ACC ~ John 5 v10

SABBATH LAWS NO LONGER IN EFFECT

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Jesus does not pray to relieve the patient’s sickness in case he [Jesus] should seem to be like one of the holy prophets. Rather, as the Lord of powers, he commands with authority that it be so. He tells him to go home rejoicing, to take his bed on his shoulders, to be a memento to those who would see the might of the one who had healed him. And so the man does as he is asked and by obedience and faith gains the threefold longed for grace…. Christ heals the man on the sabbath, and when healed immediately enjoins him to break through the custom of the law. He induces him to walk on the sabbath, [1] and this while carrying his bed, although God clearly cries aloud by one of the holy prophets, “Neither carry a burden out of your house on the sabbath day.” [2] And no one, I suppose, who is sober-minded would say the man was then a despiser or unruly in the face of the divine commands. They would instead see that, as in a type, Christ was making known to the Jews that they should be healed by obedience and faith in the last times of the world (for this is what I think “the sabbath” signifies, being the last day of the week). But once they have received healing through faith and are remodeled into a new life, it was necessary that the old letter of the law should become of no effect and that the typical worship in shadows and empty Jewish customs should be rejected. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.5. [3]

[1] See Jer 17:22.

[2] Jer 17:22.

[3] LF 43:238-39**.

CARRYING, NOT HEALING, IS THE PROBLEM

AUGUSTINE: They did not charge our Lord with healing on the sabbath since he would have replied that if an ox or an ass of theirs had fallen into a pit, would they not have taken it out on the sabbath day. Rather, they addressed the man as he was carrying his bed, as if to say: Even if the healing could not be delayed, why command the work?… He shields himself under the authority of his healer: The one who made me whole is the one who said to me, “Take up your bed, and walk,” meaning: Why should I not receive a command if I also received a cure from him? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 17.10. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:114-15*.