The Lord's Promises

 [From the Sunday of the Paralytic, 2024, Acts 9:32-42]

In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 14, Jesus is giving His “good-bye” message to His Apostles.  In so doing, He makes a promise to them. 

Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

What is it that our Lord is saying to His Apostles, and to His Church (His bride) through them?

We are given a glimpse of one fulfillment of this promise in todays Epistle from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 9.

Therein we find St. Peter on a missionary journey (as he went through all parts of the country—V32) and was in Lydda.  While there, St. Peter heals a paralytic (that which we see our Lord doing in today’s Gospel from St. John).  Here is one instance of the promise fulfilled of the works that I do he will do also.

But at this time the people at Joppa have a need.  A beloved disciple in their community, Tabitha, has died.  And so in faith they send for St. Peter.

St. Luke records here in the Book of Acts how the people in Joppa sent two men to seek to bring St. Peter to help with the death of their beloved Tabitha.

The distance between Joppa and Lydda is about 11 miles.  So this is not a 10 minute effort.  The average running speed for a 30 year old male is about 6 miles per hour, so this is a 2 hour trip for men from Lydda to reach Joppa, then find St. Peter, then at least 2 hours back to Lydda to the upper room where Tabitha lay dead.  This is if the messengers (and St. Peter) indeed run the whole way!

Why this focus on time?  In the three accounts of our Lord’s raising people from death, we have the account of the daughter of Jairus, who had “just” in that hour died.  In the account of the son of the widow of Nain, the young man’s death would have been within that current day, likely hours before.  In the account of the Lord’s friend Lazarus, he had been dead for four days.

This would appear to be (in terms of equivalence) similar to our Lord’s raising of the son of the widow of Nain.

St. John Chrysostom writes of this event with these words.

St. Peter sends all those in the upper room out, imitating his Master in this also (Mk 5:40).  For where tears are—or rather where miracles are, there tears have no place.  Certainly not in the celebration of such a mystery.

In the case of our dead, a great mystery is celebrating likewise.  Angels are present, commissioned from heaven… sent from the King Himself to call their fellow servant, and I ask you, ‘Do you weep’?  Do you not know what a mystery it is that is taking place, how awful, how dread, and worthy indeed of hymns and lauds?  For it is a very great mystery of the Wisdom of God.  As if leaving the dwelling, the soul goes forth, speeding on her way to her own Lord, and do you mourn?  Why then you should do this on the birth of a child: for this in fact is also a birth, and better than that…

For as the sun arises, clear and bright, so the soul leaving the body with a clear conscience, shines joyously… Think what the soul must then be, in what amazement, what wonder, what delight!

Christ is Risen!

Indeed He is Risen!

I Can't Wait

 It’s an expression we often use when we’re excited about something.  Maybe it’s anticipation waiting for a movie to be released.  Maybe it’s for buying the first local grown corn for the season.  Sometimes for me it the desire to go out cruising with the top down for the first time.  We all have things that we look forward to.

But that’s NOT the perspective we find within the Myrrhbearing women today.  They indeed “can’t wait,” but it’s NOT for a task they ever wanted to do.  In fact, it’s probably the thing they least wanted to ever have to consider doing—going to anoint the decaying body of their executed Lord.

But even in being something that they didn’t want to have to do, they couldn’t wait to go.

In today’s Gospel from St. Mark, at the end of Chapter 16 he carefully records for us how St. Joseph of Arimathea lovingly buried the body of our Lord.  That account ends with these words: And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses observed where He was laid. 

Note their careful observance of where to find the Lord’s body when they would return.  We know that Joseph and Nikodemus lovingly prepared the body, which means that it took time!  Who knows when they finished with the strips of linen and the spices?  One estimate places the cost of the spices used (100 pounds according to St. John (Jn 19:39) at between $100,000-200,000!  But the women were there, to see where He was laid!

St. Theophan writes of this day, saying this:

The tireless women!  They would not give sleep to their eyes nor slumber to their eyelids (Ps 131:4) until they found their Lord!  But the men dragged their feet.  They went to the tomb, saw it empty, and remained in confusion about what it could mean because they did not see Him. 

