Our Lord's ministry (the second year) : devotional commentary on the gospel narrative

Front matter

School of Theology at Claremont

Ut

1 1319 iii

Part 1

The Second Passober SECT. PAGE I The Pool of, Bethesdam iets. .e.s2tse tances seeds atee. ib II. The Charge of Breaking the Sabbath ........0........ 8 TU. Christ, the Resurrection? ::.s.a7.u. Gan.teen.ek a 12 IV. The Testimonies of Christ ........csccsceccseesccectsecees 23 V. Plucking the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day ...... 31 VI. The Withered Hand healed on the Sabbath............ 38 VII. Christ retires towards the Sea ...-......cececceecesseeuee 44. VIII. Hlection of the Twelve Apostles.............:scececcsen eee 50 IX. The Sermon on the Plain. cisenc esd. cecevded enced worlebe 60 X. The Laws of Christian Love ............s06ccceeeseeeeeees 69 XL Gawsiof Self Conduct «.c.\c.cer teed 8es autchomath. ates 76 XIL. The Centurion’s:Servanti cscs. 5ks ben c.ecieececuees- oh 20 83 XI. The Widow's Sonat! Nainiw: oesttiss cursncsaee-dbnek ooskse 95 XIV. The Message from John in Prigon .............0000000008 106 XV. The Baptist and Christ both rejected ...........0..00 119 iv CONTENTS SECT. PAGE XVI. The Sinner anointing Christ’s Feet................seceeeee 129 R VIL, Oironit through: Galilac..c. civ..cercssecncctetosveesecesesteee 138

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Christ with the Twelve

I. The Demoniac healed at Capernaum ...............6.0+6 141 Ii, ‘The Pharisees seek a Sigt’ .2.....<ccsesvessssdevoscsseewees 155 III. The Unclean Spirit returning .............00ccsccoscsecoess 164 IV. Our Lord’s Mother and Brethren come to Him ...... 168 Y. Christ dines with a Pharisee ..........-..ccsssceeseeseeese 175 VI. Disciples warned against Hypocrisy .................000 185 VII. The Rich Man dying suddenly......... ..........eceseeeees 192 VIII. Disciples exhorted to Heavenly-mindednegs ............ 196 IX. The Church exhorted to watch ......7...c:.cecceseee cece 205 X. The Galileans slain by Pilate ..............cccccecccceeeeee 212 XI. The Parables of the Sower, the Seed, and the Tares 217 XII. The Mustard Seed and the Leaven................c0.cc0. 227 XIII. Parable of the Sower explained ....................c00006- 235 XIV. Parable of the Tares explained .0..0.00........c.ccccecece 251 XY. Parables of the Treasure, the Pearl, and the Net ... 257 XVI. Treatment of different Followers ...............c..c0.-.. 267 XVII. The Tempest stilled on the Lake ............0.....00000. 273 XVIII. The Demoniacs among the Gadarenes .................. 277 XIX. The Feast at the House of Levi ..............ccccceseeeees 287

CONTENTS Vv

SECT. PAGE XX. The Raising of Jairus’s Daughter ................c00ce00s 297 XXI. Two Blind Men healed; and a Dumb Spirit cast out 308 XXII. Tho Return to Nazareth .............:cccesssssscrccosseeses 312 PAR Alt

The Cwelbe Sent Forth I. Apostles instructed for their Mission.................000 315 II. Further Instruction of Apostles ...............sccsceseeeee 324 ¥UES Herod hears of Chrigh) <....0...-<c«-sesrsseseccestcmasteasiaee 333 IV. Christ retires with the Twelve ...........s.cseceesseveees ‘340 V. The First Miracle of the Loaves.............cscsseeeseeees 346 VI. Christ again retires to the Mountain..................... 366 VII. Christ walks upon the Sea ............sseseecereeeesseeeeee 370 VII. People healed at Gennesaret ..........s.sseseeeeeree ees eee 390 IX. Christ found at Capermavm ..........-.-.+cssseeeeeeeeerees 395 X. The Incarnation ..............2seeseeeeeee cseecdacemoncessdeass 400 XI. Murmurings of the Jews .........-s.seeseeeerseeceneereeeoes 419 XII. The Holy Hucharist ...........-.-sssceesteeseereenereeeeesces 429 XIII. Disciples offended ..........:.:sscsesseeeerrereneesece sen eeeees 444, mle aca Sih gh Chl a te 7 “Soltek aud : eter wy wartadl i 2 a i acegh a eh

PAR Jy 1 The Second Passover

“TT labour for peace ; but when I speak unto them thereof, they make them ready to battle.”

