Outbreak of Jewish hostility.
It is not against the miracle, but against an imagined infringement of Mosaic law.
I. THE CHARGE AGAINST THE IMPOTENT MAN. "It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed."
1. It seemed justified in the letter by the Divine commandment. "Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day" (Jeremiah 17:21).
2. But the command related to matters of trade, not of mercy or comfort. (Nehemiah 13:15.)
3. The Jews, however, must have their cavil where they cannot deny the working of miracle.
4. Formalists affect an extreme reverence for the letter of a law which they neglect and despise in its inmost spirit.
II. THE ANSWER TO THE CHARGE. "He that made me whole said to me, Take up thy bed, and walk."
1. It was a serious charge, for it involved the punishment of death by stoning.
2. The cured man shelters himself under the authority of the Miracle worker, implying that he who was able to do such a work must have authority to give him such a command.
3. He was still ignorant of the name of the Divine Person who had cured him. "And he that was healed wist not who it was." He had hardly time to make inquiry before Jesus "had conveyed himself away," making an easy escape through the thronging multitude.
III. THE DISCOVERY OF HIS BENEFACTOR.
1. The cured man is found by Jesus in the temple. His first act is to thank God for his cure. It marks the reality of his faith.
2. Our Lord's admonition to him. "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee."
(a) There is an invariable connection between sin and suffering established by the moral government of God.
(b) Yet it is not possible for man to trace this connection at all times in the midst of the complicated and mysterious dispensations of his providence.
(a) The lighter chastisement is often sent in mercy to warn against sin and folly.
(b) The Lord does not afflict willingly, but for our profit (Hosea 12:10).
IV. THE MIRACLE WORKER MADE KNOWN TO HIS ENEMIES. "The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus that made him whole." What was his motive in giving this information to the Jews?
1. It was not a malicious denunciation, which would only argue the deepest ingratitude on his part.
2. It was not prompted by the mere instinct of obedience to the authorities.
3. It was not designed to shift the responsibility of sabbath breaking from himself to Jesus. He here emphasizes the miracle rather than the sabbath breaking. "It was Jesus that made him whole."
4. It was prompted rather
V. THE EFFECT OF THE DISCLOSURE UPON THE JEWS. "Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus … because he had done these things on the sabbath day."
1. Their action had a double root. "These things"—the healing and the burden bearing on the sabbath.
2. They had no true sympathy with suffering, nor had they any true conception of the nature of their own sabbath.
3. The spirit of persecution often springs from ignorance.