Notes on the International Lesson.
By Calvin P. Bollman
A SABBATH IN THE LIFE OF JESUS.
IMMEDIATELY after his baptism by John in Jordan, Jesus was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness," where he was "forty days tempted of the devil." Following this he spent probably six months in Judea, after which he went into Galilee accompanied by Andrew, Peter, James, and John. "And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes." THE scribes, who were the teachers of the people, had but an imperfect understanding of the Scriptures, and their teachings were vague and involved, better calculated to befog the mind than to assist it to an understanding of the inspired writings. Not knowing the truth themselves, they certainly could not intelligently instruct others. With Jesus, however, the case was different. "He taught as being authorized by his own right and power to teach." He not only knew the truth, but he had been divinely commissioned to proclaim it; he had received the special anointing of the Holy Spirit at his baptism, and the testimony of some who heard him was, "Never man spake like this man." His words were with power, and they struck home to the hearts of those who heard as the cold and formal teaching of the scribes had no power to do. These teachers explained the law as a matter of custom, but their own hearts were unconverted, and their words had no power to move their hearers. WHILE at Cana, Christ had healed the ruler's son who lay sick at Capernaum, and on this occasion the synagogue was filled with people who were anxious to see and hear one who had such power. Some were there, no doubt, from mere curiosity, but others from a desire to hear the truth; and as the multitude hung upon his gracious words, a man in the congregation who had an unclean spirit, cried out, saying, "Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him." AFTER leaving the synagogue the Saviour healed Simon's wife's mother, and then the same evening after the setting of the sun, which marked the close of the Sabbath, great multitudes came unto him "and he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils." The influence of the Pharisees who accused the Saviour of breaking the Sabbath, "prevented many from applying to Jesus for relief from their infirmities upon the Sabbath day. They feared being stigmatized as transgressors of the law. But no sooner had the sun passed out of sight in the west than the diseased flocked to him from every quarter." And Jesus in his infinite compassion healed them. This circumstance suggests the question, "How did Christ regard the Sabbath, and what is his relation to it?" The Saviour said, "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day;" the Pharisees said that in working miracles upon that day he violated the Sabbath; what saith the Scriptures? "THE Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2: 27), therefore that which is for man's highest good is lawful upon that day. "What is the chief end of man?" is a question asked in an old catechism, and it is well answered in these words, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever;" and it is as a means to this end that "the Sabbath was made for man," i. e., for the race. In order to glorify God, men must know and remember him as God, and it was that they might do this that the Sabbath was instituted in the beginning. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," "for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth," is the divine command and the divine reason for the command. And to the same intent are the words of the Lord relative to the children of Israel: "I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." And as the design of the Sabbath is to keep in memory the work of the creation and the true God, it follows that whatever tends in the same direction is proper on the Sabbath. In this category must come assemblies for the worship of God even though they involve some labor, and manifestations of the divine power such as the working of miracles. The command specifies, "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work," but healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, etc., is not man's work, but God's work, and they who see in it a desecration of the Sabbath have more zeal for human traditions than for the honor of him who is the Lord of the Sabbath. But aside from these considerations, the fact that Christ did these things upon the Sabbath proves that they were not violations of the divine law. He came not to destroy the law (Matt. 5: 17), but to magnify and make it honorable (Isa. 42: 21), and just before his crucifixion he testified to his disciples that he had kept his Father's commandments. John 15: 10. Therefore we know that in no sense nor in any case did he break the Sabbath. BUT the Jews charged repeatedly that the Saviour did break the Sabbath, and some even who call themselves by his name, bring against him the same accusation, but he himself has most explicitly denied the charge. To those who made it anciently he said: "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless" (Matt. 12: 7), and his word says the same to-day. Christ was and is Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2: 28), not to abolish it, or to desecrate it, but as its author, the one to whom it belongs. He it was by whom the worlds were made (Heb. 1: 2; John 1: 3; Col. 1: 16), and he it was who rested upon the seventh day at the close of creation week, and who blessed and sanctified it, setting it apart as the memorial of that work. To keep it in the proper spirit is to honor him even as we honor the Father (John 7: 23), and to disregard it is to say by our acts that we do not recognize him as the Creator.
C. P. B.