The Storm of Rancor Approaches
% OSTILITY of the Pharisees no doubt seriously interrupted the good
W^ work of Jesus in Galilee, although here were nearly all His friends, K r and gathered about Him were hundreds, if not thousands, of devoted followers. Open conflict had not yet resulted, except in the few instances described, but the rabbis were bringing all the power of their very great influence to bear, to discredit Him in the minds of the people who were attracted by His teachings and miracles.
To allay the ill-feeling that had been aroused against Him, and which was increasing, Jesus resolved to depart for a while from Capernaum; or else He was influenced to visit Jerusalem by the approach of an annual feast, which would give Him opportunity to renew His ministry at the nation’s capital under the favoring circumstances of the popularity in which He was held by the people of all provinces who would be gathered there. Jesus had no reason to fear His enemies, but the purpose of His mission required Him to withdraw from time to time from places where Pharisee despotism or absolutism was so complete that antagonism to it exposed His followers, as well as Himself, to persecution and direful threatenings. Until His time was come, therefore, He avoided a more serious conflict than a courteous answering of all cavilers, and an exposure of the bold hypocrisies of His vain-righteous critics, and when these threatenings grew ominous He retired for a while only to reappear in another field, where He resumed His beneficent labors
Departing from Capernaum, Jesus set out for Jerusalem to attend one of the annual festivals, but whether it was the feast of Purim, or the Passover, or Pentecost, or of the Tabernacles, we do not know, nor do the Apostles tell us, neither do we know whether or not the Apostles accompanied Him, or whether He had any company whatever. The record is very brief, and the incident which followed His appearance at Jerusalem is made by John to appear as occurring directly after the second miracle, or the healing of the nobleman’s son. For several reasons, however, it is quite improbable that Jesus returned to Jerusalem so soon after His rejection in Judea, for it would have been impolitic in Him to do so on account of the rancorous feeling which was excited by His cleansing of the Temple, and the death of John, which had caused great excitement among the people and no .small concern to Herod.
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The Mineral Baths.
At the present visit to Jerusalem Jesus did not make Himself conspicuous on many occasions, so that no mention of His deeds done while there is made, save alone of His healing an infirm man at the Pool of Bethesda, and of the controversy which grew out of the act. Jerusalem’s supply of water in the time of Christ was dependent upon several springs, or pools, and wells sunk by people rich enough to afford them. The Temple was provided with large cisterns excavated out of the lime-stone rock beneath, and occasionally families had similar provisions, but water was generally a scarce article in the dry seasons, so that such pools as remained full became congregating places for the poor who came to draw water in skins and jars, in which vessels it was peddled about the city.
One of the largest and most noted pools was known as that of Bethesda, which was located, as recent explorers declare, in the northwest corner of the Temple enclosure, and, as John says, near the sheep-gate. It is believed to have been a large reservoir, hewn out of the lime-stone and divided into two connecting pools by a stone wall which was separated in the centre by a space of only a few feet. That these waters contained mineral properties is certain, and such pools or springs were in great repute among the people for their curative virtues. The separation of the reservoir by a wall — as recently discovered — leads to the impression that the pool was of flowing water, so that the upper reservoir supplied water for drinking while the lower pool was reserved for bathers. The waters were believed to be most effective when “troubled,” or when heavy rains tinged them by washings from the red soil above, or when there was a fresh flow after a long intermission. We know that “Siloam’s brook, which flowed fast by the oracle of God,” was, as its neighbor, the Fountain of the Virgin, is to-day, a remittent pool, and it is probable that Bethesda was also. There can be no doubt but that in addition to the natural quality of these mineral waters, there was a supernatural strength which the inspired record calls” an angel troubling
the waters.”
Chronic Rheumatism Cured.
The healing virtues of Bethesda ’s pool were so famous that at certain seasons, when these properties were most effective, the place was thronged with persons suffering from infirmities of almost every nature: the palsied, paralyzed, rheumatic, the lame, deaf and blind, and such other afflictions. The city, or charitable persons, having recognized the great virtue of the waters, for the better accommodation of those who resorted here in the hope of being -cured, built five porches about the pool, which served both as shelter and repose, while steps were also built leading down into the water for the benefit of the bathers.
As Jesus was ever attracted to the suffering. He came to this pool, not as a mere spectator, but to do some beneficent act, and to excite with hope many who
JKSUS AND HIS DISCIPLES CROSSING MT. OI.IVKT.
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had bathed so long in vain. His sympathetic eye was specially arrested by a sufferer whose protracted affliction must have almost worn out expectation in any less hopeful mind. The man had been a cripple, probably from inflammatory rheumatism, for a period of thirty-eight years — more than the average human life. There on a mat the helpless sufferer lay, with no friends about him, and no kindly aid proffered to help him into the healing waters. Time and again, perhaps, he had lain there and seen the pool troubled by what he believed was a good angel, and as often witnessed the wild scramble of the more fortunate afflicted as they rushed down into the gracious reservoir, or were plunged into the seething bath by friendly assisting hands; yet he alone was suffered to lie unattended, and uncared for.
