Mark · chapter 2 of 16
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Mark 2 records five clashes between Jesus and the religious leaders. Jesus forgives the sins of a paralyzed man let down through a roof and heals him, calls Levi the tax collector and eats with sinners, explains why his disciples do not fast, and declares that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
After showing Jesus' authority over spirits and sickness in Mark 1, the Gospel now shows his authority over forgiveness, the table and the Sabbath. This chapter opens a series of controversies that runs to Mark 3:6 and explains why the religious leaders begin to oppose Jesus.
Jesus returns to Capernaum, and the house where he is teaching fills so full that no one else can get in. Four men bring a paralyzed man, break open the roof and lower him in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus tells the man that his sins are forgiven. Some scribes think this is blasphemy, since only God can forgive sins. Jesus knows their thoughts and, to show that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive, tells the man to get up and walk. He goes home in full view of everyone, and the crowd glorifies God.
Beside the sea Jesus calls Levi, the son of Alphaeus, who is sitting at his tax booth, and Levi follows him. Then Jesus eats in the house with many tax collectors and sinners. When the scribes of the Pharisees object, he answers that the healthy do not need a doctor but the sick do, and that he came to call sinners, not the righteous.
People ask why the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast while his own do not. Jesus answers with the picture of a wedding: guests do not fast while the bridegroom is with them, though a day will come when the bridegroom is taken away. He adds the sayings about the patch and about new wine in new wineskins. Finally, on a Sabbath, his disciples pluck heads of grain as they walk through the fields; Jesus recalls how David ate the bread of the presence, says the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, and declares that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Seeing the faith of the four friends, Jesus tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven. He addresses the man's deepest need first, not just the visible one, and in doing so raises the question of his authority.
Jesus heals the paralytic to prove that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. The visible healing confirms what no one can check by sight: that the forgiveness is real.
Jesus compares his mission to that of a doctor: he did not come to call those who think themselves righteous but sinners. Anyone who admits their need is welcome at his table.
Jesus teaches that the Sabbath was made for the good of people, not the other way around, and that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He does not abolish the day of rest; he reveals its purpose and its owner.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Because the crowd blocked the way, they opened the roof above Jesus and lowered the mat. — Mark 2:3-4
Answer: They thought he was blaspheming, since only God can forgive sins. — Mark 2:6-7
Answer: Levi, the son of Alphaeus, who got up and followed him. — Mark 2:14
Answer: That the healthy do not need a doctor but the sick do, and that he came to call sinners, not the righteous. — Mark 2:16-17
Answer: Wedding guests, who do not fast while the bridegroom is with them. — Mark 2:19-20
Answer: That the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, and that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. — Mark 2:27-28
The four friends in Mark 2 are a model for the church: they brought someone to Jesus even when it cost effort and disturbed the crowd. In a small group you can ask who needs someone to carry them to Jesus today, in prayer or in a concrete act of help.
The chapter also confronts anyone who feels too respectable to need forgiveness and comforts anyone who feels too broken to be welcomed. Jesus' table is open to the sick who admit their need. Finally, it invites us to examine our religious habits: do they help us love God and people, or have they become a burden that forgets the purpose for which God gave them?
Mark 2 leaves a question hanging: who is this who forgives sins, eats with sinners and is Lord of the Sabbath? In Mark 3 the controversy over the Sabbath reaches a crisis when Jesus heals a withered hand and his opponents begin to plot against him.
Because in Israel's faith only God can forgive sins. Anyone claiming that power without being God seemed to take God's place. Mark shows that Jesus does not back down: he heals the man to prove his authority is real, and the reader sees that Jesus acts with divine authority.
Levi was a tax collector whom Jesus called beside the Sea of Galilee. Mark calls him the son of Alphaeus. Many scholars identify him with Matthew, since Matthew's Gospel tells the same call and names Matthew; Mark, however, does not say so expressly.
Son of Man is a title Jesus uses for himself that echoes the vision of Daniel 7. By calling himself Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus claims authority over the day of rest that God himself established. He does not cancel the rest; he shows it was given for the good of the people.