Soon after this, Jesus met the man in the temple. It isprobable that his disorder had been brought on by intemperance and vice; for Jesus, addressing him, said, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” The news of this miracle rapidly spread. The Pharisees denounced Jesus severely, assuming that he was breaking the sabbath. Jesus had performed this miracle in his own name, as by his own power. His remarkable reply to their accusation was, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” This astounding assertion implied his equality with God the Father. “As my Father,” he says, “carries on the works of providence on the sabbath, so I, his Son, have an equal right to prosecute my labors.” The Jews were so indignant at this assumption, that they formed a plot to slay him, “because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”
Jesus did not deny the accuracy of their inference, but re-enforced it by declaring in still stronger terms his unity with the Father: “Verily I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them [gives them life], even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this; forthe hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”
The remainder of this remarkable discourse we must here omit for want of space. We are not informed what impression it produced upon his auditors. Soon after this, Jesus, accompanied by some of his disciples, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, was passing, on the sabbath, through a field of grain. By an express statute, any one could pluck a handful of the standing wheat as he passed. His disciples, being hungry, plucked the ears, rubbed out the kernels in their hands, and ate them. The cavilling Pharisees, ever watching for some offence, again complained that Jesus was encouraging the violation of the sabbath. Jesus improved the opportunity to show that the laws of God were intended for the benefit of man; that David and his followers, when hungry, ate of the show-bread, and were blameless; that the priests in the temple did not violate the sabbath in performing a large amount of labor required by their services. They might reply, “You are no priest, and your work is not for the benefit of the temple.” This objection was met by the very remarkable statement, that Jesus was Lord of the temple:—
“But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But, if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.”
These were astounding declarations for even the most exalted prophet to make,—that he was the Son of God; that he came forth from the Father; that whatever the Father could do, he could do; that all men were bound to honor him even as they honored the Father.
Returning to the city, Jesus entered the synagogue. Itwas the sabbath day, and the building was doubtless thronged, as, wherever Jesus now appeared, the multitude followed. It is manifest that the masses of the people were in sympathy with him, though the self-righteous Pharisees and the doctors of the law sought for an opportunity of bringing forward such accusations as should turn the tide against him. In the synagogue there was a man with a withered hand, who had doubtless come hoping to find Jesus and to be cured. The Pharisees watched him, to see if he would, as they deemed it, or pretended to deem it, violate the sabbath by doing a work of healing upon that day. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, called upon the man to rise up and stand forth in a conspicuous place in the presence of the whole congregation. Then, turning to the Pharisees, he said,—
“I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” Apparently, without waiting for an answer, he added,—
“What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep, and, if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much, then, is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.”
This unanswerable argument, of course, carried with it the convictions of the masses of the people. The Pharisees were exasperated. Jesus, instead of assuming an air of triumph, or even feeling it, in his inmost soul was saddened by the malignant spirit displayed by his adversaries. “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.”