Sermon on the 2nd Sunday of Lent

Mark 2: 1-12

In today’s Gospel reading, we see Christ entering Capernaum, meaning the city of Nahum, which in turn means ‘comfort’. The Holy Fathers understand this place of comfort, and the house to which the people flocked to encounter Jesus, as being the Church. 

Our Lord does not encounter the paralytic alone, but he is brought to him by four men. And when he forgives the man his sins, he does so because he saw their faith; not only the faith of the paralytic himself, but also the faith of the four men.

While every single human person is uniquely and infinitely valuable in the eyes of God who created them in his own image, that image is ultimately the image of a God who is Triune, an eternal communion of three divine Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is why the first thing Scripture says about the human being is that “it is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18), and why we are commanded to “love one another” (John 13:34), to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2), “to confess [our] sins to one another and pray for one another, that [we] may be healed, [for] the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). 

Today’s Gospel reading shows us that we are not saved as isolated individuals, but as persons in communion. The Lord tells us where to find him: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). We find him where the crowds are gathered to hear his preaching, but we cannot enter if we do not humbly accept the involvement of others. Specifically, we do not enter unless the roof of our haughtiness is removed and we allow others to lower us down and to lay us at the feet of Christ. 

And here it is important to note that, it is not only the people who lift us up and carry us that we are to accept, but also those who challenge us, who test us, who disappoint us. The path to Christ is the path of Christ, who emptied himself of his glory, lowered himself to the earth by taking the form of a servant, and lowered himself further into the grave and Hades by embracing the Cross.

When the Lord tells us to “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28), he is not calling us to some heroic feat of repression. Rather, the person who understands that every such encounter is an opportunity to follow Christ on this path will regard those who lower him down as his helpers and benefactors and will naturally love them, do good to them and pray for them.

This is how we are healed. 

We may hear this and respond, much as did the Scribes, “This is too difficult. This is unrealistic. Who is able to accomplish such a thing?”. To these doubts, Jesus answers, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?” He reads the hearts of the Scribes, heals the paralysis of the man, and further gives him the strength to carry the bed on which he was carried, in order to expel every doubt about his ability also to heal the hidden sicknesses of the soul, not only from their minds but from ours. 

What reason, then, do we have to fear a path he has already trodden? Why should we fear embracing others, knowing that, if we do, we will end up at the feet of Christ who embraces and heals us?

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4:18). Therefore, let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Trinity consubstantial and undivided.

Fr Kristian Akselberg