LIFE OF CHRIST
A Harmony of the Gospels

LESSON SIX

When the sun was setting

The Jews kept their Sabbath from evening to evening

And demons also came out of many

Dr. Lightfoot gives two reasons why Judea abounded with demoniacs:

A leper came to Him

There are different types of leprosy:

In any case,  leprosy is a distemper of the most loathsome kind,  highly contagious,  so as to infect garments,  and was deemed incurable by any human means.

Among the Jews,  God alone was applied to for its removal;  and the cure was ever attributed to His sovereign power   (Leviticus 13 & 14).

Leprosy is a type of sin,  and shows how sin appears to God.
The ordinances for the cleansing of leprosy represent the cleansing of our pollutions by the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ,  by the sprinkling and application of His blood,  and by the sanctifying and healing influences of the Holy Spirit.

I am willing, be cleansed

There is here no supplication of any power superior to His own.  It is peculiar to God that He need only WILL what He intends to perform.  His power is His will. 

The event proved to the fullest conviction,  and by the clearest demonstration,  that

Show yourself to the priest and offer ... what Moses commanded

The Gift:

The above were brought for his cleansing. Once cleansed, he was to offer:

However, if the person was poor, then he was to bring:

All this was done for a testimony to them;  to prove that this leper,  who was doubtless well known in the land,  had been thoroughly cleansed;  and thus,  in the private way,  to give full proof to the priesthood that Jesus was the true Messiah. 

The Jewish rabbins allowed that curing the lepers should be a characteristic of the Messiah;  therefore the obstinacy of the priests and religious leaders in rejecting Jesus was utterly unreasonable and inexcusable.

They uncovered the roof

The houses in the east are generally made flat-roofed, that the inhabitants may have the benefit of fresh air on them; they are also furnished with railing or  “battlements”  to prevent persons from falling off.  They have a  “trap door” by which they descend into the house.  This door,  it appears,  was too narrow to let down the sick man and his couch;  so  “they uncovered the roof,”  removed part of the  “tiles,”  and  “having broken through,”  taken away the laths or timber,  to which the tiles had been attached,  they then had room to let down the afflicted man.

Dr. Thomson states that the roof could easily be broken up  (the sticks, thorn-bush, mortar, and earth, of which it was composed, being thrown aside),  and is often done for the purpose of letting down grain,  straw,  and other articles.  He says:  “I have often seen it done, and done it myself to houses in Lebanon, but there is always more dust made than is agreeable.”  The roof would be easily repaired from the same raw materials originally used.

When He saw their faith

It is remarkable that all the three narratives call it  "their faith"  which Jesus saw.
That the patient himself had faith, we know from the proclamation of his forgiveness, which Jesus made before all; and we should have been apt to conclude that his four friends bore him to Jesus merely out of benevolent compliance with the urgent entreaties of the poor sufferer.
But here we learn,  not only that his bearers had the same faith with himself,  but that Jesus marked it as a faith which was not to be defeated - a faith victorious over all difficulties. This was the faith for which He was ever on the watch,  and which He never saw without marking,  and,  in those who needed anything from Him,  richly rewarding.
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

Thy sins be forgiven thee

Moral evil has been the CAUSE of all the natural evil in the world.
Jesus goes to the SOURCE of the malady, which is SIN;
and to that as the procuring cause we should refer to all our afflictions.

It was a maxim among the Jews that  “no diseased person could be healed till all his sins were blotted out.”
This appears to have been founded on Psalms 103:3   "Who forgives all your iniquities,  Who heals all your diseases"

Here  PARDON  PRECEDES HEALTH.

Who can forgive sins, but God alone?

In this question they expressed a great truth:

The Son of Man has Power

The visible,  physical healing was to give evidence of that more important inner healing.

“exousian"

Matthew - Levi

Some think that Levi was his personal name, and that Jesus changed it to Matthew.

It is more probable that Matthew was his personal name,
and Levi the family name.

Mathai signifies a gift in Syriac;  probably so named by his parents as implying a gift from God.

Nowhere in the four Gospels do we find a single recorded word that Matthew spoke.
Yet in his Gospel, he gives us the words and works of Jesus Christ,  "the Son of David,  the Son of Abraham"

Alphaeus

The second James named in the list of the apostles (called “James the Less”) was said to be the son of a man named Alphaeus.  This could possible be the same man, which would make Matthew and the second James brothers.

Publican

Many translations call them publicans.
The publicans were the Roman tax-gatherers, of whom there were several classes:

The publicans,  of whatever class,  were looked upon with disfavor by the masses of the people.
The  “portitores,”  however,  were especially detested.
Their duty,  if honestly discharged,  would have made them unpopular enough;  but when,  as was often the case,  they went beyond their legal rights and levied exorbitant taxes,  using all the machinery of the law to help them,  their unpopularity greatly increased. 
Many of them were Jews,  and were regarded by their Jewish brethren as no better than the heathen with whom publicans were often classed.

It is said that the Jews would not associate with them,  nor allow them in the temple or in the synagogue;  nor would they permit them to give testimony in Jewish courts.
Even the presents that they brought to the temple are said to have been rejected.
They were completely excluded from their fellows:

Sitting at the tax office

Or,  sitting at the place of poll,  or taxing - which was public, not closed off  in a building.

