Беседа 29

“Then He got into the boat and crossed [back] and arrived at His city. And so they brought to Him the paralytic, lying on the bed. And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: Be of good cheer, child! your sins are forgiven you." (Matthew 9:1–2) Exposition 9:1–8. Matthew and John speak of two different paralytics. – Christ confirms his divine dignity and equality with the Father through the remission of sins, revealing the secret thoughts of his enemies and healing the paralytic. – The enemies of truth must be corrected with meekness. 1. The evangelist here calls Capernaum the own city of Jesus. The city in which Christ was born is Bethlehem; in which he was brought up - Nazareth; and in which he had a permanent residence - Capernaum. The paralytic spoken of here is not the same as the one mentioned in John. He was lying at the font, and this one was in Capernaum. He suffered for thirty-eight years, but nothing of the kind is said about this. No one cared about this one, but this one had people who cared about him, who brought him to Christ. To this the Savior said: “Child! your sins are forgiven you,” and to him: “Do you want to be healthy” (John 5:6)? He healed this one on the Sabbath, but not this one on the Sabbath; otherwise the Jews would not have missed the opportunity to accuse Him. While healing this one, they did not say anything, but for healing the first one they did not stop persecuting Him. I pointed out these differences not in vain, but so that anyone, mistaking both paralytics for one person, would not think that the evangelists disagree with each other. But pay attention to the humility and meekness of the Lord. He had alienated the people from Him before, and when the inhabitants of the Gadarene country did not want to accept Him to themselves, He did not resist them, but withdrew from them, although not far. And having boarded the ships again, he crossed to the other side, when he could have done this without the help of a ship. He did not always want to work miracles, so as not to disrupt the order of His economy. Matthew only says that they brought the paralytic; and other evangelists add that those who brought them also opened the roof and, lowering the sick man, placed him before Christ, without saying anything, but leaving everything to the will of the Savior. Previously, the Lord Himself went around the countries and did not demand such faith from those who came to Him; and now they came to Him and revealed their faith before Him - the evangelist specifically says: “Seeing Jesus their faith,” that is, those who sent down the paralytic. The Savior did not always demand faith from the suffering themselves, for example, when they suffered from insanity or lost their minds due to some other illness. But here the patient discovered his faith. Otherwise, not having faith, he would not have allowed himself to be lowered. So, since both the paralytic and those who brought him showed great faith, the Lord also showed His power and forgave the sins of the sick man, as having complete power to do so. He showed His equal dignity with God the Father in everything. He showed this before in His teaching, when He taught the people as having authority; over the leper, when he said to him: “I want to, be cleansed” (Matthew 8:3); over the centurion, when for his words: “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8), he was surprised at him and exalted him before everyone; over the sea, when he tamed it with one word; over the demons, when they confessed Him as Judge, and when He drove them out with great power. And now, again, in a different, higher way, he forces His enemies to recognize His equality with God the Father, and proclaims this through their lips. The Savior was a stranger to curiosity, despite the fact that a great multitude of people stood before Him, who even blocked the entrance to Him, which is why they lowered the paralytic from above; He does not immediately begin to heal the body of the sick person who appeared before Him, but waits for a reason for this from the enemies themselves, and first heals the invisible, i.e. soul, having forgiven his sins - which itself brought healing to the paralytic, but did not bring great glory to the Healer. The scribes, consumed by malice and thinking of accusing Him of blasphemy, against their will, however, contributed to the glorification of the miracle that had taken place. The Savior, in His foresight, used their blasphemy to show a sign. When they were indignant and said: “He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins except God alone?” (Matthew 9:3, Mark 2:7) - what did the Lord say to them in response? Did you refute their opinion? If He were not equal to the Father, then He should have said: why do you have a wrong opinion about Me? I don't have that kind of power. But He did not say anything like that, but confirmed and proved the completely opposite, both with His words and with the miracle