Unexpected Joy - Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic (2026)

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN.

INTRODUCTION

Could it be that we have all that we need to attain salvation? That we need no further comfort in food, drink, or housing? That we do not need more sleep, better health, or fewer worries? Perhaps, but what if my health has improved a bit, I’ve been able to make more money, I am sleeping better, eating healthier, am more attentive, praying with compunction, then am I more peaceful, am I more thankful, do I complain less, do I pray more or say the Jesus prayer more and use my time and energy to overcome laziness, despondency and sin within me? What is more, if in any way God has eased our suffering or quelled our intrusive thoughts or subdued our passions, have we become more of the Christian that we would like to be, committed ourselves more to ascetic disciplines and attendance at the Divine Services, or are we glad our life has become a bit easier but have not decided to live more fully for Him? Such are the questions that are addressed in our Gospel reading today.

NARRATION

Today’s Gospel reading occurs early in the Gospel according to John, after John introduces Jesus as the Logos (Ch. 1), selects His disciples (Ch. 1), turns water into wine at the wedding of Cana (Ch. 2), cleanses the Temple (Ch. 2), instructs Nicodemus (Ch. 3), recounts the teachings of John the Baptist (Ch. 3), converses with the woman at the well (Ch. 4), and heals the nobleman’s son (Ch. 4).

In Chapter 5, Jesus has journeyed to Jerusalem for a feast and comes to a pool called Bethesda, not to be confused with the town north of Jerusalem by the same name. This pool is at the Sheep’s Gate entrance to Jerusalem, a stone’s throw from the Temple, where the infirm congregate, hoping to be healed when they are plunged into the pool immediately after an angel stirs the waters. Here, Jesus addresses one of these unfortunates and heals him. The man then stands up, picks up his bed, and carries it away.

I. The miracles of Jesus always astound, but how much more so when contrasted with the destitution of those he healed, this man being one of them.

The Apostle and Evangelist tells us that this man has laid infirm by the pool for thirty-eight years. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, for thirty-eight years. He could see that his hope lay before him, but it was always out of reach. His infirmity was of such a degree that he could not drag himself to the pool in time, let alone walk, before someone else would get in front of him and be healed instead. We are told that he is not even sitting, let alone standing, but that he lies there. He saw in others exactly what he wanted – healing. Throughout those thirty-eight years, how many people did he see plunge into those waters and recover their health? Their prayers answered; their health restored; their lives given back to them, but never him.

Others had friends or family who loved them, who cared for them, who would assist them into those healing waters, but not him. When Jesus asks, “Do you want to be made well? He answers, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” I have no man. I have no one. He has no one who could take him to a home, bring him food, offer any consolation. The world moves around him as he lies facing his only hope, day after day.

The paralytic had four friends who brought him to Jesus for healing. The man born blind had at least his parents; the ten lepers had each other in their isolation. The man left for dead by robbers had the Samaritan to help him, but here in teeming Jerusalem, no Samaritan, no Priest, no Levi would come to his aid and love their neighbor as they loved themselves.

Such was not only his joyless past but also the hopelessness of his future, notes St. John Chrysostom.

II. However, notice something unexpected in this story, which is really significant. What is this man’s response when this stranger asks: “Do you want to be made well?”

The only people here are the sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed, and they are only here in order to be the next into the pool and to be healed. There’s no other reason to be here, yet this stranger asks: “Do you want to be made well?”

And the man responds: “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

He is not sarcastic. He does not berate Jesus. He doesn’t mock Jesus as though he needs to state the obvious. His life is not a living, cruel joke in the sadistic theater of the world. He does not answer as though he had accepted abandonment by God and therefore lived in anger, bitterness, and resentment.

Instead, in all meekness and gentleness, he honestly answers, “Sir, I have no man.” Why does Christ ask Him this, if for no other reason than to reveal this man’s virtue.

III. What happens next? The waters are not stirred, and therefore Christ cannot bring this man into those healing waters. No, instead

He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, taking away the sins of the world, has approached;

He who turns water into wine has come near;

He who speaks of birth by water and the Spirit has drawn nigh;

He who gives living water that springs up into everlasting life, now speaks

“Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

Being made well immediately, the man stands and, showing that he has strength throughout his whole body, picks up his bed and walks.