Jesus, the embodiment of godly compassion, the soul of sympathy, the very essence of tenderness, the God of mercy, could not look on such a sight without His great heart of pity being moved to immediate action, so approaching the distressful object of extraordinary misfortune. He said to him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Jesus knew what would be his answer: He knew how long the poor sufferer had waited and hoped for that help which cruel circumstances and the inhumanity of others had denied him. The question must therefore have been asked with the view to discovering how far the man’s hopes had been spent. “Sir,” answered the impotent man, “when the water is troubled no one offers to help me into the bath, and without assistance I can do nothing for myself. If I attempt to drag myself to the steps others rush in and crowd me away, so that sorry indeed is my condition.” He may have added, “Will you, dear Sir, not help me?” And immediately the Divine Physician said to him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” It was the same command that He had spoken to the palsied one who had been let down through the roof of a house in which He was teaching, and the effect of that speech was repeated now, for straightway he who had been impotent for thirty-eight years arose in perfect restoration, and picking up his pallet he walked away with heart full of thankfulness.
A Precious Crowd of Hypocrites.
This gracious act was performed on the Sabbath day, and with their hearts already filled with jealously the Pharisees seized on this violation of the Sabbatic law to renew their persecutions of Jesus. So rigid were the laws respecting the Sabbath that it was forbidden even to do good, to help the sick, to minister to any who might meet with dangerous accident, to save even from destruction on the Sabbath day. Such injunctions, prohibitions and permissions were never known to any other hierarchy, and were so restrictive and unreasonable as to exhibit the Jewish mind in its wildest eccentricity.
After performing the miracle, Jesus disappeared by mixing with the multitude which thronged about the pool, but the man who was healed was quickly seen as
JKSUS HEAI.ING THE IMPOTENT MAN. — Drawn by Bida.
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he made his way out of the crowd carrying his pallet under his arm. The Jews promptly challenged him by saying, “It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed on the Sabbath day.” To which the restored man answered, “He that made me whole, the same said, Take up thy bed and walk,” rightly divining that one who had such mastery over disease was master also of human laws, and above the senseless proscriptions of the insincere Pharisees and Sadducees.
The one who had been thus miraculously healed did not know his benefactor and had not even suspicioned that it was the Messiah who had been creating such excitement in Galilee by His Divine power over human afflictions; but soon after he saw Jesus in the Temple, and approached Him, no doubt, to make some acknowledgment of his great gratitude, but was answered, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worst thing come unto thee.” Thereupon the man went at once to some of the Jews and pointed out to them Jesus as the one who had healed him.
The word went quickly from mouth to mouth, “There is the culprit: there is the one who violates the Sabbath and casts out devils and heals the sick in the name of Beelzebub. There is the one who binds up the broken-hearted, who breaks the strong seal of death, but who berates us as mockers of God, and who exposes the hollow pretences of the rabbis, and the vanity of our ceremonials. Eet us forthwith accuse Him and make Him answerable before the law.” All dissensions and rancorous hatreds which dissevered the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the rabbis and priests, were subordinated for the time being to the one great desire for the conviction of what they regarded as their common enemy.
It is not so stated by John, but the inference is plain that Jesus was arrested and brought to answer before the authorities on the charge of Sabbath-breaking. Serene before His judges He made a defence which brought consternation to His accusers. He did not denounce them in speech of fury or fiery condemnation, but proclaiming Himself as the Son of God, He announced that His purpose was to offer to them the means of salvation through belief in Him. When they answered that this was only testimony of Himself and blasphemy of God, He condemned them by citing the laws of Moses and what was written concerning Him by that great lawgiver: that further, He of Himself could do nothing except by the aid of God, and therefore the wonders which He performed were done by the favor and the aid of His Heavenly Father. “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. John was sent as a witness to declare Me to you, but him you rejected as you now reject Me, but I have greater witness than John, for the works which I do is the testimony of God, from whom alone power is given Me. If you reject Me so then must you reject Him who hath sent Me.”
So well did Jesus answer His accusers that, though they were more inflamed against Him, and resolved to pursue Him to His death, they released Him for the time, thinking that some occasion thereafter would be more fit to bring Him to a final judgment.
