The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Departed. Euthymius gives the reason. “ As soon as He had healed the man, He withdrew because of the crowd, partly to avoid the praise of the just, and partly to take away occasion for the envy of the unjust.” S. Chrysostom gives another reason : That the man’s testimony in the absence of Jesus might be less liable to suspicion. For if he who was healed had praised Christ to the Jews before His face, he might have seemed to have done it out of favour. But now that he praised Him in His absence, it is evident that he did so from the love of the truth.
Ver. 14. — Afterwards Jesus , &c. The Arabic is, Now thou art healed, return not to sin, lest a worse evil be done thee.
In the Temple. From this it appears that this man who was healed, as soon as he had carried his bed to his house, went to the Temple to give God thanks for His great benefit of healing. As Chrysostom says, “ Assuredly a great mark of piety and reverence. He did not go to the market-place, or the porch ; he did not indulge in pleasure, or ease ; he was occupied in the Temple.”
Sin no more. From hence it is plain that God often sends diseases upon sick persons on account of their sins ; and that this man had been afflicted because of his sins. Thus this paralytic, who had been sick for thirty-eight years, from a time before Christ was born, had committed some crime, which God wished him to suffer for, and expiate, by this protracted disease. Christ therefore tacitly admonishes the man's conscience that he should be mindful of his sin, and be contrite, and avoid it for the time to come. At the same time He intimates that He, being a Prophet, knew this revelation. Wherefore when sickness is sent by God upon any one, let him examine his conscience, and blot out by repentance and confession the sin for which God has sent the sickness, and let him pray to God to pardon his sin, and take away the disease.
I said, often sends , for God sometimes sends diseases upon holy men that he may prove, increase, and crown their patience, as He did in the case of Job, whose whole dispute with his friends turned upon this point ; his friends urging that his sins had given occasion to his being so grievously afflicted, whilst he, on the contrary, contended that he was free from sins, and had not deserved those afflictions. And God in the last chapter adjudges the dispute in his favour, and condemns his friends. The same thing will appear in the case of the man who was born blind (chap, ix.), of whom Christ spake thus, “ Neither did this man sin, nor his parents, that he was born blind.”
Moreover, as Christ healed this sick man’s body at the pool, so did He both by His inward inspiration, and by his external admonition , heal his soul in the Temple. He brought back to his memory the sins of his youth, by reason of which he had deserved so long a sickness, and he moved his heart to contrition for them, and to ask pardon from God, that so he might be justified. Indeed, Christ healed his body for this very reason that He might heal his soul.
Lest a worse thing , &c. “ For,” as Theophylact says, “ he who is not made better by a former punishment is kept for greater torments, as being insensate, and a despiser.” “And this happens,” says Euthymius, “ either in this life, or in the life to come, or in both.” “A relapse is worse than the original disease.” So a relapse into a fault is worse than the fault on account of the greater ingratitude, boldness, impudence.
Ver. 15. — The man went away , and told , &c. Not out of malevolence , but from gratitude, that he might not hide the author of so great a kindness. So Augustine, Chrysostom, and others. “ He went away and told,” says Euthymius, “ not as being wicked, that he might betray, but as being grateful, to disclose who was his benefactor. Because he thought he should be guilty of a crime if he kept silence, therefore he proclaimed the benefit.”
Ver. 16. — Wherefore the Jews persecuted Jesus, &c. Some Greek MS., also the Syriac and Arabic Versions, add, And sought to kill Him. Wherefore, διὰ τοῦτο, on this pretext, for the true cause was envy.
For the Jews, especially the scribes and Pharisees, were envious at this glory of Jesus, and grieved that the people should prefer Him to themselves. They were indignant that their wickedness was reproved by Him, and condemned by His holiness. For they wished to be paid court to as Rabbis, and doctors of the Law, and oracles of wisdom and sanctity.
Ver. 17. — But Jesus answered , &c. “ The Father worketh ,” says S. Augustine (lib. 4, de Gen ., cap. 12), “both affording suitable government to things created, and having in Himself eternal tranquillity : ” for, as he says elsewhere, “ being still He worketh, and working He is at rest.” And after an interval, “The power and virtue of the Creator is the cause of existence of every creature. And if this virtue were ever to cease from governing created things, their forms (species ) would cease at the same time, and all nature would come to an end.” Like as the light in the air vanishes if the sun withdraw his rays, by which light is produced. The meaning is, “ You, O ye scribes, object against Me the law of Sabbatical rest, which God commanded you because He Himself rested on the Sabbath from all His work. But I answer that God on the Sabbath only rested from producing new species of things. But He did not rest in such a manner that He is not every Sabbath continually working, that is to say, governing and preserving the world, and all the things that are in it, moving the heavens, bringing forth one thing out of another, feeding and healing all living things, &c. This, which is work of the highest beneficence, is not servile work, but pious and Divine. Such work is indeed lawful ; yea, it adorns and hallows the Sabbath. So too I, who am the co-equal Son of the Father, always work, and always have wrought the same things with Him. For neither do I work without the Father, nor the Father without Me.” So S. Augustine and others.
Observe the Hebraism : and I work , that is, so, or in like manner , I work. For the word and, when it is the mark of conjunction, since it joins like things, is a sign of comparison and similitude, and means the same thing as thus , as is constantly the case in the Book of Proverbs.
Ver. 18. — Wherefore, &c. His Father, Greek, πατέρα ἴδιον, i.e., His own Father , because Christ alone is the peculiar, and by nature, Son of God.
Making Himself equal with God , because He had said that not merely like things, but that the selfsame things which the Father works, were wrought by Him, and therefore that He in all things co-operated, not as a servant, but as a Son, of the same substance with the Father. As Cyril says, “ Seeing that He was a man, and not knowing that God dwelt in Him, they could not bear that He should call God His Father in a special manner.” The chief priests and scribes therefore wished to kill Jesus, because they feared lest, as His glory increased, their authority should decrease ; indeed lest Jesus, persuading the people that He was God, should be preferred by the people to the priests, and should deprive them of their authority, and should bring in His own new priests and pontiffs, which we see He actually did do.
Ver. 19 . — Verily, Verily , &c. . . . cannot: “not from defect of power,” says Euthymius, “but on account of inseparability. For it is impossible that the Son should do anything which the Father does not.” So S. Chrysostom and S. Augustine. Except , or unless. This word is not here exceptive, signifying the same as but only . It has the same meaning in Matt. xii. 4.
What He seeth : Greek, βλέπῃ, i.e., may see. For it is not before He worketh, but as soon as He seeth the Father working, that He, Christ, worketh with Him. For Christ as God does not produce what is similar, but what is identical with the work of the Father. For the action of the Father, which both see and work together, is the same. I say action, but not the Hypostatic Union, nor the things which depend upon it, for this union has not to do with action, but with the terminus in quo . Wherefore, although the whole Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by their Divine action, have brought about this Hypostatic Union, yet the union itself is terminated in the Son, and does not extend to the Father and the Holy Ghost. Wherefore the Son only, not the Father and the Holy Ghost, became incarnate, and died, &c.
Observe, Christ in this place only means to say that He has received from God the Father His Divine Essence, power, and working, as from His Author. He makes use of the word see , as if the Son did nothing except what He seeth the Father do, or what He sees to be the work of His Father. For children and pupils are wont to imitate the ways and deeds of their fathers and teachers. Christ is speaking after the manner of men, or as amongst men it becomes a son to speak of his father.