Sitting accurately expresses the posture that was occupied in the East by all who transacted business.
The merchant sat when he sold, and even carpenters and washerwomen sat at their work.
No one stood when at work unless it was entirely unavoidable.

There were houses or booths built at the foot of bridges,  at the gates of cities,  at the mouths of rivers,  and by the seaside,  where the tax-gatherers transacted their business.
The publicans are said to have delivered to those who paid toll,  a ticket to free their passing  (much like our toll bridges, etc.).   Hence the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is rendered  “lord of the passage.”

Those who are well have no need of a physician

I desire mercy, and not sacrifice

Quoted from I Samuel 15:22

1 Sam 15:22-23
So Samuel said:  "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He also has rejected you from being king."
NKJV

We may understand these words as implying:

THE  QUESTION  ABOUT  FASTING	Top Next Section Previous Section

The Pharisees fast often

The Pharisees had many superstitious fasts.  They fasted in order to:

Friends of the bridegroom

Also called   “children of the bride-chamber”  were the friends and acquaintances who participated in the marriage festivities.  The expression  “child”  or  “children,”  like that of  “father,”  was a common form of speech,  and was designed to show some relation between the person to whom it was applied and certain qualities existing in that person,  or certain circumstances connected with him;  these qualities or circumstances being the result of that relation.  Thus people who are brought together on occasion of a marriage-feast are called the “children of the bride-chamber.”

New garment

The Revised Version renders  “undressed” cloth,  that would shrink when wet,  and tear loose from the old piece.

Neither do men put new wine into wineskins

The use of bottles made from the skins of animals is very ancient,  and is still practiced many parts of the world.  The skin of goats,  kids,  and pigs are commonly taken for this purpose,  and are usually so fashioned as to retain the figure of the animal.  In preparing the bottle,  the head and feet are cut off,  and the skin stripped whole from the body.  The neck of the animal sometimes makes the neck of the bottle;  in other cases one of the forelegs is used as an aperture through which the liquid may be poured out.  The thighs serve as handles;  by attaching straps to them the bottle can be fastened to the saddle,  or slung over the shoulder of the traveler.

The Arabs tan the skins with Acacia bark and leave the hairy side out.  For a large party,  and for long journeys across the desert,  the skins of camels or of oxen are used.  Two of these,  when filled with water,  make a good load for a camel.  They are smeared with grease to prevent leakage and evaporation.  When the skin is  “green,”  it stretches by fermentation of the liquor and retains its integrity;  but when it becomes old and dry,  the fermentation of the new wine soon causes it to burst.

The garments and the bottles of the two parables speak of banquets,  which was what was involved in the original question. 

The reaction of the Pharisees was very common:

Here Jesus pictures the combination of the old forms of piety peculiar to John and his disciples with the new religious life emanating from Him,  as the patching of an old garment with new cloth,  or as filling an old skin with new wine. 

Jesus was telling them that it was not just repairing the old, or refilling the old, but

There was a feast of the Jews

This is generally supposed by many,  to have been the feast of the Passover,  which was the most eminent feast among the Jews.  However:

Lightfoot has observed that the other evangelists  (Matthew, Mark, and Luke)  speak very sparingly of Jesus’ acts in Judea.  They mention nothing of the Passovers,  from His baptism till His death,  excepting the very last:  but John points at them all:

The Sheep Gate

This was in all probability the gate through which the sheep were brought that were offered in sacrifice in the temple.  (Neh. 3:1, 32; 12:39).

If  taken literally,  word-for-word  from the Greek,  it would be  “at the sheep pool”  which is called Bethesda. Some editors join the adjective with the following word,  making it the  “sheep-pool.”
Wycliffe translates it  “a standing water of beasts.”

Pool

The Hebrew word is from the verb  “to kneel down,”  and means,  therefore,  a kneeling-place (sheep-pool),  for cattle or men when drinking.

Bethesda

A spring-fed pool at Jerusalem surrounded by five porches.  In 1888,  while the church of  St. Ann in North East Jerusalem was being repaired,  a reservoir was discovered.  On the wall is a faded fresco that depicts an angel troubling the water.  The reservoir is cut from the rock and is rain-filled.  It is about 55 feet in length and 12 feet in width.  It is approached by a flight of steps both steep and winding.

The word  “Bethesda”  is from the Hebrew  “bethchasdah,”  signifying  “the house of mercy.”
Some think it is  “house of the portico.”
Still others say it is  “bethzatha,”  which would be  “house of the olive.”

Do you want to be made well?

Not merely do you wish, but are you in earnest?
Jesus appeals to the energy of his will.

Jesus asked the question for three reasons:

Take up your bed and walk

The  “bed”  was simply a mat or blanket that could be carried in the hands.  The poor sometimes had no other bed than the outer garment.  The wealthier people in the East have quilts or mattresses filled with cotton,  which are spread on the floor or on the divan.  In the text,  the man with the infirmity,  being healed,  was told to take up his bed.  All he had to do was to roll up his blanket and depart.  A similar incident took place with the paralytic let down through the roof in Matthew 9:6.  On such simple  “beds”  the sick were easily carried.