The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 125

give <'-omfnrt and peRCe to the suffering, followed. Any one of those present, had he eilent, sick man. Jeeue rertd v.·he.t was in d1tred, mi~ht h1tve uttered the solemn e.bso- the he,-.rt. of the poor prtre.lytio; hie sins die- lution. None but he could surely risk, 111 treesed him more th,rn hie me.le.dy; very he risked, such words which followed, e.nd possibly the sad infirmity bed been brought wbie.h oho.llenged an iustant and visible about by hie old dieeolute life. The soul, fulfilment. It we.a & stmnge, great claim then, muet be bee.led first. It we.s for this, the IIIAstcr me.de tho.t day, and we may be we believe, the.t the story of the ma.n ta.ken sure it e.nd the mighty sign which followed ·with the pn.lsy we.s told e.nd retold by the se.nk deep into mo.ny a heart. We see why first Chrietie.n pree.chers, and BO found e. the memory of this day's work w11s treasured pllt<1e in the three Gospel ne.rre.tives-this up so fe.ithfully. He tnol, up t11at whereon lofty cle.im of the Me.stet to forgive sins; e. M lay. This could easily h11vc been done. claim so grandly supported by a miraculous The bed or pallet would be nothing but a act done in the opon daylight in the pre- light portable framework covered with a 1!0nce of the people. ble.nkct. Ver. 21.-And the 1cribes and the Pharisee, Ver. 26.-We have seen strange thing■ began to reuon, saying, Who is this which to-day. The strange things (,rap0:6o(a) speaketh blaephemies l Who can forgive Billi, nlluded especially to the mimcle which, 11.11 but God alone 1 It is very probable that it were, solemnly authenticated the sublime some of those who stood by, had alree.cly, at claim to forgiveness of &ins on the part of Jerusalem, witnessed by the Bethesda Pool Jesns. a wonder-work done by the same Jesus on Vers. 27-29.-The call of Levi (Matthe111 the person of an impotent man lying there tke publican), and tl1e feast that followed. waiting for the troubling of the we.ter Ver. 27.-And after these thmga he went (John v. 5, 9), e.nd had ta.ken part there in forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, an angry expostulation with the Wonder- sitting at the reoeipt of 011Btom: and he worker, who on that occasion, in his words, said 11I1to him, Follow me. Capernaum, aa "made himself eque.l with God" (John has been alreo.dy noticed, had become, v. 18). We know (see ver. 17) the.t some of owing to its situation, a commercial centre the Jerusalem scribes were present that day of no small importance. It was on the great in the Capernaum house. Again, thought highway from the interior of Aais., o.nd from these learned Jews, " this strange Man is Damascus to the seaboard Mediterranean utteriI!g his dread blasphemies, but MID cities, to Jerusalem, e.nd to Egypt. The in even more plain terms than tl,,ere." cnstom-house of Capernanm and the office ,·er. 23.-Whether is easier, to say, Thy of inland revenue there would naturally be sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rile up and under the control of officials of some im- walk 1 The Heart-reader hears, perhaps, the portance. The local trade on the lake, too, murmur as it runs round the circle, and we know at that period was very large. It grasping in a moment all that was in the he.a been frequently asked-What specially angry hearts of these men, said aloud, tlmt induced our Lord to select as one of his all might hear, some such words as these, inner circle e. mo.n whose life-work was so .. See now what I am about to do. You, in hateful and unpopular to the Jewish people your dim short-sighted wisdom, think my generally? why did he include in the forgiving this poor repentant sinner his dark twelve one who, from the nature of his de- past, is but an empty, meaningless form of tested office, had lost religions co.ate among words. See now whether what I am about the Jews, and who was compelled to consort to do further for him is an ewpty meaning- with sinners, Gentiles, and persons who were less boon." considered, either from their birth or life and Vers. 24, 25.-That 7e may know that the associations, outside the pale of the chosen Bon of man bath power upon earth to forgive people? Various replies to this question sins, (he said 11I1to the Biele: of the pallly,) I have been suggested, such as-by this open say 11llto thee, .6.rile, and take up thy couch, act he threw down Iha gauntlet to all that and go into thine houe. And immediately powerful Pharisee class who were beginning he rose up before them, and took up that to suspect and to mistake his teaching and whereon he lay, and departed to his own liberalism. Or was his apparently strange house, glorifying God. The lookers-on, the clwiee dictated by a simple desire to have, curiollll, the cavillers, the friendly, too, ae in the inner circle of his devoted friends, a the unfriendly, who crowded that Caper- business man-one who could manage the naum honse, could not see with their eyes affairs and regulate the economy of the little the Redeemer's remis1ion of the palsied growing society? but this seems to have man's sins. The sufferer alone was con- been done by Judas; or was it simply done bciolli! the.t the great burden which pressed in obedience to a sn<lden impulse from on on hia soul w&11 removed at the Ma..ter'1 High? None of these seems satisfactory. wurd. Unt all oould see the miracle which Surnly another motive, and that & decpeJ on. v. 1-39.) TII ll: GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 117