Section I

“ 4 FTER these things,” i.e. after the healing of the nobleman’s son at Capernaum, which St. John had been mentioning shortly after his account of the previous Passover. ‘After these things there was a feast of the Jews ; and Jesus went up” from Galilee “to Jerusalem.” We conclude that this feast is the Passover which marks the coming in of the Second Year; and if so, St. John will supply us with the mention of the four Passovers. It is not, indeed, said to be “ the feast,” but “a feast ;” whereas St. John in other places uses the article in speaking of it, or calls it “the Passover’:” but yet the Passover on one remarkable occasion is thus spoken of without the article by two Evangelists?. St. Irenzeus speaks of it 1 John ii. 13, 23; vi. 4; xi. 55; xviil. 39; xix. 14.

3 Mark xv. 6; Luke xxiii. 17.

B as the Passover*. But, on the other hand, St. Chrysostom, Cyril, and most others, suppose it to be the Pentecost. And there is the same difference of opinion among later writers : Ludolphus and Maldonatus take it for Pentecost ; Bishop Taylor for the Passover. In either case it serves to mark the coming in of the Second Year.

As Christ, who kept the Law for our sakes, went up to ' Jerusalem for the feasts, at which they who were under the law were required to appear before God, so must these festivals be fulfilled in us, not only by the observations of place and season, but more generally, in some extensive and spiritual sense, without the limits of time or place; as it is said, “from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship *;” the Passover, which is the passing out of Egypt, by our affections passing from this world to the land of promise, and so being with Christ in His resurrection ; the Pentecost, which commemorated the giving out of the Law, must be kept by us by universal obedience to the law of God as written in our hearts by the Spirit descending at Pentecost; and the Feast of Tabernacles, by our living “as strangers and pilgrims upon earth,” as they who are abiding in tents under the overshadowing boughs and palm-branches of the Gospel, having, as St. Paul says of himself, “no certain dwelling-place,” but looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

“Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market,” as it is rendered, or it may be the “ sheep-gate ” of which mention is made more than once in Nehemiah,—“ a pool which ts called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches ;” or it might be, there is at the sheep-poola building or place called Bethesda, a name which might signify either the 3 Lib. ii. cap. 39. Isa. Ixvi. 23.

house of outpouring or the house of mercy. “ Jn these porches there was laid a great multitude of sick persons, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel on occasion,” or at “a certain season,” whether of this feast or some other,—St. Chrysostom mentions it was at the time of the Passover,—an angel “ went down into the pool, and disturbed the water ; whosoever then first went in after the troubling of the water became sound, with whatsoever disease he had been possessed.” In the case of natural cures, that which is healing in one species of disease is detrimental to another ; but in this supernatural moving of the waters it was otherwise ; as if in material semblance of baptismal waters, there was no evil but what here might find a cure: and, again, not any one, as in natural causes, but “ he that first entered,” the viclent take it by force, and, | as in a race, but one receiveth the prize, while many run.

St. Jerome, indeed, speaks of a pool in his time of a reddish hue, as is the case with chalybeate waters. Whether it were the first gush of a mineral spring, or any such means that the angel made use of, matters not; it was an angel descending, says Scripture: this is enough. Maundrell says the place was still shown in his time, being deso- _ late, with three porticoes only, and no water.

