Sermons & Homilies
The account, which we have just heard, is found only in the Gospel of Luke. It speaks of Jesus, being in the Temple on the Sabbath and encountering a woman who was bent over forwards for eighteen years. This ailment is described as a “spirit of infirmity”(vs. 11) under which she was unable to straighten herself up.
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God is not a monster; He is not a tyrant; He is not unjust. Instead, He is a father; He is a mother; He deals mercifully with His creation, and acts with love towards us who are created in His image. This is the picture that the Apostle Paul paints in today’s Epistle reading; that God is not abusive, nor does he exact justice upon us, but instead He conducts Himself with compassion and mercy.
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We celebrate today the Synaxis of the Honorable Heavenly Bodiless Hosts. While each of their nine ranks has its own appointed tasks and role in the celestial realm, for us human beings they typically play one role in particular, which is reflected in the name commonly given by us to all of them alike: angels, from the Greek angelos meaning “messenger.”
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Today’s Gospel shows us that not all faith is the same faith. Some have little faith, weak faith, easily shaken by outward setbacks and adversities; others have strong faith, great faith, faith that can move mountains, faith that soon obtains all its requests from God. No sooner had the Lord returned over the sea of Galilee to Bethsaida, than the ruler of the local synagogue, Jairus, approached him, and asked him to come and lay hands on his dying daughter, so that she might be healed. He indeed showed faith, but as we know, his faith was not perfect.
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Let’s ask ourselves how this can be: how are Moses and the Prophets more apt to impart the wisdom of God and true repentance into the souls of men than one risen from the dead?
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