The Life Of Jesus Christ In Its Historical Connexion

If the charge of heresy brought against Christ, on account of the pretended violation of the Sabbath, produced such striking results, he gave a new stimulus to the rage, and, at the same time, to the jealousy, of the hierarchical party, by a miraculous cure performed on the Sabbath.

As the disciples were leaving the Temple with their Master, his attention was drawn, in passing, to a beggar who had been blind from his birth. Their first thought, suggested by their contracted Jewish ideas of the government of God, [539] was, how far the necessary connexion between sin and evil might be supposed in the case: "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" An untenable theory drove them to this dilemma; even if, as it is hardly to be supposed that the pre-existence of souls was presupposed by the questioner, he either had no definite idea in referring to "this man," or did not know certainly at the time that he was born blind. Christ, not admitting such a precise connexion between special sins and special evils, replied, at first, concisely, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; [540] but that the works of God should be made manifest in him;" that his sufferings might seem the higher objects of God's love both to himself and others, and God's works of saving power and mercy be displayed in him. And for himself, apart from others, the cure of his physical blindness was to lead to that of his spiritual darkness; and then his experience was to become, also, the means of saving others. Passing over directly to the remark that through himself the works of God were revealed, Christ said, "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; [541] he night cometh, when the work of the day cannot be done. [542] As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." [543]

The cure for which he thus prepared them was probably gradual (as in the case mentioned p.270); the patient, perhaps, begin to see when Christ anointed his eyes, and, after bathing in Siloam, [544] was completely healed. [545]