Chapter IV

_CALL OF MATTHEW――HOSTILITY OF THE PHARISEES._
A.D. 28.

EARLY on the following morning Peter and his companions found that their Master had left the city, and retired to a solitary place for the purpose of engaging in secret prayer. Having discovered the place of His retreat, they announced that the excitement of the previous evening was not subsided, that all _were seeking Him_ (Mk. i. 37); and soon their words were confirmed by the coming of a crowd, who besought Him not to leave them. But this could not be. The Divine Purpose required that He should proclaim the Glad Tidings of His kingdom in other places also; and He commenced a tour throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, casting forth demons, and healing all manner of sickness and disease (Mtt. iv. 23; Mk. i. 39).

Among other recipients of His gracious bounty, was one afflicted with the awful malady of leprosy, which none ever hoped could be cured. Bearing about him all the emblems of his sad condition, his clothes rent, his head bare (Comp. Num. vi. 9; Ezek. xxiv. 17), his lip covered (Ezek. xxiv. 17), he drew near the Saviour, and flinging himself on the ground before His feet, besought Him, if it was His will, to cleanse him. Though the Law forbade all contact with one, afflicted with a disease, to which the Jews gave the significant name of _the Stroke_, the Holy One put forth His hand, and touched Him, saying, _I will, be thou clean_. Instantly his flesh returned to him as the flesh of a little child, and he was clean, and, at the command of his Healer, repaired to the priests at Jerusalem to present the offering required of one so cleansed[289], and thus in his own person bear witness against them[290], and their unbelief.

Obedient to this injunction of his Healer, the cleansed leper found it more difficult to remember His other command, and abstain from saying anything to any one of the way in which he had been healed (Mk. i. 44; Lk. v. 14). In the fulness of his exulting thankfulness he could not contain himself, but, wherever he went, began _to blaze abroad the matter_, so that crowds gathered round the Saviour, and, unable to enter Capernaum (Mk. i. 45), He was fain to remain in secluded places, where He continued in prayer (Lk. v. 16) and ministered unto such as sought Him (Mk. i. 45).

After the subsidence, however, of the first excitement, He returned to Capernaum (Mk. ii. 1), and either in His own abode (Mk. ii. 1), or possibly that of Peter, preached the word to the multitudes, who flocked thither. During His absence there had arrived not only from Galilee, but even from Judæa and Jerusalem (Lk. v. 17), Pharisees and lawyers, who insidiously watched all that He did. As, then, He was proclaiming the doctrines of the kingdom in their presence, an incident occurred, which roused in no small degree the ill-will of these doctors of the law. Four men approached the chamber where the Saviour was, bearing upon a litter a helpless paralytic, and finding an entrance in the usual way impracticable, they bore the man up the outside staircase, and let him down through the roof into His presence.

Perceiving their faith, the Saviour was ready to bestow upon the object of so much solicitude the boon they craved. But, instead of assuring him of the cure of his malady, He addressed the paralytic with the words _Son, thy sins be forgiven thee_. This expression, more startling than anything He had yet said, inasmuch as it implied a distinct equality with God in respect to one of His most incommunicable attributes, roused much disputing among the watchful emissaries from Jerusalem. Was not this a blasphemous utterance, for who could forgive sins, save God only? But, unmoved by their dark suspicions, and knowing the secret thoughts of their hearts, the Holy One bade the man rise, take up his bed, and walk, which he straightway did, and so revealed the completeness of his restored powers to the astonishment of all the spectators, who confessed that they had _seen strange things that day_, and _glorified God, who had given such power unto men_ (Lk. v. 26; Mtt. ix. 8).

Overpowered by their wonder at this signal miracle, the Pharisees and Scribes did not give further vent to their indignation at this claim to exercise the awful power of forgiving sins. But their national prejudices were soon to receive a still greater shock. As He walked by the side of the lake of Gennesaret, the Saviour beheld _sitting at the receipt of custom_, probably at the port of Capernaum, a tax-gatherer named Levi or Matthew[291], the son of Alphæus. Though he belonged to a class above all others hated and despised by Jews of all orders, the Lord did not hesitate to invite him to become one of His immediate followers. The tax-gatherer, who may have had some prior acquaintance with the Prophet of Nazareth, straightway gave up his usual calling, and in honour of his new Master made _a great feast_ (Lk. v. 29; Mk. ii. 15), to which he invited many of his old associates.

When the Scribes and Pharisees beheld Him thus openly associating with a degraded caste, they could not restrain themselves, and openly protested against such an infraction of custom and right behaviour. But they were speedily silenced by His wise reply. If those, amongst whom He sat, were sinners, then to them was it specially meet that He should vouchsafe His presence, for, as the Physician of souls, He had specially come to call _not the righteous but sinners to repentance_ (Mtt. ix. 13; Mk. ii. 17; Lk. v. 31, 32). Nor were they more successful in contrasting His apparent laxity and freedom with the strictness and austerity of the Baptist. The very garments worn by those around, the very wine they were drinking, suggested similes that conveyed the true answer to their objections[292]. _To sew a piece of new cloth on an old_ and ragged garment, to _pour new wine into old bottles_ of skin, was not more foolish than to attempt to unite with the Dispensation He was inaugurating the dead formalities of one which was rapidly passing away for ever (Mtt. ix. 14–17; Mk. ii. 18–22; Lk. v. 33–39).

The day following was a Sabbath, _the second-first Sabbath_[293], as St Luke calls it (Lk. vi. 1), and the Saviour walked through the corn-fields with His disciples, who began to pluck the ears of ripening grain, and to eat them, rubbing them in their hands. Such an act, though not forbidden by the Mosaic code, was declared unlawful by the traditional expounders[294]. The Pharisees, therefore, already scandalized by His assumption of power to forgive sins, and His associating with publicans, now urged a third complaint against His allowing His disciples to do what was unlawful on the Sabbath. But in full and explicit vindication of what they had done, the Saviour not only referred His accusers to the well-known incident in the life of David, when flying from Saul, he ate the shewbread, forbidden to all except the priests (1 Sam. xxi. 6), and to the words of the Prophet, who had declared that God would _have mercy, and not sacrifice_ (Hos. vi. 6), but openly declared that HE, as the Son of Man, was _Lord also of the Sabbath_, which had been _ordained for man, and not man for the sabbath_ (Mtt. xii. 8).

A week afterwards He entered the Synagogue, and descried a man having his right hand withered, occupying, it would seem, a prominent position, and surrounded by Scribes and Pharisees, who were maliciously on the watch to see what He would do, and to obtain matter for accusation (Mtt. xii. 10; Mk. iii. 2; Lk. vi. 7). They now propounded the distinct question whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day. In reply the Saviour reminded them that the Law allowed a man, whose sheep had fallen into a pit, to lift it out on the Sabbath, and enquired whether they deemed it more consistent with the holiness of the day to do good or to do evil, to save life or to slay. Silenced and abashed they had not a word to urge in their own defence, and were obliged to stand by, while He, _looking round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts_ (Mk. iii. 5), bade the man stretch forth his hand, which was instantly restored whole as the other.

Such an exhibition of Divine power, such a calm and unanswerable protest against their narrow bigotry, was more than they could bear. Filled with _madness_ (Lk. vi. 11), the Scribes and Pharisees went forth and called a council (Mtt. xii. 14), and not ashamed to unite with their political opponents, the followers of Herod Antipas (Mk. iii. 6), began to form plans for compassing His death (Mk. iii. 6; Lk. vi. 11).