History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week - John N. Andrews

1. He had broken the Sabbath. 2. He had made
himself equal with God. The first accusation is
based on these particulars: (1) By his word he had
healed the impotent man. But this violated no law
of God; it only set at naught that tradition which
forbade anything to be done for curing diseases
upon the Sabbath. (2) He had directed the man to
carry his bed. But this as a burden was a mere
trifle,[5] like a cloak or mat, and was designed to
show the reality of his cure, and thus to honor the
Lord of the Sabbath who had healed him.
Moreover, it was not such a burden as the
Scriptures forbid upon the Sabbath. (Compare Jer.
17:21-27 with Nehemiah 13:15-20) (3) Jesus
justified what he had done by comparing his
present act of healing to that work which his Father
had done HITHERTO, i.e., from the beginning of
the creation. Ever since the Sabbath was sanctified
in paradise, the Father, by his providence, had
continued to mankind, even upon the Sabbath, all
the merciful acts by which the human race has been
preserved. This work of the Father was of precisely
the same nature as that which Jesus had now done.
These acts did not argue that the Father had
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