n this
particular his case is not unique, for we read that Christ admonished
another, whom He healed, to sin no more lest a worse thing befall
him.[417] We are not warranted, however, in assuming that all bodily
ills are the result of culpable sin; and against such a conception
stands the Lord's combined instruction and rebuke to those who, in the
case of a man born blind, asked who had sinned, the man or his parents
to bring so grievous an affliction upon him, to which inquiry our Lord
replied that the man's blindness was due neither to his own sin nor to
that of his parents.[418]

In many instances, however, disease is the direct result of individual
sin. Whatever may have been the measure of past offense on the part of
the man suffering from palsy, Christ recognized his repentance together
with the faith that accompanied it, and it was the Lord's rightful
prerogative to decide upon the man's fitness to receive remission of his
sins and relief from his bodily affliction. The interrogative response
of Jesus to the muttered criticism of the scribes, Pharisees, and
doctors, has been interpreted in many ways. He inquired which was
easier, to say, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," or to say, "Arise, and take
up thy bed, and walk." Is it not a rational explanation that, when
spoken authoritatively by Him, the two expressions were of allied
meaning? The circumstance should have been a sufficient demonstration to
all who heard, that He, the Son of Man, claimed and possessed the right
and the power to remit both physical and spiritual penalties, to heal
the body of visible disease, and to purge the spirit of the no less real
malady of sin. In the presence of people of all classes Jesus thus
openly asserted His divinity, and affirmed the same by a miraculous
manifestation of power.

The charge of blasphemy, which the rabbinical critics formulated in
their minds against the Christ, was not to end as a mental conception of
theirs, nor to be nullified by our Lord's later remarks. It was through
perjured testimony that He finally received unrighteous condemnation and
was sent to His death.[419] Already, in that house at Capernaum, the
shadow of the cross had fallen athwart the course of His life.

PUBLICANS AND SINNERS.

From the house Jesus repaired to the seaside, whither the people
followed Him; there He taught them again. At the close of His discourse
He walked farther and saw a man named Levi, one of the publicans[420] or
of