Orthodox Sermons & Articles

A poor man approaches Jesus Christ with a very unusual request—to heal his son who was a lunatic and suffered severely. As of the Son of God, he meekly asks to have pity on his child and to deliver him from the demoniac affliction. He probably heard about Jesus Christ and His unusual power to heal all sicknesses and to cast out demons. The father wanted deliverance for his son so badly that he “threw himself on his knees before Him”. In his request the father explained everything that was happening with his son: “for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.” Lunatism is an illness and as we see in today’s Gospel reading, an evil spirit caused the boy’s illness. So, in order to heal the illness of the afflicted, Jesus had to cast out the devil and the evil it had been doing.

 

All present people were amazed because not so long ago the disciples of Jesus tried to do the same and they could not. As we were talking in the beginning of the sermon, they had to go through many tests and trials before they became fully confident in their mission. Today’s test revealed for them a very important truth—without strong faith they could do nothing. They had to believe in what they were doing. They had to do it in the name of the Lord so that God would be glorified for granting such power to men. They needed to learn this lesson and this was a perfect occasion. Please, notice that Jesus taught them a lesson in front of everybody; the apostles had to be humbled and had to recognize their mistakes. “O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?”  Jesus said His words in front of everybody because all of them had to learn a lesson in humility and meekness. These words were said in our address too so that we know that being Christ’s followers does not give us any privilege or right, but obligations. We have to be humble, meek and faithful to our Lord and Savior if we want to call ourselves his followers. When we make mistakes we have to recognize them and confess them before God and only then we will be accepted as the sons and daughters of God.

 

Look at what the Disciples of Christ did when they realized there was something wrong when they could not heal the man’s son. They heard from Jesus very strong words concerning their faithlessness, and they still did not understand what was wrong. Jesus underlined once again that all they needed was strong faith. “ Because of your little faith’ you were not able to heal the boy” Jesus answered. “For amen I say to you, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here,’ and it will move. And nothing will be impossible to you.” Only now, when Jesus explained to them about the importance of faith, did the Apostles seem to understand their error.

 

And concerning the casting out demons, the Lord explained that prayer and fasting are required. In other words, if we do not pray and do not fast, we cannot have power over evil spirits. Many people reject fasting and pray very seldom. Such attitude to these very important characteristics of Christianity negatively affects our spiritual life. This is why the Orthodox Church teaches us to keep fasts and to pray. This spiritual law has to be observed by us, Orthodox Christians, in order to reject evil in which hides in us.

 

Seeing their little faith, Jesus told the Apostles about His coming suffering, death and rising from the dead on the third day. If they were not able to heal the boy because of little faith, then what could Jesus expect of them in the minutes of His death on the cross. He wanted to strengthen their faith in Him, therefore He told them about His coming death and resurrection. He wanted them to know that His death is not the end but the beginning of new life in Spirit.

 

Dear brothers and sisters, let’s think about today’s Gospel lesson. Let’s think about our faith. What kind of faith do we have? Is it strong enough to stand against evil? Or maybe it is weak and short lasting? Today we saw the importance of prayers and fasts.  Do we fast? Very seldom. Does evil affect our life? Very often. In order to change this, let’s learn how to pray and fast properly. Let’s come to church and learn all these. After all, it is our responsibility and duty to learn how to lead the Christian life and to live according to this. May the good Lord grant us strength to stand against evil and to follow Him all the days of our life. Amen.