Mark details a few of the key events from Jesus’ early ministry. He heals a paralyzed man after forgiving his sins, a blatant claim to deity, which goes a long way in irritating the religious leaders, but amazes the commoners. He calls Matthew – a tax collector – to be His disciple and eats with sinners, explaining that the sick, rather than the healthy, need a doctor. He talks about the new covenant kingdom of God in light of His disciples’ failure to fast. And in another clear declaration of His deity, Jesus proclaims to be Lord of the Sabbath when confronted by the religious leaders about the Sabbath day activity of His disciples, who were picking grain from the fields.
1) V1-12 – 1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that He had come home. 2They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to Him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7“Why does this Fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8Immediately Jesus knew in His spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and He said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So He said to the man, 11“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Jesus had traveled around Galilee for a few days, teaching and healing, and when He returned home to Capernaum, a crowd gathered and filled the house they were in even to overflowing outside the door. We might guess 60 people, or maybe 160 people, or more. “And He preached the word to them” (v2). That’s exactly why He had come, but then in v3, we learn that a group of man brought a paralyzed man to Jesus, hoping that He would heal him. The crowd was so great that they couldn’t approach Jesus, so they mounted the roof and dug a hole in it just above Jesus, and then they lowered the paralyzed man near. It’s an amazing testimony of “their faith” (v5), the belief of the men that Jesus could and would heal their friend. When we have faith, we take extreme action. Faith moves; it isn’t lazy. When you believe, you serve others, just as these men who went a long way – up to the rooftop and down through a hole they dug – to be a blessing to a helpless man who needed Jesus, just like they did.
Now Jesus doesn’t disappoint; He “saw their faith” (v5). You can only see faith through the deeds that pour out from it. The external actions are the evidence of the internal reality. And Jesus gives what is needed, first, the more important thing – and also the most difficult thing – forgiveness of sins. The religious leaders who were in attendance merely thought about His statement, “Your sins are forgiven” – as being false doctrine, and Jesus perceived their thoughts and asked them “Why are you thinking these things” (v8)? They recognized that only God could forgive sins, which is also recognition of Jesus’ claim to deity (blasphemy if He is wrong). But to prove Himself true, to prove that He, as the Son of Man, “has authority on earth to forgive sins” (v10), He also did the second, easier, and less important thing in providing healing for the paralyzed man, restoring his ability to take up his mat and walk home.
God was glorified through the praises of the crowd in this event (v12). But don’t miss the clear display of Jesus’ divinity here as well. He forgave sins, read minds / perceived specific thoughts, healed a paralyzed man, and even started provoking the religious leaders, such that they would despise Him, a necessity to urge their efforts to crucify Him a couple years after this event.
2) V13-17 – 13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to Him, and He began to teach them. 14 As He walked along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow Me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed Him. 15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
In this passage, Jesus is engaging in His usual ministry, when He surprisingly calls Levi, the Jewish tax collector we know more famously as the Gospel writer, Matthew, which was his Greco-Roman name, to follow Him. This was surprising, because the career of tax collector was especially shady, and hated by the majority of the culture. Tax collectors made their living by bidding for the job and then charging more than the actual tax and keeping whatever difference they could muster. Levi, or Matthew, gladly followed Jesus, and even hosted Jesus for dinner at his house, where many more “tax collectors and sinners” – notice how they are lumped together – gathered with Jesus and His disciples (Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and perhaps others). The Pharisees thought such a gathering was disgusting, and certain to ruin His reputation, which they gathered He was trying to grow; and so they asked Jesus’ disciples why Jesus would eat with such people. And Jesus overheard and responded with an oft used and famous remark, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus was raising the bar of service by living with the sinners He came to save, all without sinning Himself.
Let’s take a moment to analyze these words of Jesus. He heard the question of the religious leaders, and He knew that they were critical of Him for eating with the less respected of society. So His sarcastic remark hits them firmly where they need to hear it – in their pride! Jesus says He is the Great Physician who comes as the doctor for those who are sick – sinners. If you aren’t a sinner, then you don’t need Him. Jesus is saying to recognize your sin and then you’ll see your need for a Savior, something the Pharisees hadn’t done, and sadly wouldn’t. It’s a call for all to understand our mortal sickness and then seek the eternal healing solution in Jesus Christ. Don’t forget that Matthew’s Gospel adds a bit more information. Jesus quotes Hosea there in Matthew 9:13, saying, “‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’ [Hosea 6:6; cf Matthew 12:7]. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” As I mentioned in my commentary on Matthew’s account, “By reading the context of that [Old Testament] passage, they [the religious leaders] would have been able to deduce that God loves to show mercy – and He wants us to show mercy too – to those who need it; furthermore, God wants to be acknowledged as God, and that requires a constant attitude of humble repentance. That frame of mind in the children of God is far more desirable to Him than any type of works-based effort to earn His favor, which is exactly what sacrifices are, especially to the legalistic Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Jesus concludes v13 with a proclamation that He has come to call sinners, rather than the righteous into the Kingdom of God. The audacity to make such a claim reveals the boldness of Jesus in the face of the religious leaders, and it was certainly statements like this that provoked them to anger and jealousy and ultimately murderous rage.”