These waters then were as if between things natural and things spiritual, such as to set forth the union of the two, yet one as emblematic of the other ; it partook of the character of medicinal springs and baths, which exhibit in type the “healing waters,” but attended with circumstances that indicated a difference, and pointed out a latent mystery. Such was signified by the descending angel, prefiguring the descent of Christ into the waters, the touch of whose hallowed Flesh should give them a power not limited as this of a creature, but for all mankind. For the figure falls

B 2 short of the object it prefigures ; it is for the body, not the soul ; itis one who is healed, not all ; itis an angel descends, not the Creator ; it is for temporal life, not eternal. And what were all the world but a multitude of sick waiting for Him of whom it is said, “the waters saw Thee, and were troubled” ? ;

This pool is also, as St. Chrysostom observes, an intermediate step between the Legal washings and that Baptism which they prefigured ; for in the former, not real, but legal pollutions were cleansed ; in this real sicknesses of the body, indicating the power of Baptism in real sicknesses of the soul. For, as the same writer beautifully says, as those who are most near the presence of a king are the more honourable, so types as Christ approaches become more ennobled and full of power. And, again, in the Law it was not water only, but the use of water as commanded by God ; and here it was not water only, but water with the angel descending : and so at Baptism it is not from power inherent in the water, but the word of God commanding ; and not water only, but the Spirit of God descending that gives virtue.

The place, moreover, was connected with the sheep-market, and therefore probably in some manner sacrificial ; and perhaps on this account the Holy Spirit deigned to denote the dignity and sanctity of the place as setting forth the propitiation of Christ. It may be that, as Theophylact observes, the blood of the sacrifices was there mingling with the water ; and therefore combining, as it were, the representation of Baptism and His Passion, or a washing in His Sacrificial Blood. Thus in the Holy City, which is from above, is there by the place of sacrifice the well of living waters, wherein all that is diseased in the five senses may be healed and sanctified.

And what if with St. Augustin we consider this place of five porches to represent the Law as exhibited in the five books of Moses, containing an impotent multitude? Then the Baptism of John may more immediately be represented by the healing pool; where he that lay under the Law, helpless and convinced of sin, hastened first to the laver of repentance in the Baptist; while another was prevented by One greater than John. The Law could not give life, but only show forth and testify to those maladies which it could not heal: in order to be healed, they must first know their maladies ; and by the Law is the knowledge of sin. Thus did this place of five porticoes prove their sickness, and their desire to be healed.

“And there was there a certain man afflicted by an in- Jjirmity for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw this man laid there, and knew that he had been so affected now for a long time, He saith unto him, Art thou willing to be made | whole ?” We were made, indeed, without our own knowledge, co-operation, or will; but to be made anew we must know our maladies, must will and co-operate with God. ‘He who created thee without thee,” says Augustin, “ will not justify thee without thee®.” Art thou willing? Thine ~ own will perverted hath through thy sin brought on thy malady ; thine own will looking to Christ must restore thee ; thine own will without His will hath destroyed thee ; thine own will together with His will must regenerate thee., This speechless appeal of the impotent man is like that of an infant for Baptism, helpless and stretching forth its hands for aid, by the side of the healing waters °.

6 THE POOL OF BETHESDA “The sick man answered Him, Lord, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while am coming, another goeth down before me.” ‘ Lord, I have no man.” Sin destroys all power of self-exertion, therefore the sinner hath no help in himself; and sin cuts him off from the Communion of Saints, and therefore he hath no help in others. “Lord, I have no man,”—he knew not while he thus spake that this was the most prevailing appeal he could make, and that he was thus made most like “the Man of Sorrows,” who prays, “I looked for some to have pity on me, but there was no man’.” “T have no man,”—yea, there was a Man near him, the Mediator between God and men, “the Man Christ Jesus ;” the Son of Man who hath power on earth to forgive sins; the Son of Man who hath power over the Sabbath, for He alone giveth rest. “Jesus saith unto him, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk,” in words much the same as those addressed to ' the paralytic at Capernaum. “And immediately he was well, and took up his bed, and walked.” St. Chrysostom notices this custom of our Lord’s often marking the fulness of His miracles ; as to the leper He said, Show thyself to the Priest ; to the damsel restored to life, Give her to eat ; after the miracle of the loaves, Gather up the fragments : so now, Take up thy bed, and walk. And all this may full well ~ be spiritually applied: the sinner, when restored, must bear the burden of his sins, must by repentance take up - and still bear about with him the burden of that on which he lay: this is the proof of the reality of his cure ; not to forget what he once was, evinces the strength of restoration in what he has become.

