Do You Want to Be Healed? A Sermon on the Paralytic at the Sheep Pool
In this sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Pascha, Daniel McInnes reflects on the healing of the paralyzed man at the Sheep Pool and draws contrasts with the apostolic healings in Acts — Aeneas and Tabitha. He explores the Church's primary image as a hospital for souls, the difference between isolation and community, and the call to bear one another's burdens as we approach the feast of Pentecost.
Transcript
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today we heard the story of the man who was paralyzed, lying beside the Sheep Pool. It is not the only story about Jesus healing a paralyzed man, and in today's story there are many contrasts — contrasts within the Gospel itself, between the Epistle and the Gospel, and if we know the other stories of what Christ has done, contrasts with those as well. It is a very rich and interesting passage.
The basic outline is this: Jesus goes to the Sheep Pool and sees a man who has been there for 38 years. The man cannot get into the pool because he cannot move, and there is no one to help him. Jesus asks him, "Do you want to be healed?" You might think — why ask? Surely he would want to be healed. But for someone who has been in that condition for 38 years, that is all he has ever known. He would have been living on charity, receiving food from others. It is not much of a life, but it is a life. Perhaps some people, after so long, no longer want to change. So Jesus asks him.
The man's reply is telling: "Sir, I have nobody to put me into the pool." He doesn't even know who Jesus is. He is isolated, sitting beside the pool — alone, marginalized, unknown. Compare this with the other story of a paralyzed man, whose four friends are so certain that Jesus can heal him that when they cannot get through the crowd, they break open the roof and lower him down. This man has no such friends. He has no one. And yet Jesus comes to him — sees him, knows he has been there a long time — and heals him immediately.
But the greater healing comes in the next scene. We find this same man at the temple, and Jesus seeks him out there. He says to him: "Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you." The man is not just physically healed; he has turned to God. He has moved from the bitterness and resentment of 38 years of waiting — of not being able to get into the pool, of being overlooked — and he has turned toward the temple, toward God. That is where his life is now heading: toward the healing not only of his body, but of his soul.
We also see in this story that the Pharisees ask the healed man, "Who healed you?" — because it was done on the Sabbath. As we know, the Pharisees were strict about the rules, and they did not like things being done on the Sabbath. For me, this part of the story is a reminder that the Church's primary image of itself is as a hospital. We come here to be healed. All of us, like that paralyzed man, have areas of our lives that we cannot, by our own strength, do anything about. We struggle with the same things again and again and we fail. That is the human condition. Some of us struggle with more than others, but we all struggle.
And so it is important that we always remember: the primary reason we come is to be healed by Christ — not merely to be right about things. Being in the right place, being in the Orthodox Church, is indeed a good thing. But if that is all we are doing — standing around congratulating ourselves on being right — then I am not sure that is a good reason to be here at all. We come to be healed. We come to have our lives transformed by Christ, and in that transformation we hope to become part of the healing of the world, which is what Christ came to accomplish.
Now we turn to the Epistle, which provides a fascinating contrast. We see St. Peter traveling throughout the region of Lydda, busy, going in and out and all over the place. And there they find a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years — a similar situation to the man at the Sheep Pool. They find someone in need and they immediately help him. What we are seeing here is the life of the Church after the resurrection, after the ascension, after the Holy Spirit has come. It is no longer only Jesus who can do this. His disciples are doing exactly the same things he did — raising up the paralyzed, healing the sick. Whereas before the resurrection it was primarily Christ performing the miracles, now we see that all those who have received the Holy Spirit are able to bring this healing to people in the world.
The last episode is the story of Tabitha. I want to contrast this with the story of Jairus's daughter. You will remember: Jairus comes to Jesus and says, "Come and heal my daughter — she is dying." Jesus agrees to go, but by the time he arrives, they tell him she has already died. There are women wailing, people mourning. Jesus says, "She is sleeping," and they laugh at him. He puts them all out of the room and says, "Talitha cumi" — little girl, arise — and she rises.
The story of Tabitha is strikingly similar, but different in significant ways. Tabitha is a well-known and beloved woman in Joppa — full of good works, virtuous, charitable, a pillar of the community. Unlike the man at the Sheep Pool, who had no one, this woman has many friends who love her deeply. When she dies, they wash her body, lay her in the upper room, and immediately send for Peter. They are hopeful. After the resurrection, after Christ himself had raised people from the dead, they believe she can be raised. There is none of the wailing disbelief that greeted Jesus at Jairus's house. Peter goes up to the room, and in very similar words to Jesus — "Tabitha, arise" — she rises from the dead.
The great picture we can take from both the Gospel and the Epistle today is the contrast in how people treat one another. In the Gospel, the man at the Sheep Pool is isolated and alone — no one to carry him, no one to care for him. Jesus must go to him. But in the Epistle, we see the apostles going out to find people to heal, and we see a whole community gathered around Tabitha in her hour of need — coming together, calling out to God, interceding for the sick and the dying.
This is a powerful image for us, because the Church's primary image is that of a hospital, and all of us are called to be there for one another. As I said, we all have areas of our lives where we are paralyzed, where we have fallen — and all of us need to help raise each other up, to intercede for one another.
It is a fitting image as we head toward Pentecost, for Pentecost is when the power of the Holy Spirit — the power to do all of these things — comes down upon God's people. As we approach that great feast, let us always remember that our primary focus should be the healing of souls and bodies: being there for each other within this community, and extending that same healing presence to the world. For we are here, as Christ was here, for the healing and salvation of the world. May God help us to do that. Amen.