The hostility against Jesus had now become so fierce that He quit Jerusalem and started back towards Capernaum, traveling afoot, as He invariably did. He may have hoped to escape His persecutors, or else suffered, for Divine purpose, the abuse of His enemies to continue; but the Pharisees and rabbis, like sleuthhounds upon the trail, never abandoned their infamous design upon His life. They kept detectives on His track to report all His doings and to accuse Him for every infraction against the austere laws and customs governing social as well as public life, and otherwise adopted ever)^ expedient to bring Him into disrepute with His followers. Shortly after leaving Jerusalem, while with His disciples passing through some
part of Galilee on a Sabbath day. His route lay through a field of ripening corn. T.’^v were ‘?ry hungry, no doubt from observing the custom of fasting on the Sab-^.Pth, and in?y availed themselves of the privilege which custom granted of plucking v-.iough grain to partially satisfy their cravings. The Sabbatical law prohibited eat ng before moirping sen’ice, and supper was not permitted until after evening servnc*.. but ignoring this, as He had other senseless ceremonies and super-rigid custoais, Jesus permitted its violation and had no word of criticism for His disciples, even when they shelled the grain for eating, after plucking the ears. The spies who witnessed this breach of the law made quick report of it to the Pharisees, who in turn at once condemned Him for the infraction, and considered
TABLE OF SHEWBREAD.
death by stoning as a worthy punishment therefor. Jesus replied to their accusations by reciting, in defence of His conduct, the incident of David, who, when fleeing from Saul, and pressed by hunger, seized upon some shewbread, upon which he satisfied his hunger, though it was not lawful for any save the priests to eat such consecrated food. And Jesus also reminded them that the priests performed their appointed duties on the Sabbath, yet they were not accounted as desecrating the day. Natural laws are above the rules which men may adopt, and it is lawful therefore to satisfy the necessities of the body, and if priests may officiate at service and discharge their duties on the Sabbath in the Temple, how much greater right has the Son of God and His servants to perform their ministrations, whether to the body or the soul, and whether on the week day or the Sabbath, for “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
As Schenkel observes, and quoted by Geikie,” The lowering schoolmen of the day, and the priestly party, felt themselves threatened in their most cherished hopes, wishes and interests, The breach between them and Jesus had been final, since His half-contemptuous words about the old garment and the new bottles. They had marked Him, definitely, as opposed to traditional rabbinism, as a dangerous agitator, as an enemy of the ‘Hedge of the Law,” the glory of successive generations of rabbis. The hierarchy would have at once indicted Him publicly, but for His wide popularity: the devotion felt for Him by the multitude He had healed and comforted; the transparent singleness of His aims and’’ labors; the greatness and dignity of His character, which enforced reverence, and His divine humility and lowliness of heart, which made Him so unassailable.”
Paralysis Pulsates into Health.
The carpings, the accusings and the condemnings of the Pharisees could have no effect on Jesus, who pursued his way utterly regardless of the hostility which he had provoked. When His enemies openly criticised His practices He turned aside only long enough to administer to them a trenchant rebuke, by way of appeals to the highest reason, to the law, to precedent and to human necessities, leaving them covered with confusion, and then renewing His labors of mercy with the same placidity and kindness of disposition He had before displayed.
His popularity with the masses prevented the Pharisees from closing the synagogues to Jesus, who on occasions continued to preach in them on the Sabbath day, and invariably to large audiences. Soon after His last conflict with the Pharisees He repaired to a synagogue to conduct the customary Sabbath service, followed of course by many scribes and Pharisees who watched continually for fresh opportunities to expose Him as a law-breaker. After the congregation had been seated the attention of Jesus was directed towards a man whose right hand had withered under the blast of a stroke of paralysis, and which now hung shriveled and useless by his side. With Christ, to do good at all times and on all occasions was fitting, and in this sanctuary it was to Him especially appropriate to perform a gracious deed, which, while showing forth His divine power as the Son of God, and therefore the righteous teacher, would also condemn anew the hypocrites who were content with obserlang laws which shut them out from a true conception of the mercy and goodness of God. He therefore asked the afflicted man to stand up in the midst of the congregation, and then turning to the rabbis by His side He asked them, “Is it lawful to do good, or to do evil: to save life or to destroy? “But the vain-glorious and self-rigliteous teachers were afraid to answer Him before the people, for they had measured their lances with Him too many times before, and suffered inglorious defeat as often, to give occasion for their exposure and discomfiture before those whom they were secretly seeking to prejudice against Him. Finding them silent under His questionings, Jesus then asked them if it was not lawful to help a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath day? This was pennitted under the law, therefore said He,” How much better is a man than a sheep!” But still they made no answer. Then, by way of more emphatically illustrating His lesson of mercy, He said to the man with a withered hand, “Stretch forth thy hand,” which being done, immediately the withered member became whole and was infused again with the power that had long before departed.
Before such a miracle the people must have applauded: some who before felt doubts were convicted, some who before had been drawn to Him by curiosity must have now believed on Him, and there was glory-giving, and praise offering; and vows of devotion were sent up by many of the congregation; but the worldlyambitious scribes, Pharisees, priests and rabbis sat scowling and spiteful under the Divine exhibition, their hearts full of pollution and murderous desires, which were restrained only by fear of those who accepted Him.