Sunday

Matthew 9:27 When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”

28 And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows it.” 31 But when they had departed, they [g]spread the news about Him in all that country.

32 As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed. 33 And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!”

34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

NOTES FROM ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM…
And not for this reason only, but that He might make manifest that they were worthy of healing, and that none might object, that if mercy alone saved, then ought all to be saved. Therefore also He requires faith of them, that He may thereby raise their thoughts higher; they had called Him the Son of David, therefore He instructs them that they should think higher things of Him. Thus He does not say to them, Believe ye that I can ask the Father? But, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. They call Him no more Son of David, but exalt Him higher, and confess His dominion. Then He lays His hand upon them; as it follows, Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. This He says confirming their faith, and testifying that what they had said were not words of flattery. Then follows the cure, And their eyes were opened. And after this, His injunction that they should tell it to no man; and this not a simple command, but with much earnestness.
Monday
Continued commentary on the healing of the man lowered through the roof…

So I will heal the body, which in fact is easy, although it seems difficult to you. By so doing 1 will confirm the healing of the soul as well, which is difficult although it seems easy because it is invisible and cannot be verified.” Then He says to the paralytic; “Arise, and take up thy bed,” to confirm even more that the miracle was not a phantasy, and also to show that He had not only healed him but had filled him with strength. For the Lord does the same with our spiritual sicknesses. He not only delivers us from our sins, but also fills us with strength to do His commandments. Therefore I too who am a paralytic can be healed. For Christ at this very moment is in Capernaum, which, interpreted, is the house of comfort and consolation, which is the Church. For the house of the Comforter is the Church. I too am a paralytic, for the powers of my soul are inert and will not move to do good. But if I am carried by the four evangelists and brought to the Lord, then I will hear Him call me, “Child,” (for by doing His commandments I become a son of God) and my sins will be forgiven me. But how can I be brought to Jesus? If they make an opening in the roof. And what is the roof? It is my mind, which over-arches all that is within me. And it is a roof made of many earthen and clay tiles, signifying earthly affairs. But if all these things are pulled away, and the strength of the mind within us is opened up and freed of the weight of earthly things, then I will be lowered, that is, I will be humbled. For I ought not to rise up in pride because my mind has been freed of its earthly covering; but, instead, after I have been unburdened of earthly things, I ought to be lowered, that is, humbled. Then I will be healed and I will take up my bed, which is my body, and employ it to do the commandments. For I should not only be raised up from sin and understand that I sin, but I should also take up my bed, that is, get my body up and set it to do good. Then we shall also be able to see with spiritual eyes, so that all our thoughts within us can say, “We never saw it on this fashion,” which means, “We never understood until now that we were paralytics and have since been healed.” For only he who has been cleansed of sins sees things as they truly are.

Tuesday

Mark 2:

And He went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. And as He passed by,

Jesus saw Levi the son of Alphacus sitting collecting tax, and said unto him, Follow Me. And he arose and followed Him. And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at table in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and His disciples: for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto His disciples, How is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, He saith unto them, They that are whole hath no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. When He had worked the miracle of healing the paralytic, the Lord went away along the sea as if desiring to be alone, but the multitude again ran after Him. Leant front this, O reader, that so much as you flee from praise and glory, just so much will praise and glory pursue you. But if you pursue them, they will flee from you. Thus, when the Lord Himself fled along the sea, the multitude again pursued Him. And yet again He fled from there as well. And as He passed by, He took Matthew. He whom Mark here calls “Levi” is Matthew, for Matthew had two names. Luke and Mark call him “Levi” in order to hide his real name. But he himself is not ashamed and in his own Gospel names himself Matthew. For he says, ‘ ‘Jesus saw Matthew the publican.”5 Therefore neither should we be ashamed to confess our own sins. Levi was sitting at the tax booth, so it would seem, either demanding payment from some or figuring accounts, or doing something else that tax collectors do at their place of work. He was so excited that he left everything and followed the Lord, and he was so joyful that he invited many to eat with them. But the Pharisees, who considered themselves to be pure, found fault with this. But the Lord said, “I came not to call the righteous, that is you who consider yourselves righteous” (and here He spoke ironically for they were in fact sinners), “but to call sinners, not so that they would remain sinners, but to call them to repentance, that they might turn from their sin.” Lest you think that He calls sinners, but does nothing to better them, He adds the words “to repentance”.

