IN this chapter we find the path of rejection no longer concealed. The second Sabbath is marked by the Lord’s entrance into circumstances similar to those under which David suffered, in the first journey of his rejection, from the hand of Saul. The disciples, the Lord’s companions in His rejection, being hungry, rubbed the ears of corn in their hands as they passed through the cornfields on the Sabbath day. He who entered the world with no better reception than a manger, found ere long no place in it to lay His head. The ruthless Saul of His day pressed the companions of the rejected Jesus to unusual expedients to relieve their utter need. The scribes and Pharisees would value the day of rest (when the Lord of it had none) more than the Lord Himself. They would rest in their wretchedness and infirmities; He would not “rest till He had finished the thing.” (Ruth 3:1818Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day. (Ruth 3:18).) He would remove the hindrances; He sought God’s rest, not man’s rest. He would not rest till He could cast His eye to the utmost limit, and reassure the heart of God again with, “Behold, all is very good.” Thus He first rested; thus He will eternally rest. He is now working on to that wondrous point, and hence on the next Sabbath He heals a remarkable symbol of Israel’s state of incapacity, “the withered right hand.” “The arm clean dried up” (Zech. 11) too Plainly told the powerlessness of the nation. The scribes and Pharisees could keep a Sabbath in utter unconsciousness of their condition. The Healer of the breach, the Restorer of paths to dwell in, would lay the foundation for everlasting rest; and hence, on the man with the withered hand, He enacts the mercies He was ready to administer to the whole house of Israel. His word, “stretch forth thy hand,” to him their representative, was but indicative of His mind to the entire constituency, and by them ought to have been hailed as such; but instead of this, they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus. Thus they despised the first dawning’s of the Sabbath of God. Jesus retires above the world to the mountains, to seek abstraction with God. The more rejected and painful His path, the more did His soul seek, alone and apart from all here, solace with God.
Another day dawns, and the faithful servant enters on His duties again. He now associates with Himself a distinct and remarkable number of disciples, whom He calls messengers or apostles. The service must not fail from want of’ hands, or be denied from want of witnesses; and again He stands on “the plains” of this world to re-exhibit His graciousness and tender mercies; for to the great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon, “there went virtue out of Him and healed them all;” “and they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.” He then turns to His disciples, and enunciates the principles of His kingdom; not as to what grace effects for us, but what is required of us as heirs of this kingdom; they rather declare our responsibility than our capability—the law of the kingdom, not the grace of the kingdom—and opens it to everyone worthy of it. The good tree and the good man are to be valued, irrespective of everything; the corrupt tree and the evil man are to be rejected, irrespective of any original claim; and this practically we learn in the opening of the seventh chapter.