The passage just quoted was at the end of his first full year, near the second passover that he attended. The following passage was at his second passover. It may have been within a few days of the other, but whether it was less or more, it was but a short time.
"After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a 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 went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then stepped in first after the troubling of the water was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 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 in that case, he said unto him, Will you be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up your bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day: it is not lawful for you to carry your bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up your bed and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto you, Take up your bed, and walk? And he that was healed knew not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, you are made whole: sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole." (John 5:1-15)
And of course they then knew who it was who had told him to do this "unlawful" thing-to take up his bed and walk, on the Sabbath day.
"And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day." (John 5:16)
We know, and have always known, that persecution is coming on the people who in this day keep the Sabbath of the Lord. Then of all people we need just now to consider the faithfulness of Jesus in Sabbath-keeping. This scripture speaks to us just now.
"Wherefore; holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to him that appointed him," when he was persecuted for keeping the Sabbath. We need his faithfulness in keeping the Sabbath, to hold us faithful in the keeping of it, during the times in which we are now to enter.
Jesus was persecuted for keeping the Sabbath. Then whoever else is persecuted for that is in most blessed company.
Now think of this. Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath being the sign of what he is to mankind, and he being the living expression of the Sabbath in his life, it was impossible for him to do anything on the Sabbath that was not Sab bath- keeping, because the very doing of it was the expression of the meaning of the Sabbath in itself.
But his Sabbath-keeping did not suit the Sabbath ideas of the Pharisees and the doctors of the law and the scribes, and they called it Sabbath-breaking. So he was counted a Sabbathbreaker when he was a Sabbath-keeper. We see people in our day who, like him, are counted Sabbath-breakers when they are Sabbath-keepers. May all such be like him indeed in every other respect.
Now Christ's ideas of the Sabbath are God's ideas of the Sabbath. The Pharisees' ideas of the Sabbath and Sabbathkeeping, being directly the opposite of the Lord Jesus' ideas were wrong.
Therefore the controversy in that day between Christ and the Pharisees and the doctors of the law, was simply whether God's ideas of the Sabbath should prevail, or whether man's ideas of it should prevail. There was no dispute then about what day was the Sabbath, the dispute was as to what the true Sabbath idea is.
In our day it is still the same controversy, but with it there is a dispute as to the day; yet the thought is the same today that it was then,-whether God's idea of the Sabbath, or man's, shall prevail. God says the seventh day is the Sabbath; man says the first day is the Sabbath; so, it is still the same controversy between Christ and the Pharisees of this day that it was between Christ and the Pharisees of that day.
Well, then, as Jesus was persecuted for Sabbath-breaking when he was keeping the Sabbath truly, all people forever are in good company, when they are persecuted for Sabbathbreaking when they are keeping Sabbath.
"Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father works hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God." (John 5:16-18)
By this we further see that the very first open steps that the Pharisees and the doctors of the law ever took against Je- sus Christ to do him harm in any way, were taken because he had not kept the Sabbath to suit them. That was the controversy between Christ and them; and upon this point everything else turned.