IV. Fathers, Mother, Friends, this is how God acts. And what a surprise here; what a great wonder. The only hope that this man had always lay out of his reach, and unexpectedly, a stranger comes to him and heals him when all hope was lost. First, he says, “I have no man,” then he has Jesus Christ. Is this not how God acts in the life of His creatures? ***

It is because of examples like this that we have hope; hope for our families, hope for our friends, hope for ourselves. For why should we not? Is it not in Heaven where we have placed our treasure and not here on earth amidst sickness, sorrow, and death; lies, misleadings, and betrayals; propaganda, ideologies, and confusion. Is not Christ risen and death annihilated, the evil ones cast down, life liberated, and the tomb emptied of its dead?

Enumerating examples from the Old Testament, St. Neilos, the fifth-century abbot, reminds us of the times wherein God intervenes in history in unexpected ways, writing,

And what did the righteous lack, though they gave no thought at all for their needs? Were not the Israelites fed in the desert for forty years, without cultivating the land? They always had enough to eat, for in a strange and miraculous way quails came in from the sea and manna fell from the sky, and a dry rock, when struck, gushed water; and throughout the whole forty years their clothes and shoes never wore out. What land was tilled beside the brook Kerith where Elijah hid? Did not the ravens bring him food? And when he came to Sarepta, did not the widow, despite her desperate need, give him bread, snatching it from the mouth of her own children? All this shows that we should seek holiness, not clothing, food, and drink.[i]

Perhaps our finances will fail, our friends drift away, and our health be infirm, yet we are not like them who have no hope. Our hope is not a hope that desires only the restoration of these things we have lost, but more meaningfully, the hope that Jesus Christ will never leave us nor forsake us.

Always insightful, but perhaps unexpectedly, St. Nikolai Velimirovic asks, “Why do you need health?” He is not in contrast to St. Nektarios of Aegina and others who encourage a modicum of self-care and consultation with doctors. However, his point is to indicate that God can be served under all sorts of conditions, such as in sickness or in health, and that we should not seek our betterment for its own sake, but only for the sake of Christ.

Why do you need health? For the universal comedy of body and soul that is being played out around you? But aren’t those who participate in this comedy sufficient without you? Or for the service of God? But doesn’t he who suffers with patience and trust in Him serve God very well? Or do you desire health for its own sake, life for its own sake? But that which is a means cannot be an end. When God sent you into this life, He did so for a purpose; and when He gives you health, He, again, does so for a purpose. “Is not a man’s time appointed upon earth, and his days like the days of a hireling ?” says the righteous Job. Man has an appointed time for exercise, struggle, and victories; and at the end of these days, like a hireling, a reward awaits him. But life for the sake of life—earthly life for the sake of earthly life! – and health for health’s sake means a purposeless life and purposeless health. Life and health for the comedy of sin – isn’t that a sharp knife to the throat? Five corridors overflowing with lifelong invalids – oh, what a wondrous place for practicing patience and trust in God! Oh, what a wondrous and vivid image, what a wondrous and vivid prediction of the state in which all those in the city around the bathhouse may soon find themselves – and for what? To acquire sins, to accumulate sins![ii]

May it not be so, but may we not miss the point that St. Nikolai is saying, there is a purpose in sickness and a purpose in health, and the desire for healing is not so that we can live like the world around us, but instead to find God’s purpose in it for us as we live our life before Him.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the Gospel reading for today, after the man is healed, Jesus again meets up with him, but this time in the Temple, the house of prayer, indicating where we should be not only if God has worked a miracle in our life, but after any movement of grace, as not only the proper action to find God being prayer, but the proper response to God is prayer.

Fathers, Mother, friends, even if we are so fickle and frail, may we constantly be reminded of the goodness of God to intervene in His creation’s life, and always hold out hope in Him to continue to do so. And may each one of us be found in the Temple, seeking God and thanking God.

THROUGH THE PRAYERS OF OUR HOLY FATHERS LORD JESUS CHRIST, HAVE MERCY ON US. AMEN.

CHRIST IS RISEN!