He performed. But, since His own review of Himself could seem unpleasant to the listeners, He shows through others who He is, and, surprisingly, not only through friends, but also through enemies, in which His highest wisdom is revealed. The Lord showed this through his friends when he said to the leper: “I want, be cleansed,” and to the centurion: “I have not found such faith in Israel” (Matthew 8:3, 10); and through enemies - in the present case. Since the scribes said that no one can forgive sins except God alone, the Savior, wanting to show them “that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, then says to the paralytic: get up, take up your bed, and go to your house” (Matthew 9:6). And not only here, but also in another case, when the Jews said: “We do not want to stone You for a good deed, but for blasphemy and because You, being a man, make Yourself God” (John 10:33), - the Savior did not refute this opinion of them about Him, but again confirmed it, saying: “If I do not the works of My Father, do not believe Me; and if I do, then if you do not believe Me, believe My works” (John 10:37–38). 2. However, when healing the paralytic, Jesus Christ provides another important proof of His divinity and equality with God the Father. The scribes said that the power to forgive sins belongs to God alone, and He not only forgives sins, but even before that He reveals in Himself another property befitting the one God, namely, He reveals the secrets of the heart. The scribes did not reveal their thoughts to everyone: “At this,” says the evangelist, “some of the scribes said to themselves: He is blaspheming. But Jesus, seeing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts” (Matthew 9:3–4)? And that the knowledge of the secrets of the heart belongs to one God, listen to what Solomon says: “You alone know the heart” (2 Chronicles 6:30), as well as David: “you search the hearts and bellies” (Ps. 7:10), and Jeremiah: “The heart [of man] is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who will recognize him” (Jer. 17:9)? And God himself says: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). And from other places of Scripture one can see that it is characteristic of God alone to know the secrets of the heart. So, wanting to show that He is God, equal to God the Father, something that the scribes thought in themselves (and they, fearing the people, did not dare to reveal their thoughts to everyone), He opened and revealed, showing great meekness here too. “Why,” He says, “do you think evil in your hearts?” If anyone could be indignant, then perhaps only the sick one, as if he had been deceived in his hope. He could say: I came so that You would heal me from relaxation, and You heal something else; How can I be sure that my sins are forgiven? But he does not say anything like that, but surrenders himself to the power of the Healer. Meanwhile, the scribes, out of their pride and envy, condemn the very benefits He has shown to others. That is why the Savior reproaches them, however, with meekness. If you do not believe the first proof of My divinity, and consider My words to be vanity, then I add something else to it: I reveal your secrets. Then He presents another new proof. What is it? He strengthened the body of the paralytic. When He spoke to the paralytic, He did not clearly reveal His power, since He did not say: I forgive you your sins, but “your sins are forgiven you”; and when it was necessary to convince the enemies of this, He shows His power more clearly, saying: “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” Do you see how He desired to be considered equal to God the Father? He did not say that the Son of man needed the help of another, or that He received power from another, but says: “has power.” And he says this not out of ambition, but in order to convince his enemies that He is not blaspheming, making Himself equal to God the Father. The Lord desires to present clear and irrefutable evidence everywhere; so, for example, he says to someone who has been cleansed of leprosy: “Go, show yourself to the priest” (Matthew 8:4). Petrova's mother-in-law gives strength to serve Him, and allows the pigs to plunge into the sea. Likewise, here, as proof of the remission of sins to the paralytic, he strengthens his body, and as proof of the strengthening of the body, he makes him carry a bed, so that the miracle He performed would not be considered a deception. And he did not heal the paralytic before he asked the scribes the question: “For which is easier to say: your sins are forgiven, or to say”: take your bed and go to your house (Matthew 9:5)? These words have the following meaning: what seems easier to you, to heal your body from relaxation, or to free your soul from sins? Obviously, to heal the body. Just as the soul is superior to the body, so the remission of sins is a greater matter than the healing of the body. But since the healing of the soul cannot be seen, but the healing of the body is obvious, I add to the first and the last, which, although lower, is more obvious, so that through it I can assure of the highest - the invisible. Thus, the Savior, even earlier, by His very deeds, showed in Himself what John later said about Him: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). 