For some reasons there is scarcely a more affecting miracle of mercy in the Gospels than this, for the encourage- 7 Ps, lxix. 20.

ment it contains in a long-protracted case of spiritual infirmity, after so many years of seeking patiently without release. The earnest will and presence of Christ may again afford power to arise from the bed of spiritual sloth, nay, to carry it with us as a trophy, to go forth from strength to strength, walking in the commandments of Christ. For He that commands gives power to perform. There is an effectual call even at the eleventh thour ; he had been ill thirty-eight years, but not yet fulfilled the term of mortal trial, the “forty years” wherein God stretches forth His hands, the date of human suffering and repentance ; and, as St. Austin says, of “‘ perfection in good works.” But the instance is solitary, and taken out from the usual methods of cure, when the power of these has been long prevented by infirmity and the want of human_ aid. When ordinary means are hindered, they may be™ more than supplied by the immediate power of Christ Himself superseding His own appointments. He is healed, indeed, without the water, but it is only one. Many were,/ there, but only one is taken. How, again, by that very singleness, does it set forth the unity of the faith, the one way to life, one Lord, one Baptism? Even at the last, when there appeared no hope, the bonds are broken, the bird hath escaped out of the snare of the fowler. The want of human succour brings in that which is Divine.

Lord, I have no man, no confessor, no guide to put me into the healing waters of repentance, and yet at the verge of our mortal pilgrimage : but, Lord, Thou knowest,—Thou knowest all my desire, and my groaning is not hid from

Thee.

v

8 THE CHARGE OF BREAKING THE SABBATH

Section II The Charge Of Breaking The Sabbath

“But it was a Sabbath on that day ” on which this miracle took place. “The Jews therefore said unto him that was healed, It is a Sabbath, it is not lawful for thee to carry the bed.” What these Jews wanted was mercy, or they would have rejoiced with such a man on his wonderful recovery ; but if faith, and knowledge, and prophecy avail not without love, surely neither does strict observance of the law ; for all fulfilment of the law is love. Servile work is forbidden, not the obedience of sons, and the setting forth the mercy of Him whose service is perfect freedom. “He answered them, He that made me whole, that Man said unto me,” or, it was even He that said unto me, “Take up thy bed, and walk.” St. Chrysostom considers this as a faithful and fearless confession in the man that was restored ; and that, seeing that it was, in fact, not zeal for the law of God, but envy at the good work which moved them, he adduces this convincing refutation of evil 3 even as the blind man, on a subsequent occasion. And, indeed, if it had been the keeping of the. Sabbath which was the real cause of their zeal, it was the man himself who carried that should have been the object of their attack 3 for Christ spoke but in words, and if His words were powerful to work miracles, their unbelief was the more inexcusable. Why should I not receive a command from one who hath miraculously given me power to fulfil it? « ‘They asked him, therefore, Who is the man who said unto thee, Take up thy hed, and walk ?” They ask not from feelings of gratitude

THE CHARGE OF BREAKING THE SABBATH towards Him that had restored him, with the purpose of doing Him honour ; but, passing over the miracle of mercy, they notice only the supposed breaking of the Sabbath : so much had their zeal swallowed up their love, and nothing but envy remained. “ But he that was healed knew not who -itwas. For Jesus had” secretly and imperceptibly, as with the gentleness of a spiritual presence, “conveyed Himself away ; there being a multitude in the place ;” for He loved, as God in His providences, to work good unseen of men. Thus we believe on Him whom we see not. Jesus hath conveyed Himself away, and is in the holy place with God. The sick man knew Him not. He knew His power and mercy, for he had experienced these : but who and whence He was, what His name and country, this he knew not.. And here we may observe, that the two miracles recorded at Jerusalem,—that of the impotent man at Bethesda, and that of the blind man afterwards,—were both without solicitation and without faith expressed in Christ as the previous requisite, although the will and co-operation precede. The reason of this, humanly speaking, may have been, that in the crowded city Christ was not known as, He was in Galilee. But it is observable in these, of what wonderful efficacy faith is beyond knowledge, and that through Christ it may obtain marvellous good, even with those that know Him not, according to human knowledge. “After these things Jesus findeth him in the temple.” So far was well ; for where, after such a recovery, could this man be found more suitably ? and where should God meet him with a voice of warning, but on such an occasion when thanksgiving was on his lips, and a feeling of gratitude in his heart, for his late restoration? Blessed is he who, after such a recovery, is found, not in business or pleasure, but in the temple. Let us make ourselves the