3) V18-22 – 18Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but Yours are not?” 19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? They cannot, so long as they have Him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
In this passage, we catch a glimpse of another way Jesus raised the bar of service, and again, it’s a battle against legalism. There were ritual fasts for the most pious of people, and both the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist – very different groups – engaged in such fasts, because they both shared a conventional reverence for God, or piety. Both engaged in regular fasting to maintain and grow in piety and reverence and reliance on God – for John’s sake – or, in the case of the Pharisees, to maintain and grow the perspective of holiness unto greater glory and reputation. But Jesus and His disciples didn’t bother to fast regularly, and this left them open to mockery as gluttons and winebibbers (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34). Did Jesus and His disciples not also revere God? If they did revere Him, then why not fast with the other pious groups of people?
I noted in my commentary on Matthew, especially since we learn in that account that it was, in fact, John the Baptist’s disciples who were inquiring here of Jesus, “The Pharisees probably didn’t mind Jesus’ revelry in mealtime, because it only served – seemingly – to add to their respect while diminishing His; but it didn’t feel right to John the Baptist, who might have become concerned that Jesus was off-track in His mission as Messiah. We can easily perceive a person engaged in gospel freedom as sinning when we ourselves do not engage in whatever form of licentiousness their conscious’ allow while ours forbid.”
But Jesus explains that it’s not one’s obedience to rituals that makes one pious. On the contrary, it’s love for one another and joy in the work of God that makes one pious. Jesus illustrates the concept with an analogy. Declaring Himself to be the bridegroom, as in a marriage celebration, He says it is inappropriate to fast at this time. When the bridegroom is taken away, then the time for fasting will come. Fasting is often associated with mourning or intensely focused reverence, which certainly has its place. Enjoying His humanity, Jesus found it best to glorify God with celebration and laughter and joy; and He trained His disciples best in that type of celebratory environment. It’s a model for us to strongly consider, with application in our parenting, our Bible studies, and our businesses. Legalists have a hard time in that type of environment.
Jesus further explains His meaning with a discussion of patching garments, and pouring wine into wineskins. In v21, we learn that you don’t patch a garment with unshrunk cloth, lest the patch shrink and tear the next time you wash the garment. This analogy, and the one to follow, can be difficult for us to understand 2000 years removed from the culture and time period of Jesus. So consider some different thoughts. One commentator says, “Naturally, Jesus was not giving the disciple a sewing lesson! He was giving them a much more important lesson. Jesus was talking about the laws of God. You can only add an old principle to an old law. Likewise, you can only add a new principle to a new law. You see, Jesus leaves us clues: the old garment represents the Old Testament Law, based on the Old Covenant. The new garment represents the New Testament Covenant of grace that Jesus established by His substitution death on the cross for us. Jesus hates us mixing law and grace. It is an abomination to Him and an insult to the cross! We are never to read the Bible, pray to God, do good works, fast or make sacrifices with any motivation of keeping the old law. This is being ‘religious.’ God detests all work done with a religious mind-set. If your heart motive is not activated by the grace of God then what you consider is good is not good at all! We can’t make ourselves holy; only the cross has made us holy. This cuts across human ego, and that is what God wants it to do.”
Likewise, you don’t pour new wine into old wine skins, because the old skins will burst at the seams when the new wine ferments inside. Instead, you pour new wine into new wine skins, because when the fermentation and expansion occur, the new skins will be able to stretch and hold, thereby preserving both the wine and the wine skins (v22). Again, one commentator suggests that the context (John the Baptist’s inquiry regarding why Jesus and His disciples weren’t fasting) is tied to the likelihood of the tradition of fasting on a certain day in remembrance of a past prophet, to commemorate and remember that prophet’s teaching. But Jesus wasn’t commemorating any past prophet, because His teaching was all that mattered. The commentator says, “The new wine in this analogy is the teachings of God that are coming from the lips of the living representative of God (in this case, Jesus). The new wineskin is the physical vessel – the physical body of the living representative of God, who appears personally and also teaches by example. In this way, the living teacher can put the Truth into the context of the society and culture, preventing a ‘spoiling’ of the Truth’s meaning. The reason Jesus said this is because the Pharisees were focused upon the rituals and interpretations of teachings of ancient teachers like Abraham and Moses. Jesus was trying to let them know that in order to grasp the full meaning of those teachings, one must be hearing from Him – a living representative of God.”
4) V23-28 – 23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 27Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Again because Mark wants to drive home this point about legalism, we find Jesus replying to criticism from the Pharisees towards His disciples for gleaning on the Sabbath, which was technically forbidden by the law. Jesus shows clearly that there is a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law; the letter kills, but the spirit gives life, as the apostle Paul will say later (2 Corinthians 3:6). Jesus points to King David, who ate – along with his companions – the showbread / bread of presence, which was reserved only for priests. Elsewhere Jesus challenges the Pharisees on their Sabbath day decisions when it comes to rescuing their animals that have fallen in a pit (Matthew 12:11; Luke 14:5). In each circumstance, what is good is what must be done. And that’s the point Jesus is making in saying, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” It’s a day of rest and worship, but that can be done in service and in providing for one’s needs. And let’s not miss the final remark, “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” This Ten Commandment issue – which the previous concerns were not – falls under the jurisdiction of Jesus. And the religious leaders understand that that is what He is saying. And they hate Him for it. But we should cherish Him for it. Praise Jesus, the Lord of all!
Bible text from
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