Sunday of the Paralytic, May 2, 2004
Christ is Risen! (Tone 3)
Athanasios the Great
Kellia: Deuteronomy 2:24-37 Apostle: Acts 9:32-41 Gospel: St. John 5:1-15
Deuteronomy 2:24-37, especially vss. 31, 32 RSV: "'Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his
land over to you; begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.' Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his
people, to battle at Jahaz." From the beginning of the teachings of the Holy Prophet Moses in Deuteronomy, one observes
that the effort to possess requires inner cleansing and the submission of the whole self under the rule of God so that no
aspect of one's life is left aside or avoided because bowing the will is difficult. Today's reading sounds a clear warning
which is echoed repeatedly in the Holy Fathers.
Heed St. Theophan in his cautions to all who wish to sacrifice everything to God and do only His will: "...you will meet in
yourself as many wills as you have powers and wants, which all clamor for satisfaction, irrespective of whether it is in
accordance with the will of God or not. Therefore, to reach your desired aim, it is first of all necessary to stifle your own
wills and finally to extinguish and kill them altogether. And in order to succeed in this, you must constantly oppose all evil
in yourself and urge yourself towards good. In other words, you must ceaselessly fight against yourself and against
everything that panders to your own wills, that incites and supports them. So prepare yourself for this struggle and this
warfare...." To possess is to fight!
Appreciating the battle that faced ancient Israel demands a certain visualization which may be aided by a good map of the
territory that lies on the east side of the great rift valley that dominates the geography of the Holy Land, holding the Sea of
Galilee, the Jordan River, and the Dead Sea. Earlier, Moses commanded: "Now rise up, and go over the brook Zered"
(Deut. 2:13). This stream flows into the Dead Sea at its south end and was the boundary between Edom and Moab (Deut.
2:18). Israel passed northward through Moab without contention.
Today's reading begins with a new command: "go over the valley of the Arnon" (Deut. 2:24). The Arnon is another west-flowing stream that enters the Dead Sea in its midsection and served as the frontier between Moab and the Amorite
kingdom of Sihon. Notice that Heshbon, Sihon's capital, was located between two other west-flowing streams, one that
enters the Dead Sea at its far north end and a second still further north, a tributary of the Jordan. Notice also that Sihon's
kingdom extended quite far north of Heshbon, as far as another west-flowing stream, "the river Jabbok" (vs.37). The
command to avoid "the land of the sons of Ammon" (vs. 37) refers to territory at the headwaters of the Jabbok in the hill
country far to the east of the Jordan.
The destruction of all of Sihon's kingdom, "every city, men, women, and children....[with] none remaining" (vs. 34), as a
type of the Christian's struggle for total inward purity, matches well the spiritual counsel of St. Theophan to stifle our many
wills "and finally to extinguish and kill them altogether." While modern sensibilities may view the means for taking
Sihon's kingdom as genocide, in Old Testament terms the conquest was understood as Divine judgment for the utter
iniquity of the Amorite people (see Gen. 15:16). Note that Sihon defied the reasonable chance to cooperate in Israel's
passage but refused out of "hardness of heart," that God might "give him into [Israel's] hand" (Deut. 2:30). God waits only
so long.
Hence, the Christian who desires God's highest and best, must not tolerate even "socially acceptable" attitudes and
behaviors in himself that are contrary to the Lord's command to "be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Mt.
5:48). We have made a vow to fight for God, as Staretz Nicodemos has said, "to the glory of His Divine Name, even unto
death."
Arouse, O Lord, my soul, sorely paralytic with divers sins and unseemly deeds, as Thou didst raise the paralytic of old, that
I may cry, "Glory to Thy might, O compassionate Christ."