Wednesday

And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto Him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples fast not% And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridal chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. Even the disciples of John were imperfect in their understanding of Christ and they continued to keep the Judaic customs. Therefore certain individuals approached Christ and held up John’s disciples as an example, accusing Christ’s disciples of not fasting as did John’s. He answered by saying, ‘ ‘Now I am the Bridegroom, and My disciples ought to be cheerful and ought not to fast. But when I am taken from this life, then temptations will beset them and they will fast and struggle.” He calls Himself the Bridegroom not only because He weds virgin souls, but also because the time of His first coming is not a time of grief or gloom for those who believe in Him, nor is it a time of much toil. For without any labors on our part to fulfill the law, He gives us rest in baptism. What toil is it to be baptized? None at all, yet it is through this easily accomplished act that we find salvation. “The sons of the bridal chamber” are the apostles, for they also have been deemed worthy to share the Bridegroom’s joy. They share with Him every heavenly good thing and every spiritual pleasure. But also understand it in this manner: every man, when he labors unto virtue, is a son of the bridal chamber. While he has Christ the Bridegroom with him, he does not fast, that is, he does not do the works of repentance. For how could one who is not sinning do so? But when Christ the Bridegroom has been taken from him, that is, when he has fallen into sin, then he fasts and repents so that he might be healed of his sin.

Thursday

Mark 2:21 No man seweth a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up pullcth away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old wineskins: else the new wine doth burst the wineskins, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins will be destroyed: but new wine must be put into new wineskins. He says that a piece of new cloth, when patched on to an old garment, will tear it because it has not shrunk and it is too stiff, and that new wine will burst old wineskins as it warms. Likewise burdening My disciples with more than their strength allows would harm them. They are like the old garments because of the weakness of their understanding. It is not necessary to lay on (hem the strong commandment of fasting. You may also understand it thus: as the disciples of Christ belong to the New, they are not able to observe the practices and laws of the Old.

Friday

Matthew 2:23 23-28. And it came to pass, that He went through the wheat fields on the sabbath day; and His disciples began, as they made their way, to pluck the heads of wheat. And the Pharisees said unto Him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? And He said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and hungered, he, and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the loaves of oblation, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? And He said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath. The disciples of the Lord were plucking the heads of wheat as if they were no longer accustomed to living according to the law. The Pharisees became indignant, and then were refuted by Christ Who brought up the example of David who, by necessity, set aside the law in the days of Abiathar the high priest. For as the prophet David was fleeing from Saul, he came to this high priest and tricked him into thinking that he had been sent by the king on some urgent military mission. Whereupon David not only ate the loaves of oblation, but also took the sword of Goliath which had been dedicated to the Lord. There were twelve loaves set out each day on the table in the sanctuary, six on the right side and six on the left….

Saturday

Mark 3:1   And He entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there who had a withered hand. And they were watching Him, whether He would heal him on the sabbath day, that they might accuse Him. And He saith unto the man who had the withered hand, Arise and stand into the middle. And He saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? To save life, or to kill? But they were silent. And when He had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. When the disciples were accused fay the Jews of plucking the heads of wheat on the sabbath, the Lord refuted the accusers first by means of the example of David. But now He puts them to shame even more by working this miracle, pointing out, “Not only did My disciples not sin by plucking the heads of wheat, but even I Myself labor on the sabbath day by working a miracle. If it is bad to work a miracle on the sabbath, it is also bad simply to work for the necessities on the sabbath. But truly, to work a miracle to heal a man is of God, and surely he who does something good on the sabbath does not transgress the law.” This is why the Lord asks them if it is lawful to do good, to shame them for hindering Him from doing good. The right hand is withered of anyone who does not do those deeds that belong to the portion on the right. And Christ says to the man with the withered hand, “Arise.” Arise, that is, from sin and stand in the middle, which means, in the middle place of the virtues, the golden mean. For each virtue lies in the middle, inclining neither to omission nor to excess. Therefore when he stands at this golden mean, his hand will be restored whole and sound. Note the word “restored”. For there was a time when our hands, that is, our strength to act, were sound, when there was not yet any transgression. But when the hand of man was stretched out to take the forbidden fruit, from that time on it withered and could not do good. But it will again be restored to its former health when we stand in the middle of the virtues.