SECTION IV.

THE FIRST CONFLICT OF JESUS CHRIST WITH THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES.

(Mark. ii. 1-iii. 6.)

Quickly as the glory of Christ became manifest in His first actions after His appearing in public, with equal rapidity was unfolded the contradiction of Pharisee worldly-mindedness in His people, which menacingly displayed its opposition to Him in a series of hostile utterances.

These utterances were occasioned by distinct, successive, and most significant evidences of His power and of His spirit.

The first great offence which His antagonists took at Jesus, was because He announced to a man forgiveness of his sins.

After the course of a few days He again entered into Capernaum, and it was noised that He was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door; and to this assembly He preached the word. And now came a train of persons to Him, bringing one sick of the palsy, who was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof over the place where He was; they broke it up (the tiles), and let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. Jesus saw their faith — as He always saw through deeds and ostensible signs into the heart — and said unto the sick of the palsy, as the living centre of this believing community, 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.' But there were certain of the scribes sitting there (they were thus among the first come, and had taken possession of seats), and reasoning in their hearts, 'Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? 'But Jesus immediately perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, and said unto them, 'Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (He saith to the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee. Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.' And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, 'We never saw it on this fashion.'

Thus Jesus proved the power of His absolution. The sufferer appeared now absolved in his limbs as in his heart. But His antagonists persisted in their perversity, notwithstanding that Jesus had fairly confuted them. Nay, they went further. They had first made it a reproach to Him that He forgave sins; they now took offence because He ate with sinners.

And He went forth again by the sea-side; and all the multitude resorted unto Him, and He taught them. And as He passed by. He saw Levi the son of Alpheus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, 'Follow Me.' And he arose and followed Him. And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners (excommunicated persons) sat also together with Jesus and His disciples: for there were many, and they followed Him (were His adherents). And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto His disciples, 'How is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? 'When Jesus heard it, He saith unto them, 'They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'

This crushing reply of our Lord could not prevent a second offence being taken at that feast with publicans and sinners. It was not only found offensive that He ate with such people, but that He should attend a feast at all. And not only the Pharisees, but also men of a better mind found that amiss.

The disciples of John were, like the Pharisees, fasting Israelites (they attached importance to fasting). And so some of that way of thinking came to Him, and said, 'Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples fast not? 'And Jesus said unto them, 'Can the children of the bride-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. No man,' added He then, 'seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment; else the new piece that filleth it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.'

Our Lord's antagonists had first thought that He offended against pure doctrine; then they had gone further, and reproached Him with offences against church discipline and pious customs; and now, finally, they sought to show that He sinned against the law in the narrower sense — against the decalogue — against one of the holiest commandments, the law of the Sabbath. First, they had only reasoned within themselves against Him, and next had only ventured to reproach Him behind His back to His disciples; but now they spoke to Himself, after opener-minded men had preceded them in doing so, with regard to feasting. This apparent frankness was the easier for them, because this fresh reproach was primarily directed against the disciples, while mediately it was, no doubt, intended to fall principally upon Himself.

The occasion was when Jesus was going through the corn-fields on the Sabbath-day. His disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto Him, 'Behold, why do they on the Sabbath-day that which is not lawful? 'And He said unto them, 'Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him? how he went into the house of God, in the days of Abiathar the high priest,¹ and did eat the shew-bread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them that were with him? 'And He said unto them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man (as Prince of men, for whose sake all things were made) is Lord also of the Sabbath.'

But this impressive saying of Christ's found no acceptance with the Pharisees. They rather looked upon Him now as a despiser of the Sabbath, and soon after they thought they had caught Himself in an act of Sabbath desecration.

This was on the occasion of another visit by Christ to the synagogue on a Sabbath. In the synagogue into which He entered there was a man who had a withered hand. And they watched Him, whether He would heal this man on the Sabbath-day. Thus they themselves, when seeing a sufferer near Christ, could not avoid thinking of Him as the helper; but this association of ideas failed to enlighten them. They waited, they wished for this, that He should help the sick man, that they might be able to form an accusation against Him. Jesus did not let them wait in vain. He said to the man with the withered hand, 'Stand forth.' He then asked them, 'Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath-days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?' But they held their peace, — a strange mixture of an unfree sense of shame and false captious cunning. And when He had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man, 'Stretch forth thine hand.' And he stretched it out (the hand which was properly speaking no longer a hand); and his hand was restored whole as the other.

He here by deed proved His right, — by a deed in which God wrought with Him, and so with Him broke the rest of the Sabbath by a holy work of love. But this time also it was in vain that He convicted them of wrong, and this mighty working of Christ was rather the occasion of making their enmity assume a decided shape. The Pharisees now went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

Thus the divine power of Christ was strikingly displayed in opposition to His antagonists. They disputed His power to forgive a man his sins: He exhibited this power by making the man arise with restored strength, and carry his bed to his house. They sought to throw suspicion on Him because He ate with publicans and sinners; but He revealed to them His consciousness that He stood in that society as the physician who heals the sick; and when they sought to make it a sin in Him to partake of the feast itself, He replied with firm assurance that in such entertainments He held high spiritual festivals with His disciples. They sought to throw suspicion on Him through His disciples as if He broke the law of the Sabbath; and He replied to them as the Lord of all things relating to man, and consequently of the ordinance of the Sabbath. Finally, they watched Him with evil intent whether He would heal a sick man on the Sabbath-day; and he compelled them by silence to acknowledge the rightfulness of that act, and performed the heavenly deed of light within the circle of darkness which they with their hellish disposition formed around Him. The consequence of these glorious spiritual victories of Christ was, that they soon became His mortal enemies, and resolved upon His death.

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