10 THE CHARGE OF BREAKING THE SABBATH

_ temple of God, that we may find Him therein. “It is s

” difficult,” says St. Augustin, “in a crowd to behold Christ ;

a certain solitude of mind is necessary in order to behold Him ; that vision is in secret, not in the noise of a crowd. Seek not Jesus in the crowd. Our great High Priest is interceding for us in the heavens. He only hath entered within the veil, the crowd standeth without. As yet thou

.seest not Jesus.” And again: “ Christ saw him,” says the same writer, ‘‘in the crowd, and in the temple; he saw not Christ in the crowd ;” but after bearing his bed and walking, he came to see Him in the temple, and to know Him, and to hear the gracious voice of warning *.

Jesus findeth him, “and saith unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest something worse befall thee.” This his long sickness, therefore, was the consequence of sin, as in the case of him who, on his sins being forgiven, became whole. And what if this “ something worse” be, not only the seven evil spirits that enter into the relapsed penitent, but that in which it ends,—his being cast into that place of which disease, helplessness, and pain are the foretaste and forerunners, where that “plague of his own heart” shall be on the sinner for ‘ever, without hope of relief, even from the merciful Son of Man. And so St. Chrysostom considers it, that it not only indicates the bodily disease to have been the consequence of sin, but that it implies hell also, and the duration of punishment there ; for not only do disease and pain of themselves intimate and forebode this something worse hereafter, but if the punishment for a sin, which perhaps might have been but momentary, can continue for thirty-eight years, there is no argument against eternity of punishment from its duration compared with the sin. The same writer observes

® In Joan. Evan. Tr. xvii. 11.

THE CHARGE OF BREAKING THE SABBATH 1l that it is the cure of paralysis on both occasions, and in no other cases, that sin is spoken of as the cause of the infliction. But all is good, and pronounced good and blessed, except where sin comes in, and then follows sorrow and pain ; and God in Christ is ever as one labouring to remove these. St. Cyril, saying that the very name of Jesus might in Greek signify ‘‘a healer,” adds “seeing that He is physician of souls and bodies, and curer of spirits ; heal-_ ing the lame in limb, and guiding the steps of sinners to repentance ; saying to the sick of the palsy, Sin no more, and Take up thy bed and walk ; for since for the soul’s sin the body was palsied, He first gave a cure to the soul, that He might extend it to the body °®:”

“The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him whole.” With what feelings did he do this? Was he offended at the warning voice he had received? or was it as they went and told the Pharisees of Lazarus being raised, from sympathizing with them? or was it to lead them to acknowledge and worship Him who had done a miracle so great? St. Chrysostom, taking, as he usually does, the more charitable view, maintains that the restored man must have done this from gratitude, and in order to exalt his Deliverer; that not gratitude only, but fear itself, would have urged him to do so; for Christ showed that He knew his past life, and had warned him of a relapse, which this would have been. St. Austin also does the same: ‘‘ After he had seen and known Jesus as the Author of his-restoration, he was not slow in preaching the glad tidings of Him whom He had seen.” Cyril also, Theophylact, and others, put on it the same construction ; and it is noticed that he does not mention to them expressly the point they wished to ascertain,—who

9 Cat. Lect. x. 13.

Yi had told him to carry his bed ; but what should have softened them,—Him who had made him whole. The difference between envy and good-will is remarkable. The former had said, Who bade thee carry thy bed ? the latter says, This is He Who made me whole. Thus it is in the observation of all actions: charity expresses itself in words of good, and passes over thoughts of evil.

