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| Concerning the Multitudes Who Were Healed. Comparison of the Mountain Where Jesus Sat to the Church.
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18. Concerning
the Multitudes Who Were Healed. Comparison of the Mountain Where
Jesus Sat to the Church.
“And Jesus departed
thence,”—manifestly, from what has been said before,
from the parts of Tyre and Sidon,—“and came nigh unto
the sea of Galilee,”5526
which is commonly
called the Lake of Gennesaret, and again went up into the mountain
where He went up and sat. We may say, then, that into this
mountain where Jesus sits, not only the sound in health go up, but
along with the sound, those also who were suffering from various
disorders. And, perhaps, this mountain to which Jesus went up and
sat is that which is more commonly called the Church, which has been
set up through the word of God over the rest of the world and the men
upon it; whither go not the disciples only, leaving the multitudes as
in the case of the beatitudes, but great multitudes who were not
accused themselves of being deaf or suffering from any affection, but
who had such along with themselves. For you may see, along with
the multitudes who come to this mountain where the Son of God sits,
some who have become deaf to the things promised, and others blind in
soul and not looking at the true light, and others who are lame and not
able to walk according to reason, and others who are maimed and not
able to work according to reason. Those, accordingly, who are
suffering in soul from such things, though they go up along with the
multitudes into the mountain where Jesus was, so long as they are
outside of the feet of Jesus, are not healed by Him; but when, as men
suffering from such disorders, they are cast by the multitude at His
feet,5527
and at the extremities of the body of
Christ, not being worthy to obtain such things so far as they
themselves are concerned, they are then healed by Him. And when
you see in the congregation of what is more commonly called the church
the catechumens cast behind those who are at the extreme end of it, and
as it were at the feet of the body of Jesus—the
church—coming to it with their own deafness and blindness and
lameness and crookedness, and in time cured according to the Word, you
would not err in saying that such having gone up with the multitudes of
the church to the mountain where Jesus was, are cast at His feet and
are healed; so that the multitude of the church is astonished at
beholding transformations which have taken place from so great evils to
that which is better, so that it might say, those who were formerly
dumb afterwards speak the word of God, and the lame walk, the prophecy
of Isaiah being fulfilled, not only in things bodily but in things
spiritual, which said, “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart,
and the tongue of him that hath an impediment in his speech be
plain.”5528
And there,
unless the expression, “the lame man shall leap as an
hart,” is to be taken as accidental, we will say that those
formerly lame, and who now through
the power of Jesus leap as an hart are not without design compared to a
hart, which is a clean animal, and hostile to serpents and cannot at
all be injured by their poison. But also, in respect of the fact
that the dumb are seen speaking is the prophecy fulfilled which said,
“And the tongue of him that hath an impediment shall be
plain,” or rather that which said, “Hear ye deaf;”
but the blind see according to the prophecy following, “Hear ye
deaf, and ye blind look up that ye may see.”5529
Now the blind see, when they see the
world and from the exceeding great beauty of the things created they
contemplate the Creator corresponding in greatness and beauty to them;
and when they see clearly “the invisible things of God Himself
from the creation of the world, which are perceived through the things
that are made;”5530
that is, they see
and understand with care and clearness. Now the multitudes seeing
these things, glorified the God of Israel,5531
and glorify Him in the persuasion that it is the same God, who is the
Father of Him who healed those previously mentioned, and the God of
Israel. For He is not the God of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles.5532
Let us then
cause to go up along with ourselves to the mountain where Jesus
sits—His church—those who wish to go up to it along with
us, the deaf, the blind, the lame, the maimed and many others, and let
us cast them at the feet of Jesus that He may heal them, so that the
multitudes are astonished at their healing; for it is not the disciples
who are described as wondering at such things, although at that time
they were present with Jesus, as is manifest from the words, “And
Jesus called unto Him His disciples and said, I have compassion on the
multitudes,”5533
etc.; and perhaps
if you attend carefully to the words, “There came unto Him great
multitudes,”5534
you would find that
the disciples at that time did not come to Him, but had begun long ago
to follow Him and followed Him into the mountain. But there came
unto Him those who were inferior to the disciples, and were then for
the first time approaching Him, who had not the same experience as
those who had gone up with them. Observe, moreover, in the Gospel
who are described as having followed Jesus, and who as having come to
Him, and who as having been brought to Him, and the division between
those who go before and of those who follow; and of those who came, who
came to Him in the house, and who when He was elsewhere. For by
observation, and by comparing things spiritual with spiritual, you
would find many things worthy of the accurate wisdom in the
Gospels.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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