that: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” What is the law? “It was added because of transgressions, until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made. Therefore the law was our tutor unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Jesus Christ. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:19–26). “The Lord abolished the enmity in His flesh, the law of commandments with its ordinances…” (Ephesians 2:15).

If someone says that the Sabbath is called an “eternal law” and an “eternal covenant” (Exodus 31:16–17), and therefore must be kept forever as a feast, let him know that God, being Creator and Lawgiver, can abolish not only all His laws but also His covenants, even though He said He gave them forever (1 Kingdoms [1 Samuel] 2:30). A covenant is not a contract between man and God, for contracts are made only between equals. The covenant is the manifestation of God’s mercy and His good will toward man. And His promises, laws, covenants, commandments, and ordinances — God can change or even completely abolish them if men are not worthy of them. For example, the sacrifices and other ordinances of the Old Testament were called an “eternal covenant” (Leviticus 7:30; Exodus 21:6; 40:15), yet in the New Testament all are set aside.

There was no covenant greater than circumcision, which was superior to the Sabbath — not only in time, being older, but also in significance. The Savior Himself said that it is more important than the Sabbath: “Moses gave you circumcision — not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers — and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a whole man well on the Sabbath?” (John 7:22–23).

Thus, for circumcision the Sabbath is broken. And it too is called an “eternal covenant.” Those who transgressed it were condemned to death: “You shall be circumcised… and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you… and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male… that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he has broken My covenant” (Genesis 17:11–13).

And behold, this “eternal covenant” of circumcision — which was greater than the Sabbath — was set aside by the Holy Apostles at their council, when Christians from among the Jews began to demand that Christians from among the Gentiles observe circumcision and the law of Moses. The Apostles, having gathered together, decided, saying: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication; if you keep yourselves from these, you will do well” (Acts 15:28–29). By this decision, the Holy Apostles removed not only circumcision—which was greater than the Sabbath—but also the entire ceremonial law of Moses, with its feasts, new moons, Sabbaths, and the rest (see Colossians 2:16–17; Galatians 5:6; 6:15).

If someone reflects on the words of Christ who said: “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the prophets; I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17), he may think that He also kept the Sabbath. To this we must know that Christ kept the Sabbath because He was a Jew according to the flesh and had to submit to the ceremonial law of Moses until its removal — until the establishment with men of the New Covenant in His Blood (Luke 22:20), that is, until the time of His sufferings and His glorious Resurrection, when the end of the Old Testament came, as was foretold by the great prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31–32).

Then Christ abolished the law of commandments with His teachings (Ephesians 4:15). On the basis that Christ kept the Sabbath, we cannot maintain that Christians must also honor it. Christ, as a Jew, observed Jewish feasts. Christ, as a Jew, received circumcision; yet sectarians do not circumcise. Why and until when Christ honored the Sabbath has been explained above.

From the texts brought from Holy Scripture it is not seen that Christians are obliged to celebrate the Sabbath. They speak only of the fact that Christ taught the Jews, usually on the Sabbath, in their synagogues, and nothing more. He taught on the Sabbath because then the Jews gathered in their synagogues for prayer, and Christ could have listeners.

Perhaps someone might say that Christ told His disciples: “Pray that your flight may not be in winter, nor on the Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20), and that by this He showed the holiness of the Sabbath. We must understand that these words of the Lord in no way oblige Christians to celebrate the Sabbath. Otherwise, we would also have to honor and celebrate winter. These words refer only to the imminent destruction of Jerusalem and the difficulty the disciples might endure if this destruction happened unexpectedly in winter — when they could quickly perish from cold on the roads — and also before the sufferings and Resurrection of Christ, when the old Sabbath had not yet been fully abolished, and at a time when it was difficult to flee from Jerusalem because on the Sabbath the city gates were closed.

Behold, then, from where it is seen that Christ abolished the Sabbath. For the Law of Moses had a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things (Hebrews 10:1). Therefore Christ the Messiah, having come and fulfilled all the Law (Matthew 5:17) and the commandments of the Old Testament (John 15:10), Himself completed some of them and changed others. In general, He abolished the law of commandments through His teaching (Ephesians 2:15), and the Sabbath He completely abolished by word and by deed. For example, He Himself broke it by healing the sick on the Sabbath — the man with the withered hand (Matthew 12:10–13), the paralytic from today’s Gospel (John 5:5–16), and the man born blind, making clay for him on the Sabbath (John 9:1–16).

All these were forbidden by the Old Law to be done on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10–13; Numbers 16:32–36). By breaking the Sabbath, Christ compelled others also to break it. Healing the paralytic on the Sabbath, Jesus said to him: “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked — and it was the Sabbath day.

The Jewish Sabbath is called by the Holy Apostle Paul a “shadow,” that is, something that has no substance, of no use, because the word “shadow” in Holy Scripture, when speaking of the Old Testament, means that which is destined to be removed (Hebrews 10:1, 4–5, 13).

Beloved faithful,

Since some among Christians have separated themselves from the Church of Christ and honor the Sabbath of the Old Law instead of Sunday, the day of Christ’s Resurrection, I have sought to explain to you in today’s Gospel what significance the Jewish Sabbath had, how long it was observed, and when and why it was replaced by Sunday by Christ Himself and His Holy Apostles.

We, the children of the Orthodox Church, if we wish to be saved, are bound to obey her. Let us fulfill with holiness the commandments of the Lord from the Holy Gospel, and not follow the counsels of rebellious believers who have rejected the Church, the holy Sunday, the joy of the Resurrection, the priests, the Cross, and the holy icons, and who honor the Sabbath as a day of rest. Let us remain in the house of the Lord and in the saving joy of the Resurrection of Christ. For greater is the day of the Resurrection than the day of rest.

Here in the Church is found the Pool of Bethesda — that is, the Mystery of Baptism, through which we become children of God by grace, newly born. Here is found the water that heals diseases — that is, the Mystery of Confession, repentance with tears, through which we heal the soul from the wounds of sins. Here is accomplished the Mystery of Holy Unction, through which many sick are healed and relieved. Let us not say, “we have no man to put us into this healing water.” The priests of the Church are those who baptize us, absolve us from sins, pray for our salvation, and lead us on the path of salvation.

Let us honor worthily, with prayers and good deeds, the holy day of Sunday, so that we too may hear the saving word of Christ: “Behold, you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.” Amen.

Christ is risen!

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.