The simplicity of a good man might scarcely have caleulated on the effect such a communication would have produced, as it is added, “And on this account did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on a Sabbath.” On this effect now produced among them respecting the Sabbath, St. Augustin beautifully says, “He sent among them a great tumult: on the coming of the Lord the water is troubled, but He that troubleth it hideth Himself. By the troubling of the water there waiteth to be healed one great sick man, namely, the whole world, by the passion of the Lord},”

Section III Christ The Resurrection

Tux three first incidents which now occupy our attention at the beginning of another year are connected with complaints at not keeping the Sabbath, a charge of which there occurs no mention before. But this does not appear to be owing to any change in our Lord’s conduct, for we find that He had already selected the Sabbath-day for His , miracles: the healing of the demoniac in a synagogue of Galilee was on the Sabbath-day, but seems to have given

1 In Joan. Evan. Tr. xvii. 13 rise to no remark on that account; and so also was the ‘raising of Peter’s wife’s mother on the same day before the evening. And it may be observed afterwards that the complaints are from the Pharisees, either at Jerusalem, or such as come down from thence, bent even on killing Him, as now at Jerusalem. It seems to be the case, that circumstances which had before been taking place either there or in the country at large, became in Jerusalem at the feasts an object of prominent notice and discussion, from the concourse resorting thither, and the leading part taken by the Pharisees in a religious community. Thus at the former Passover the subject of purification by washing, and the regeneration of baptism seems to have been the chief subject in men’s minds, on account of the baptism of John, and that of our Lord’s disciples: from hence arose our Lord’s discourse with Nicodemus on that subject, and the disputes between John’s disciples and the Jews about purifying. In like manner the charge of casting out devils by ‘Beelzebub is brought by the Pharisees who came from Jerusalem, apparently after the Feast of Tabernacles. Thus, again, at the last Passover the raising of the dead seems to have been the great object of attention. And here the mode in which this charge of breaking the Sabbath is met in St. John is much to be noticed, as partaking of the characteristics of his Gospel. For he does not introduce this to speak, as the other Evangelists do, of the ox loosed to water or falling into a pit on the Sabbath-day, or of the example of David, or of what the priests do in the temple ; but of what is far higher ; of the mysterious sacrament of the Sabbath, and of the secret attributes of God with which it is connected. St. Chrysostom indeed says, that when the disciples were accused, He brought forward the examples of saints of old ; but when accused Himself, that of

His Father ; which is indeed in some degree the case, but not altogether. On other occasions He Himself also is accused, but His answer is not then as it is when given in St. John’s Gospel, who of course selects this reply as conveying testimony of Godhead so high and transcendent.

Whether the ensuing discourse took place before any Council of the Jews, after the last occurrence, is not apparent ; but it seems to have been directed to the chief persons among them, as priests or scribes, from the high nature of the discourse, and some allusions in it, as of their having sent to John, of their knowledge of the Scriptures, their seeking honour of men, and the like. But, on the other hand, there is a solemn, impressive tone in the character of the discourse, which is more like the exhortations of a preacher without, than the replies of one accused before a judicial assembly.

“But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto,’ or until now, “and I work ;” “hitherto,” i.e. not now only, but from the creation till this time, for else the work He hath made could not exist. He not only made, but preserves in life, restores, renews ; and so also, together with the Father, the Son made, and preserves, restores, renews all things ; of which this healing is but one manifestation. In His Providence God still works, in the motions of sun, moon, and stars, of seas and rivers, and the propagation and nurture of all creatures ; and no less in the kingdom of His grace, in the light and dews of His Spirit, in angelic ministrations and the giving birth and support to spiritual life, He ceases not to work. There is, therefore, in some sense, no rest in God: but in some unspeakable manner, as St. Augustin says, while He is at rest He works, and while He works He is at rest. This your legal Sabbath, there-

2 In Joan. Tr. xvii. 14, fore, is but a shadow that is now vanishing before the substance in the midday light; but a figure of the Christian rest ; whereby there is a rest from this world’s cares, but a work going on in God and in Christ, and in those who labour with Christ, that they may be sanctified in that rest which remaineth for the people of God. It hath been well said, As God when He had made man in His own image saw that all His works were good, and rested ; so do thou expect no rest till thou hast again returned to that likeness of God which thou hast lost by sin *.