And he said unto them,
What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
Read Chapter 12
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Again on the sabbath he performed a healing, defending himself on behalf of the disciples’ activities. The Lukan Gospel writer says “that he made the man stand in the middle” and asked them if it was allowed to do good on the sabbath. Note well the Lord’s goodness of heart. He made him stand in the middle so that he might bend them to his vision, so that by being overcome by the sight they might reject wickedness and in pitying the man they might cease from their savage behavior. But the wild and misanthropic men chose rather to distract Christ from his teaching than to see this man saved. … Thus the other Gospel writers say that Jesus asked questions, but this author says that he was asked questions. “And they questioned him: ‘Is it allowed to heal on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him.” It is likely that both events happened. For since they were brutal and saw that [Jesus] would come at any rate to heal him, they were eager to preoccupy him with questions, resolving to hinde...
Thus, lest they have ground of obstinacy, and of accusing him again of transgression, He convicts them by this example. And do thou mark, I pray you, how variously and suitably in each case, He introduces His pleas for the breaking of the sabbath. Thus, first, in the case of the blind man, John 9:6 He does not so much as defend Himself to them, when He made the clay: and yet then also were they blaming Him; but the manner of the creation was enough to indicate the Lord and Owner of the law. Next, in the case of the paralytic, when he carried his bed, and they were finding fault, John 5:9-10 He defends Himself, now as God, and now as man; as man, when He says, If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law should not be broken; (and He said not that a man should be profited); are you angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? John 7:23 As God again, when He says, My Father works hitherto, and I work. John 5:17
But when blamed for His d...
