Mark 2

Mark 2:1

H. A Paralytic Healed (2:1-12) 2:1-4 Soon after the Lord entered Capernaum … many gathered around the house where He was. Word had spread quickly, and people were anxious to see the Miracle-Worker in action. Whenever God moves in power, people are attracted. The Savior faithfully preached the word to them as they clustered round the door. At the rear of the crowd was a paralytic, carried by four others on an improvised stretcher. The crowd hindered his getting near the Lord Jesus.

There usually are hindrances in bringing others to Jesus. But faith is ingenious. The four carriers climbed the outside stairs to the roof, uncovered a portion of the roof, and lowered the paralytic to the ground floorperhaps to a courtyard in the middlebringing him near the Son of God. Someone has nicknamed these good friends Sympathy, Cooperation, Originality, and Persistence. We should each strive to be a friend who displays these qualities. 2:5 Jesus, impressed by their faith,. . . said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now this seemed to be a strange thing to say. It was a question of paralysis, not sin, wasn’t it? Yes, but Jesus went beyond the symptoms to the cause. He would not heal the body and neglect the soul. He would not remedy a temporal condition, and leave an eternal condition untouched. So He said, Your sins are forgiven. It was a wonderful announcement. Nowon this earthin this lifethe man’s sins were forgiven. He didn’t have to wait till the Day of Judgment. He had the present assurance of forgiveness. So do all who put their faith in the Lord Jesus. 2:6, 7 The scribes quickly caught on to the significance of the statement. They were well enough trained in Bible doctrine to know that only God can forgive sins. Anyone who professed to forgive sins was therefore claiming to be God. Up to this point, their logic was correct. But instead of acknowledging the Lord Jesus to be God, they accused Him in their hearts of speaking blasphemies. 2:8, 9 Jesus read their thoughts, a proof in itself of His supernatural power. He asked them this provocative question: Is it easier to pronounce a man’s sins forgiven or his paralysis cured? Actually it is just as easy to say one as the other. But it is equally impossible, humanly speaking, to do the one as it is to do the other. 2:10-12 The Lord had already pronounced the man’s sins forgiven. Yes, but had it really taken place? The scribes could not see the man’s sins forgiven, therefore they would not believe. In order to demonstrate that the man’s sins had really been forgiven, the Savior gave the scribes something they could see. He told the paralytic man to get up, to carry his straw pad, and walk. The man responded instantly. The people were amazed. They had never seen anything like this before. But the scribes did not believe, in spite of the most overwhelming evidence. Belief involves the will, and they did not want to believe.

Mark 2:13

I. The Call of Levi (2:13-17) 2:13, 14 It was while He was teaching by the sea that Jesus saw Levi collecting taxes. We know Levi as Matthew, who later wrote the first Gospel. He was a Jew, but his occupation was very un-Jewish, considering he collected taxes for the despised Roman government! Such men were not always noted for their honestyin fact, they were looked down upon, like harlots, as the scum of society. Yet it is to Levi’s eternal credit that when he heard the call of Christ, he dropped everything and followed Him. May each of us be like him in instant and unquestioning obedience.

It might seem like a great sacrifice at the time, but in eternity it will be seen as no sacrifice at all. As the missionary martyr Jim Elliot said, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.2:15 A banquet was arranged at Levi’s house so he could introduce his friends to the Lord Jesus. Most of his friends were like himselftax-collectors and sinners. Jesus accepted the invitation to be present with them. 2:16 The scribes and Pharisees thought they had caught Him in a serious fault. Instead of going directly to Him, they went to His disciples and tried to undermine their confidence and loyalty. How was it that their Master ate and drank with tax-collectors and sinners?2:17 Jesus heard it and reminded them that healthy people don’t need a doctoronly those who are ill. The scribes thought they were well, therefore they did not recognize their need of the Great Physician. The tax-collectors and sinners admitted their guilt and their need of help. Jesus came to call sinners like themnot self-righteous people. There is a lesson in this for us. We should not shut ourselves up in Christianized communities. Rather we should seek to befriend the ungodly in order to introduce them to our Lord and Savior. In befriending sinners, we should not do anything that would compromise our testimony, nor allow the unsaved to drag us down to their level. We should take the initiative in guiding the friendship into positive channels of spiritual helpfulness. It would be easier to isolate oneself from the wicked world, but Jesus didn’t do it, and neither should His followers. The scribes thought they would ruin the Lord’s reputation by calling Him a friend of sinners. But their intended insult has become an endearing tribute. All the redeemed gladly acknowledge Him as the friend of sinners, and will love Him eternally for it.

