from the upper source. A very remarkable circumstance is related of one of the pools of Jerusalem,—that the water in them was subject to a daily tide, and to ebb and flow, as some imagined, under lunar influence. If such a circumstance existed in the days of our Saviour, at the pool called Bethesda, what more common superstition than to imagine that this unusual or inexplicable "troubling" of the waters was effected by the agency of "an Angel;" and that there was a healing property in such a water, which 'impotent folk" might resort to for their cure? And it might have been made the belief that the influence was more effectual at the flow of the waters, as they rushed through some of the porches or arches into the pool. It is probable that the five apertures named, served some to admit, and some to carry away the water into other reservoirs '. 66 A poor disabled man, who had remained in a state of entire impotency for eight-and-thirty years, was laying at the pool of Bethesda, waiting in expectation of a cure from the supposed miraculous motion of the water. Jesus looked with pity on this afflicted person, and, without receiving so much as a petition for relief, "He saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole 2?" Christ could not question the poor man's doubting of such a desire; for his lying and waiting 'Dr. Kitto. 2 Dr. Robinson. there so long proved it; but the greater inquiry was, whether he had faith to be healed; and that our Saviour puts to trial by the interrogation; Rise up, says our Lord; thy disease is removed, and thy strength perfectly restored. And in order that the cure might be the more evident and undeniable to all that beheld it, He bid him, moreover, "take up his bed and walk." This was on the Sabbath-day; and it was contrary to the traditions of the Jews, and to the letter of their Law, to carry any thing on the Sabbath, whether in the right hand, or in the left, or in the bosom, or upon the shoulder. Jesus, therefore, would try the impotent man's faith by requiring him to venture upon so hazardous a transaction as to carry his bed in the face of all the Jews, who stood around him. The man fearlessly did as he was commanded; for, he said boldly, He that made me whole, gave me warrant to do so; for "the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk". It was a just and natural reply, on the part of the poor man. Who He was that had made him whole, “he wist not;" but he felt at once, that whoever had power to effect the cure, must also have had power to give him the requisite authority to carry home the bed on which he was lying. But the Jews, instead of attending to the miracle, or learning the lesson which it taught, 'Dr. Lightfoot. Dr. S. Clarke. * Dr. Lightfoot. sought to slay Jesus, because He did these things on the Sabbath-day "." The man afterwards met with Jesus in the Temple, and received a solemn charge from Him to take warning from his late visitation, and amend his conduct; when he had thus learned the Man to whom he owed his deliverance, he reported it to the Pharisees; not for the purpose of accusing Jesus to them, but probably from gratitude, wishing to acknowledge the Author of his cure, and also to excuse himself for having done what was deemed a breach of the Sabbath'. For this compassionate act, Jesus was called to account, in a public manner, and, as it should seem, before the Sanhedrim. It is thought to have been this great tribunal, to which He was now called to answer for what He had done on the Sabbath-day; for, where it is said, the Jews" did persecute Him, and sought to kill Him," it is right to understand it, that they went about it in a judicial way, before the great council of the Scribes and Doctors. There Jesus stood, then, arraigned as a criminal. Jesus defended what He had done upon the ground that His Father, the Almighty, did even the same; that, although He had indeed rested on the seventh day from the work of creation, yet His work of preservation and direction of all things to good was continually going on; and, Dr. Lightfoot. 6 Abp. Sumner. ' Dr. Whitby. though it inflamed their prejudices the more to hear Him speak of the divinity of His own Person, making Himself equal with God the Father, yet He now declared His authority "to execute judgment "." The irresistible power, and truth, and clearness wherewith Jesus spake, though the Jews could not comply with, nor entertain it, yet were they not able to deny or contradict it'. SECT. XXXV.-Christ the Lord of the Sabbath.-Matt. xii. 1-13; Mark ii. 23-28; iii. 1-5; Luke vi. 1-10. THE Jews had, for many ages, as we know from the prophets, been neglectful of the Sabbath, notwithstanding the most positive commands, and repeated warnings; but, in later times, they fell into the opposite extreme, into so strict and superstitious an observance of it, that they pretended to deem it unlawful to perform the most common action, whether of necessity or mercy, on that day. The plucking of ears of corn on the Sabbath was textually forbidden by their canons, though the action itself was as distinctly allowed by the Law of Moses, on any day, so long as no sickle was in the hand. The disciples of Jesus, as they followed Him, walking through the fields, allayed their hunger, by plucking the corn in their path. It would seem that the Pharisees now had never their eyes from our Lord and His followers, and sought every opportunity of fastening guilt upon them: accordingly, they cavil at this act against Jesus'. He declares that the Sabbath was to be subordinate to its purpose; and that this purpose was the real good of those, who were the subjects of it; that God, in appointing the Sabbath, did not impose it as a burden, but as a refreshment to mankind'. That ritual observances, such as the strict Jewish observation of the Sabbath, are not, like duties of eternal obligation, indispensable to be observed in every extremity or necessity; but that the Sabbath was appointed by God only for the present use of man, to conduce to the more becoming practice of the great duties of religion . Soon after this incident, we find Jesus again compelled to combat the same or similar objections. He had found in one of their synagogues (when attending, as His custom ever was, the worship of God on the Sabbath) a poor man, whose right hand was withered, and therefore utterly disabled for labour. Aware of the perverse reasonings and malicious intentions of those who now continually waited around Him to watch and ensnare Him, He appeals to them, as to the performance of a cure, by a question as to their opinion of the best method of keeping the Sabbath acceptable to God, Whether to do a good work of great necessity and charity, 3 Bishop Porteus. Dean Howard. Archdeacon Paley. |