3. So, having raised up the paralytic, the Lord sends him to the house. Here He again shows His humility and again confirms that the miracle He created is not a dream: those who witnessed the illness of the paralytic make witnesses of his health. It’s as if He said this: Through your illness I would like to heal those who consider themselves healthy, but are actually sick in soul; but since they do not want this, then “go to your house” and correct those who are there. Do you see how the Lord shows that He is the Creator of soul and body? He heals the sick from relaxation, both spiritual and physical, and reveals the invisible through the visible. And yet, the witnesses still grovel. “When the people saw this,” says the evangelist, “they were surprised and glorified God, who had given such power to men” (Matthew 9:8). The flesh prevented them from ascending to grief. Meanwhile, the Savior does not reproach them, but continues with His deeds to awaken them from sleep, and to lift their minds to heights. And it was already important that they placed Him above all people, and considered Him to have come from God. If this thought had been properly established in their minds, then little by little they would finally have learned that Christ is the Son of God. But they did not know this clearly, which is why they could not come to Him. Subsequently, they again said: “This Man is not from God” (John 9:16), and often turned to this thought in order to find in it protection for their passions. Many people still do this today. Posing themselves as strict zealots of the glory of God, they satisfy their own passions, when they should act with meekness in everything. Indeed, the God of all, who could strike with lightning those who blaspheme Him, commands the sun to rise, sends down rain and bestows all blessings with generosity. Imitating Him, we too must ask, exhort and inspire with meekness, without anger and rage. Blasphemy does not demean the majesty of God, and therefore should not prompt you to rage. He who blasphemes inflicts wounds on himself. So, you should sigh and cry, because this disease is worthy of tears, and a person infected with it can only be healed by meekness. Meekness is stronger than any violence. Look with what meekness God himself, both in the Old and New Testaments, calls out to those who offend Him. There He says: “My people! what have I done to you” (Mic. 6:3)? And here: “Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting Me” (Acts 9:4)? Likewise, Paul commands to instruct opponents with meekness. And Christ himself, when the disciples approached Him, asking Him permission to bring down fire from heaven, made a strong reproach to them, saying: “You do not know what kind of spirit you are” (Luke 9:55)! Likewise, in the present case, He did not say to the scribes: oh, wicked and deceivers, oh, haters and enemies of human salvation! But he only said: “Why do you think evil in your hearts” (Matthew 9:4)? So, with meekness one should deliver from illness. Whoever, because of human fear, has become better, will soon return to his former misfortune. Therefore, the Lord did not order the tares to be plucked out in order to give time for repentance. Many thus repented for good, whereas before they were wicked, such as Paul, the publican and the thief. Having once been tares, they later became ripe wheat. Although such a change cannot happen in seeds, it can easily and conveniently happen in the human will, since it is not bound by the bonds of necessity, but is endowed with freedom. So, when you see the enemy of truth, heal him, take care of him, return him to virtue, set the best example with your life, instruct with an impeccable word, patronize and have care, and use all means for correction, imitating the best doctors. After all, doctors do not always cure diseases using only one method; but when they see that the wound is not healed with one medicine, they apply another, and if necessary, a third; sometimes they cut it, and sometimes they tie it up. So you, having become a doctor of the soul, use every method of healing according to the commandments of Christ, so that you may receive a reward both for your salvation and for the fact that you have benefited others. Do everything for the glory of God: in this way you yourself will be glorified. “Those who glorify Me,” says the Lord, “I will glorify,” and those who humiliate Me will be humiliated (1 Samuel 2:30). So, let us do everything for the glory of God, in order to become heirs of that blessed destiny, which may we all be worthy of through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. You might be interested in: