God's rest in creation was disturbed and His Sabbath broken by sin. One of two things must take place:unsparing judgment, or forgiving mercy. It was in God's heart to show mercy, and He found a way whereby He could judge the sin and show mercy to the sinner. The answer to God's holy judgment, " Dying, thou shalt die," was found in Him who in the counsels of eternity had said, " Lo, I come to do Thy will." To accomplish that will Christ became man, glorified God in the work of the cross perfectly as to man's sin, and laid a righteous basis in His death for the fresh actings of God in grace. He would bring in a new creation and a new man. God's Sabbath being broken, He must work afresh.

The Spirit has recorded in Scripture seven miracles of Christ wrought on the Sabbath-a lovely picture of grace acting in the scene of man's ruin. That which the Spirit of God is now accomplishing is shadowed in these miracles. The beginning of God's work is to give spiritual eyesight. This was part of Paul's commission to the Gentiles, "to open their eyes." In John 9 a man blind from his birth becomes the subject of God's work. Jesus anoints his eyes with clay, and sends him to the pool of Si-loam. At the bidding of Jesus he washed, and came seeing. The sin of the man, or of his parents, was not in question here. The works of God were to be made manifest in him. The close of the chapter shows us that it was done in order that he might see and know God revealed in His Son. The Son was revealing the Father. The effect of opened eyes is that in the virtues and perfections of Jesus, God, in His own blessed nature and actings of grace toward man, becomes known to those who see.

In chapter 5 of the same Gospel we find a man without strength lying at the pool of Bethesda. Bethesda means "the house of mercy;" but it was mercy in connection with a legal system; hence an effort was needed to obtain it which was beyond the power of the man who lay there. In Jesus mercy abounded toward him, and when he was without strength the word of Jesus gave him power to rise and carry that whereon helpless he once lay. His reply to legal objectors was, '' He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk." Christ's reply to them was, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Thus we see not only the opening of the eyes-the giving of light- but the quickening power of the word of the Son of God, introducing to a path of life and obedience.

In Luke's Gospel we find five other miracles wrought on the Sabbath day. In chapter 4 a man possessed by a spirit of an unclean demon is found with God's people in the synagogue. He asks Jesus to let him alone. His only thought is that the Holy One of God had come to destroy. He had come to destroy the works of the devil, but not His creature, man. "Hold thy peace, and come out of him," proved that the stronger than Satan was there. He had bound him in the wilderness, and He was now spoiling his goods. In a far greater way He annulled his power at the cross. The believer is delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

Immediately Jesus left the synagogue He entered a house where lay a woman (Simon's wife's mother) taken with a great fever. A type of the tossing restlessness and feverish excitement of man's state. One word from Jesus and the fevered, restless state is over, and she finds her joy in ministering to the One that healed her, and to the household.
In chapter 13 we get a woman with a spirit of infirmity. She was "bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself." In her we see the power of Satan over a daughter of Abraham. Jesus laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight. What was the effect ? She glorified God. Bowed down to earth as she was, her head is now lifted up in praise, in response to the goodness and compassion of God which came to her in Jesus.

Turning back to Luke 6, it is again the Sabbath day. In the synagogue is a man with a withered hand. Watched by the Pharisees, Jesus asks, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil ? to save life, or to destroy it ?" There was no response. Man's heart was incapable of taking in God's goodness, shut up, as it was, in legal observance; but their badness did not hinder His goodness. "Stretch forth thy hand." He stretched it out, and it was restored whole. Finally, in chapter 14, we find a man with dropsy. Helpless and hopeless in himself, he also becomes an example of the compassionate goodness of God. The pleasure of God to heal and bless in whatever condition man is found is again expressed. Like as the owner of an ox in a pit would not have hesitated on the Sabbath to lift it out, so the blessed Lord shows that He was here to rescue perishing man, as an expression of God's goodness rising above all that sin had done, and for the delight of his own heart. Every miracle proclaimed that God is good, and doeth good. "He took him, and healed him, and let him go." It has been well said, Christ never claimed the service of those whom He healed; it was not legal obedience He sought. He moved about among men, restoring that which He took not away; and He allowed grace to do its own work. It was not the law-giver claiming, but God as a giver:the Father and the Son working. He would open blind eyes and unstop deaf ears. He would give ability to walk, and capacity to serve. He would deliver from Satan, and remove unrest from man's fevered heart and brain; and He can cause the love, grace and goodness of God to bring in a suited response. A worshiping heart and devoted service get their spring from grace. So Paul said, "I labored more abundantly than they all:yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." May this be the effect produced in us, as we contemplate the gracious ministry of the Son of the Father on the Sabbath Day! H. N.