22. (Vers. 11.). He answered them. Here the second point is touched upon, namely the devolution of the calumny upon the healer, because that healed sick man excuses himself by the command of the healer. Therefore he says: He who made me well, by his power, he said to me: Take up your mat and walk, commanding by his own authority. And certainly, he who had so great a power well had the authority for so great a command; whence he said in Matthew nine: "But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic: Arise, take up your bed and go into your house." If he could forgive sins, then he could dispense from the precept concerning the Sabbath. But the Jews, not heeding this, inquire about him so that they might calumniate him. On account of which he says:
23. (Vers. 12.). They therefore asked him: Who is that man, a weak man, not God almighty, who said to you: Take up your bed and walk? who commanded against the Law, not who healed by power. They seek evil things, they are silent about good things: Proverbs 11: "He who seeks good things rises well at dawn: the searcher of evils shall be oppressed by them." And because they seek with evil intent, therefore they fail in their inquiry. Therefore he says:
24. (Vers. 13.). But he who had been made well did not know who it was: therefore they necessarily failed in their inquiry: the Psalm: "They failed who searched with scrutiny." Therefore it was said to the Jews below in the seventh chapter: "You will seek me, and you will not find me"; because they were not seeking in order to possess, but in order to persecute.
25. But Jesus withdrew. Here the third point is touched upon, namely the manifestation of Christ sought and not found, which was made not in the crowd, but in the Church. Therefore he says: But Jesus withdrew from the crowd gathered in the place, namely from the multitude that was in the place of healing: therefore that man did not know him, because he had remained in the crowd.
26. (Vers. 14.). Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, namely when he had withdrawn from the crowd. Augustine: "Placed in the crowd he did not recognize Jesus, but afterward in the temple": in which we are taught that whoever wishes to attain the vision of God should flee the crowd of his own affections and the wickedness of men and approach the temple of interior prayer. Hence at the raising of the girl he commanded the tumultuous crowd to be cast out, Matthew 9. And because the Lord's mercy anticipates us, he does not say that he himself found Jesus, but that Jesus found him: whence he did not even recognize him except through the instruction which he gave. Therefore he adds: Jesus says to him, instructing as a good physician: Behold, you have been made well, he recalls the benefit: now sin no more, he dissuades from sin: lest something worse befall you, he threatens with danger: Luke 11: "The last state of that man became worse than the first."
27. (Vers. 15.). That man went away. Here the fourth point is touched upon, namely the persecution of the manifested Christ. For the Jews learned, through that man's report, that Christ had made him well. Hence he says: That man went away and announced to the Jews, who had namely inquired of him, that it was Jesus who had made him well. He did not say this by way of detraction or accusation, but by announcing the name of Christ: hence the Gloss: "He announces salvation to the Jews, that they might follow: but they on the contrary persecute." Therefore he adds:
28. (Vers. 16.). For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did these things on the Sabbath. For he seemed to wish to destroy their Law and to oppose the Lord, who had given the commandment concerning the keeping of the Sabbath: below in the ninth chapter: "This man is not from God, who does not keep the Sabbath": Luke 6: "The scribes and Pharisees were watching Jesus, whether he would heal on the Sabbath."
29. (Vers. 17.). But Jesus answered. Here the fifth point is touched upon, namely obstinacy in persecution, which followed upon the Lord's response showing that he was not breaking the Sabbath. On account of which he says: But Jesus answered them, namely the Jews who were persecuting him: My Father works even until now, even on the Sabbath, and yet does not break the Sabbath: and I work, namely by cooperating with the Father even on the Sabbath. If therefore God does not break the Sabbath, neither do I break it: Matthew 12: "The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath"; and because he is Lord, he can work on it without any reproach. From this response the Jews were hardened in malice, by which they ought to have been pacified. Therefore he adds, namely on account of this response:
30. (Vers. 18.). Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him: because they could not contradict his response, they sought to kill him: below in chapter seven: "Why do you seek to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you"? Because he not only broke the Sabbath, according to their judgment, but also called God his Father: his, in the singular: making himself equal to God, which they considered blasphemy: below in chapter ten: "We do not stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God"; making, as though he were not God, but was making himself God.
QUESTIONS.
31. Question I. But the question is raised here: since the precept concerning the Sabbath is a precept of the first tablet, in which, as Bernard says, God cannot dispense, it seems that the Lord acted wrongly by breaking the Sabbath.
If you say that in the precept there is something moral and something ceremonial: and insofar as it is moral it pertains to the first tablet, and thus he did not break it; insofar as it is ceremonial it does not pertain to the Decalogue, and thus he did break it;
Then 1. the question is: what in it is moral, and what is ceremonial?
2. Likewise the question is: why does the third precept have a ceremonial observance annexed to it more than any other commandment of the Decalogue?
And it seems that it should not be mixed with it, just as shadow should not be mixed with truth.
I respond: It must be said that, as has been stated, the commandment concerning the Sabbath has something moral, and also has something ceremonial: and therefore in the Law it is placed not only among the moral precepts, but also among the ceremonial ones.
1. As to what is asked, namely what in it is moral and ceremonial: I say that in that commandment man is commanded to be free for God, so that he may become a temple of God through love, and this is the moral element. Furthermore, there is in it the signification of the day, and besides this the cessation from all servile works; and these two are ceremonial elements.
2. To what is asked — why does it have ceremony more closely joined to it? — Augustine responds, in his letter to Januarius, that it is the precept of love, because the third precept regards the third Person in the Trinity, and love is commanded therein. Therefore, to show that all ceremonial observances are to be referred to the love of God and neighbor and are to be explained toward that end, he joined ceremonial observance to the commandment of love. — Another reason can be given: that in the commandment of love the other commandments are directed and fulfilled.
Again, in devoting oneself to God and considering the divine law, a person becomes diligent in this kind of observance of the law. Because therefore in this commandment love and devotion to God are commanded, the observance of all commandments depends on this; and therefore, if this were neglected and given over to oblivion, the rest would be neglected. Therefore, lest it be given over to oblivion, the Lord designated a day; lest it also be neglected on account of other things, he commanded cessation from all other things; and this is ceremonial.
32. Question II. Likewise it is asked whether the Lord dissolved the commandment concerning the Sabbath with respect to ceremonial observance.
That he did not, it seems: because nothing is prohibited there except servile work, and the Lord did no servile work on it; whence in Luke fourteen the Lord shows that he did not dissolve it.
But that he did dissolve it, it seems: because the Jews persecuted him on account of this.
I respond: It must be said that the observance of what was ceremonial in the Sabbath was threefold, namely spiritual, literal, and customary. The spiritual he did not dissolve nor could he dissolve, but he fulfilled it; the literal he could have dissolved, yet he did not dissolve it, because he did no servile work; the customary he dissolved and commanded to be dissolved: he dissolved it when he made clay from spittle; he commanded it to be dissolved when he commanded the mat to be taken up. For this was not against the literal observance, but against the customary and superimposed one.
33. Question III. Likewise an objection is raised concerning what the Evangelist says, that the Jews persecuted Jesus because he did these things on the Sabbath: if the Lord could equally well do this on other days as on the Sabbath, it seems that the Lord himself stirred up the persecution of the Jews against himself for no fitting reason.
I respond: It must be said that the reason for this was the truth of doctrine. For because ceremonial observances were due to cease at Christ's coming, he who was the master of truth was obliged to teach this and show it through his life, so that the truth of the Gospel might remain with us.