January
26, 2003
SEE,
YOU HAVE BEEN MADE WELL
"Afterward
Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him. 'See, you
have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come
upon you" (John 5:14, NKJV).
"In
the temple Jesus met the man who had been healed. He had come
to bring a sin offering and also a thank offering for the
great mercy he had received. Finding him among the worshipers,
Jesus made Himself known, with the warning words, 'See,
you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come
upon you.'
"The
healed man was overjoyed at meeting his Deliverer. Ignorant
of the enmity toward Jesus, he told the Pharisees who had
questioned him, that this was He who had performed the cure."
(Desire of Ages, p. 204.)
"For
this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill
Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But
Jesus answered them, 'My Father has been working until now,
and I have been working.'
"Therefore
the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only
broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father,
making Himself equal with God" (John 5:16-18).
"Jesus
had come to 'magnify the law, and make it honorable.' He was
not to lessen its dignity, but to exalt it. The scripture
says, 'He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established
justice in the earth' (Isaiah 42:21, 4). He had come to free
the Sabbath from those burdensome requirements that had made
it a curse instead of a blessing.
"For
this reason He had chosen the Sabbath upon which to perform
the act of healing at Bethesda. He could have healed the sick
man as well on any other day of the week; or He might simply
have cured him, without bidding him bear away his bed. But
this would not have given Him the opportunity He desired.
A wise purpose underlay every act of Christ's life on earth.
Everything He did was important in itself and in its teaching.
Among the afflicted ones at the pool He selected the worst
case upon whom to exercise His healing power, and bade the
man carry his bed through the city in order to publish the
great work that had been wrought upon him. This would raise
the question of what it was lawful to do on the Sabbath, and
would open the way for Him to denounce the restrictions of
the Jews in regard to the Lord's day, and to declare their
traditions void."-- The Desire of Ages, p. 206.
Jesus
made it evident that the work of relieving the afflicted was
in harmony with the Sabbath law. Jesus came to magnify the
law. On another occasion, Jesus stated, "The Sabbath
was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. - the Son of
Man is also Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27, 28).
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