Mark 2:18

J. Controversy about Fasting (2:18-22) 2:18 The disciples of John the Baptist and of the Pharisees practiced fasting as a religious exercise. In the OT, it was instituted as an expression of deep sorrow. But it had lost much of its meaning and had become a routine ritual. They noticed that Jesus’ disciples did not fast, and perhaps there was a twinge of envy and self-pity in their hearts when they asked the Lord for an explanation. 2:19, 20 In reply, He compared His disciples to companions of a bridegroom. He Himself was the Bridegroom. As long as He was with them, there was no occasion for an outward demonstration of sorrow. But the days were coming when He would be taken away; then they would have occasion to fast. 2:21 Immediately the Lord added two illustrations to announce the arrival of a New Era which was incompatible with the previous one. The first illustration involved a new patch made of cloth that has not been shrunk. If used to repair an old garment, it will inevitably shrink and something will have to give. The garment, made of older cloth, will be weaker than the patch and will tear again wherever the patch is sewed to it. Jesus was comparing the Old Dispensation to the old garment. God never intended Christianity to patch up Judaism; it was a new departure. The sorrow of the Old Era, expressed in fasting, must give way to the joy of the New. 2:22 The second illustration involved new wine in old wineskins. The leather wineskins lost their power to stretch. If new wine was put into them, the pressure built up by the fermentation would burst the skins. The new wine typifies the joy and power of the Christian faith. The old wineskins depict the forms and rituals of Judaism. New wine needs new skins. It was no use for John’s disciples and the Pharisees to put the Lord’s followers under the bondage of sorrowful fasting, as it had been practiced. The joy and effervescence of the new life must be allowed to express themselves. Christianity has always suffered from man’s attempt to mix it with legalism. The Lord Jesus taught that the two are incompatible. Law and grace are opposing principles.

Mark 2:23

K. Controversy about the Sabbath (2:23-28) 2:23, 24 This incident illustrates the conflict Jesus had just taught between the traditions of Judaism and the liberty of the gospel. As He went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, … His disciples picked some grain to eat. This didn’t violate any law of God. But according to the hair-splitting traditions of the elders, the disciples had broken the Sabbath by reaping and perhaps even by threshing (rubbing the grain in their hands to remove the husks)! 2:25, 26 The Lord answered them using an incident in the OT. David, though anointed as king, had been rejected, and instead of reigning, was being hunted like a partridge. One day when his provisions were gone, he went to the house of God and used the showbread to feed his men and himself. Ordinarily this showbread was forbidden to any but the priests, yet David was not rebuked by God for doing this. Why? Because things were not right in Israel. As long as David was not given his rightful place as king, God allowed him to do what ordinarily would be illegal. This was the case with the Lord Jesus. Though anointed, He was not reigning. The very fact that His disciples had to pick grain as they traveled showed that things were not right in Israel. The Pharisees themselves should have been extending hospitality to Jesus and His disciples instead of criticizing them. If David had actually broken the law by eating the showbread, yet was not rebuked by God, how much more blameless were the disciples who, under similar circumstances, had broken nothing but the traditions of the elders. Verse 26 says that David ate the showbread when Abiathar was high priest. According to 1Sa_21:1, Ahimelech was priest at the time. Abiathar was his father. It may be that the high priest’s loyalty to David influenced him to permit this unusual departure from the law. 2:27, 28 Our Lord closed His discourse by reminding the Pharisees that the Sabbath was instituted by God for man’s benefit, not for his bondage. He added that the Son of Man is also Lord of the SabbathHe had given the Sabbath in the first place. Therefore He had authority to decide what was permissible and what was forbidden on that day. Certainly the Sabbath was never intended to prohibit works of necessity or deeds of mercy. Christians are not obligated to keep the Sabbath. That day was given to the nation of Israel.

The distinctive day of Christianity is the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week. However, it is not a day encrusted with legalistic do’s and don’t’s. Rather it is a day of privilege when, free from secular employments, believers may worship, serve, and attend to the culture of their souls. For us it is not a question, Is it wrong to do this on the Lord’s Day? but rather How may I best use this day to the glory of God, to the blessing of my neighbor, and to my spiritual good?