v. 50 — Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth.

Thus believing he ought to have come, but Christ doth not reject our lack of apprehension; but benefiteth even the stumbling, as God. That then which the man should have been admired for doing, this does he teach him even when he doth it not, revealed alike as the Teacher of things most lovely, and the Giver of good things in prayer. For in Go thy way is Faith: in thy son liveth is the fulfilment of his longings, granted with plenteous and God-befitting Authority.

CyrJn 2.50.1

51 The man believed the word that Jesus said to him, and went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.

CyrJn 2.50.2

The one command of the Saviour healeth two souls. For in the nobleman it worketh unwonted faith, the child it rescueth from bodily death. Which is healed first it is hard to say. Both, I suppose, simultaneously, the disease taking its departure at the command of the Saviour. And his servants meeting him tell him of the healing of the child, shewing at the same time the swiftness of the Divine commands (Christ ordering this very wisely), and by the fulfilment of his hope, speedily confirming their master weak in faith.

CyrJn 2.50.3

52, 53, 54 He therefore enquired of them the hour when he began to amend; and they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when He was come out of Judaea into Galilee.

CyrJn 2.50.4

He enquires of them the hour of the turn for the better of the sick child, to prove whether it coincides with the time of the grace. When he had learnt that thus it was, and no otherwise, he is saved with his whole house, attributing the power of the miracle to the Saviour Christ, and bringing to Him a firmer faith as a fruit of thank-offering for these things.

CyrJn 2.50.5

Chap. v.2, 3, 4 After this was the feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem the pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel of the Lord used to go down at a certain season into the pool, and trouble the water: whosoever therefore first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

CyrJn 2.50.6

Not for nothing does the blessed Evangelist straightway connect with what has been said the Saviour's return thence to Jerusalem: but his aim probably was to shew how superior in obedience were the aliens to the Jews, how great a difference of habit and manners is seen between them. For thus and in no other way could we learn, that by the just judgment of God Who ruleth all and knoweth not to accept the person of man, Israel with reason falleth from the hope, and the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in in his place. It is not hard by looking at the contrast of the chapters to test what has been said. He shewed therefore that He had by one miracle saved the city of the Samaritans, by one likewise the nobleman, and by it had profited full surely (I ween) and exceeding much those who were therein. Having by these things testified the extreme readiness of the aliens to obedience, he brings the Miracle-worker back to Jerusalem, and shews Him accomplishing a God-befitting act. For He wondrously frees the paralytic from a most inveterate disease even as He had the nobleman's son just dying. But the one believed with his whole house, and confessed that Jesus is God, while the others. who ought to have been astonished, straightway desire to kill, and persecute, as though blasphemously transgressing, their Benefactor, themselves against themselves pronouncing more shameful condemnation in that they are found to fall short of the understanding of the aliens, and their piety towards Christ. And this it was which was spoken of them in the Psalms, as to our Lord Jesus, Thou shalt make them the back. For they having been set in the first rank because of the election of the fathers, will come last and after the calling of the Gentiles. For when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, then shall all Israel be saved.

CyrJn 2.50.7

This line of thought the well-arranged order of the compilation of chapters brings forth to us. But we will make accurate inquiry part by part of the meaning of single verses.

CyrJn 2.50.8

5, 6 And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time,

CyrJn 2.50.9

The Jews having celebrated their feast of unleavened bread, in which it is their custom to kill the sheep, to wit, at the time of the Passover, Christ departeth from Jerusalem, and mingleth with the Samaritans and aliens, and teacheth among them, being grieved at the stubbornness of the Jews. And having barely returned at the holy Pentecost (for this was the next solemnity in Jerusalem and at no great interval), He heals at the waters of the pool the paralytic, who had passed long time in sickness (for it was even his thirty-eighth year): but who had not yet attained unto the perfect number of the Law, I speak of four times ten or forty.

CyrJn 2.50.10

Here then will end the course of the history; but we must transform again the typical letter unto its spiritual interpretation. That Jesus grieved departs from Jerusalem after the killing of the sheep, goes to the Samaritans and Galileans, and preaches among them the word of salvation, what else will this mean, save His actual withdrawal from the Jews, after His sacrifice and Death at Jerusalem upon the Precious Cross, when He at length began to freely give Himself to them of the Gentiles and aliens, bidding it to be shewn to His Disciples after His Resurrection, that He goeth before them all into Galilee? But His return again at the fulfilment of the weeks of holy Pentecost to Jerusalem, signifies as it were in types and darkly, that there will be of His Loving Kindness a return of our Saviour to the Jews in the last ages of the present world, wherein they who have been saved through faith in Him, shall celebrate the all-holy feasts of the saving Passion. But that the paralytic is healed before the full time of the law, signifies again by a corresponding type, that Israel having blasphemously raged against Christ, will be infirm and paralytic and will spend a long time in doing nothing; yet will not depart to complete punishment, but will have some visitation from the Saviour, and will himself too be healed at the pool by obedience and faith. But that the number forty is perfect according to the Divine Law, will be by no means hard to learn by them who have once read the Divine Scriptures. 7 Jesus saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered Him,

CyrJn 2.50.11

An evident proof of the extreme goodness of Christ, that He doth not wait for entreaties from the sick, but forecometh their request by His Loving Kindness. For He runneth, as you see, to him as he lieth, and compassionateth him that was sick without comfort. But the enquiry whether he would like to be relieved from his infirmity was not that of one asking out of ignorance a thing manifest and evident to all, but of one stirring up to more earnest desire, and inciting to most diligent entreaty. The question whether he willed to obtain what he longed for is big with a kind of force and expression, that He has the power to give, and is even now ready thereto, and only waits for the request of him who receiveth the grace.

CyrJn 2.50.12