Several days later Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word spread that he
was there.So many people crowded inside the house that there was no room,
even outside the door, as Jesus was preaching the Gospel-Word
to them. 3 Four men brought a man who was paralyzed, 4 but they could not get close to
Jesus because of the crowd. So they took the roof apart and through the
opening lowered the mat down with the paralyzed man lying on it. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 But some of the religious teachers sitting there were thinking to themselves, 7 “Why is this man speaking like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive
sins except God alone?”
[248] 8 Jesus immediately knew in his spirit what they
were thinking, and asked them, “Why are you thinking like this? 9 Which is
easier: to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get
up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 But so that you may be convinced that the
Son of Man[249] has the authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the
paralyzed man, 11 “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” 12 He got up, immediately picked up his mat, and walked out in front of everyone. They were all astonished and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this before!” 13 Jesus returned to the sea shore, and was teaching the whole crowd that
was coming to him. 14 As he walked by, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting
at the tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him. Levi got up and followed
him.15 That evening Jesus ate dinner at Levi’s house. Many tax collectors and
“sinners”[250]
joined Jesus and his disciples for the meal, because there were
many of these “sinners” who were following Jesus. 16 When the religious
leaders of the Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with such people, they
asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and
sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Healthy people do not
need a doctor, but people who are sick do. I did not come to call upright
people, but sinners.” 18 John’s disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a religious fast. They
came to Jesus and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’
disciples fast, but your disciples do not?” 19 Jesus said to them, “How can the
groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the
bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the days are coming when the
bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 21 “No one sews a new patch on old clothes. Otherwise the new piece will
shrink away from the old, and make a worse tear. 22 No one puts new wine in old wineskins. Otherwise the wine bursts the skins, and both the wine and skins are ruined. No, you put new wine in new wineskins.” 23 Jesus was walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath,[251] and his
disciples started picking grain as they walked along. 24 The Pharisees asked
Jesus, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 Jesus
replied, “Have you never read what David did when he and his men were
hungry — 26 how he went into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the
high priest, and ate the consecrated bread which is not lawful for anyone to
eat except the priests, and gave it to his men to eat as well? 27 The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord
even of the Sabbath.”
Commentary
Mark
[247]
The “word” is the NT shorthand for the Gospel of the Kingdom, the saving message always
announced by Jesus (Lk. 8:12) and all his followers (Acts 8:4, 5, 12).
[248]
They suffered from the same spiritual deficiency as “orthodox” people today. They could not
believe the amazing power and authority which the One God, the Father of Jesus, had conferred on the
man Messiah.
[249]
The Human Being, based on Daniel 7. This was Jesus’ favorite way of defining himself. Later theology from philosophically-minded “church fathers” turned him into God and thus complicated and ruined the simple unitary monotheism of Jesus in John 17:3 and Mark 12:29. Paul corrects all that complication and confusion in I Tim. 2:5.
[250]
“Sinners” here refers to those who were not seen as strict in their keeping of the religious law,
as the religious teachers and the Pharisees required.
[251]
“Sabbath” in the NT is Saturday, and Friday is the preparation day. In John 19:31 the Sabbath
was special as the Saturday falling in Passover week.
Mark