Does this mean that they had less love than the women?  No, here was a reasoning love which feared making a mistake due to the high price of this love and its Object.  When they too saw and touched Him, then each of them, not with his tongue like Thomas, but with his heart confessed, ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn 20:28), and no longer could anything separate them from the Lord.

The Myrrhbearers and the Apostles are an image of the two sides of our life: feeling and reasoning.  Without feeling life is not life.  Without reasoning life is blind, it offers little sound fruit, and much is wasted.  We must combine both.  Let feeling go forward and arouse; let reason determine the time, place, method, and, in general, the practical arrangement of what the heart suggests for us to do.

“Myrrhbearers” Joseph and Nikodemus gave absolutely no consideration to cost.  The “new tomb” itself had to be incredibly expensive.  And the spices according to one source were sufficient to embalm 100 men.  It didn’t matter to them.  The Man whom they at first honored secretly, now they honor Him openly, and unlike His Apostles, show no fear in asking for His body, and caring for Him with such great love.

There was no less love in the women.  For their faithfulness, they were rewarded to be the first among all to see the Lord resurrected.  And they became the first evangelists!

All became witnesses to that once in eternity event of God working our salvation, once for all of humanity, once for all time.

Christ is Risen!

Indeed, He is Risen!

Unbelief

Christ is Risen!

We are really very strange people.  When something SHOULD be believed, we don’t.  When something should NOT be believed, we do.

Examples?

When you SHOULD believe:  Put a WET PAINT sign on a public bench, then monitor the location with video.  Too many people who pass by feel the need to “test the sign” and reach out to touch and see if the paint’s truly wet.

When you SHOULDN’T believe:  Carl Sagan wrote a book titled Cosmos back in 1980.  To quantify creation (he would NOT use that word—it’s editorializing) he claimed in the book that there are 100 billion galaxies each with 100 billion stars.  And—people just believe him.  I mean, who counted?

Knowing these things about human nature, it’s not surprising therefore to find in the Gospel from Agape Vespers the interplay between the ten Apostles who were in the room when the Lord entered through closed doors and Thomas, who was NOT there.  John 20:24-25 says this:

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.”  But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and place my fingers in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe.”

The “wet paint” analogy is appropriate here.  “I’ve just got to touch it—I don’t believe it’s not wet.  I want—no, I NEED proof!”  And the only ‘test’ that satisfies the need for proof is that of touching.

We perhaps shouldn’t be so hard on poor Thomas.  He’s apparently not the only one who found himself in this state.  In Mat 28:17 we’re told, When they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted…  So even in the state of SEEING the risen Lord, there remained some doubt among those who knew Jesus.

Thomas, for his part, held this position for another full week.  By this time, many people must have offered to him their words telling of their own encounters with the risen Lord.  But lack of belief remained, until…

After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them.

Jesus waits, even after His Resurrection, for the EXACT right time to accomplish His purpose.

Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”

Take careful note—’peace’ is the first ‘gift’ of the Risen Lord to those He loves!  He knows that their hearts (and minds) remain in turmoil.  His presence is a gift given to dispel all doubt and worry.

Jesus immediately addresses Thomas, and invites him to “touch”.  His words remain consoling.  Do not be unbelieving, but believing.

St. John doesn’t record IF St. Thomas actually reached out to complete this touch.  There’s wonderful iconography which implies that he did.  But whether he did or not is irrelevant.  What IS relevant is Thomas’ response to the invitation:  My Lord and my God!

Jesus gives a blessing to all who will come after the Apostles who will believe without needing to “touch the paint”, but who will believe because His Apostles, His followers, His Saints, His priests would tell others of His Resurrection, and these would believe.

Why?

Because the Holy Spirit continues to move in the Lord’s Church.  He continues to permit lowly people like us to share the glorious news of His Resurrection with all who the Holy Spirit moves to open their hearts to receive and to embrace the message.

It was a simple message then.  It remains a simple message today.

CHRIST IS RISEN!!!