compatible with that holy rest which God had en- joined. To this effect he spake in the passage before us ; in discoursing upon which, we shall consider,
I. The miracle he wrought —
There was in the synagogue a woman much afflicted in body —
[By the force of some disorder her whole frame was so contracted or relaxed, that she was utterly incapable of stand- ing upright. This disorder had been, in some way or other, inflicted on her by Satan. The same wicked spirit who smote Job with boils, and possessed the bodies of many in our Saviour's days, had exerted his power over her ; and she had been no less than eighteen years in this deplorable condition ; yet as she was not ashamed to go to the synagogue on account of her deformity, so neither would she be detained from it by her weakness. Alas! how many amongst us absent them- selves from the house of God under far less plausible pretexts, notwithstanding our ordinances are so incomparably superior to those which she was privileged to attend.]
Our Lord, well knowing her case, afforded her a miraculous relief —
[He needed not to have his compassion moved by earnest entreaties. Unsolicited he called her to him, and by the im- position of his hand conveyed an instantaneous cure. Thus he shewed how easily he could " destroy the works of the devil a ;" and that neither length of time nor inveteracy of disorder could at all obstruct the efficacy of his word.]
The censure which he incurred on account of this benevolent act, called forth,
II. His vindication of it —
The Ruler of the synagogue expressed his indig- nation at this exercise of power —
[That which in reality hurt his feelings was, the popularity of Jesus. He could not endure to see him followed by such multitudes, and confirming his divine mission by such miracles. But, because he could not with the smallest appearance of reason condemn the miracle he had seen, he pretended to be offended at its being wrought on the Sabbath-day. He pro- ceeded to reprove the people for paying so little regard to that holy day ; and thus obliquely cast reflections on our Lord himself. What an evidence of his enmity against Christ, and
a 1 John iii. 8.