👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽The Lesson of #Më'tsagu: The #Fourth #Week of #Great #Lent
Part 2
Beloved followers of the truth, seekers of wisdom, and faithful servants of our Lord, we extend to you the sacred greeting of God, in whom all knowledge and salvation reside. In this fourth week of the Great Fast, known as Më'tsagu, we contemplate the deep spiritual truths revealed through the healing at Bethesda and the consequences of forgetting the grace bestowed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us, then, with open hearts and minds, receive this lesson, rich with the wisdom of the Gospel and the warnings against ingratitude.
The Forgotten Healer and the Betrayal of Grace
In Bethesda, the pool of mercy, lay a man afflicted with infirmity for thirty-eight years. His body was shackled by disease, and his spirit burdened with despair. When our Lord approached him, He did not ask for repayment, nor did He demand righteousness before granting healing. Instead, with divine compassion, He inquired, “Do you want to be healed?”—not “Save me, and I will save you.” The sick man did not even recognize the one who stood before him, the very source of all healing, and instead responded with worldly concerns: “I have no one to lead me to the baptismal font.”
Yet, Christ in His boundless mercy healed him. But how fleeting is the memory of man! When questioned later, the one who had received healing did not even know the name of his benefactor, as the evangelist testifies: “He who was healed did not know who it was.” (John 5:13). It was only when he entered the synagogue that he encountered Christ again and learned that it was He who had restored his body. Then, instead of glorifying his Savior, he ran to the Jews and reported, “It is the Lord Jesus.”
What sorrowful irony! The one who had been granted healing with no cost turned against the very source of his salvation. The Lord had warned him: “Do not sin again, lest something worse happen to you.” Yet, like a wayward spouse reconciled to an old lover, he abandoned the grace given to him and returned to his former affliction. Just as a husband and wife, long separated by strife, come back together despite their past wounds, so too did this man return to his spiritual sickness. His sin was not merely physical, but of the soul it was the sin of ingratitude, the sin of betrayal.
The Disease of the Soul and the Justice of God
Our Lord, in His boundless patience, does not force salvation upon anyone. He offers healing, yet He does not compel loyalty. The man of Bethesda, having been freed from bodily disease, chose instead to enslave his soul to sin. The tragic irony is revealed: while he could not even lift himself into the pool for healing, he now had the strength to carry his bed. He who was too weak to approach the font of mercy found within himself the power to strike the very face of the Lord with his betrayal. And so, justice was served not by the wrath of man, but by the hand of God. The same hand that once carried his bed in newfound strength became withered, just as his soul had withered in faithlessness.
What, then, are we to learn from this? Is it not written that those who receive mercy yet fail to recognize the giver shall be judged more severely? The man in Bethesda was given healing freely, but because he turned against his benefactor, he suffered a greater illness—an ailment not of the flesh, but of the soul.
The True Meaning of the Fourth Week of Lent
The fourth Sunday of Great Lent is not merely a remembrance of physical healing, but a call to action. The Lord did not only heal the sick; He commanded us to do likewise. In this sacred week, we are reminded of our Christian duty:
To visit the sick—for in their suffering, we see Christ.
To release the imprisoned—for true bondage is of the soul, not the body.
To feed the hungry—for in their hunger, we find our own dependence on God.
To give drink to the thirsty—for the Living Water is given freely to those who seek it.
To clothe the naked—for in doing so, we cover not only the body but the dignity of man.
Continues👇🏽