Today’s Passage: Mark 2
Mark gives us five short scenes in this chapter, and running underneath every one of them is a single question: who is this man, and by what right does He act? A roof is torn open above His head. A tax collector rises from his booth and follows Him. Fasting is answered with talk of a wedding. A walk through the grainfields turns into a claim that belongs to God alone. The same exousia that taught with power and drove out demons in chapter 1 now does something greater still. It forgives what only God can forgive, and then it lays claim to the Sabbath itself.
As you read, hold this: The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
Context The world of Mark 2
The homes of a Galilean village in those days usually had flat roofs made of beams laid across with brush and packed clay, reached by a stair on the outside of the house. To dig down through such a roof was messy and bold, but it could be done, and it is just the sort of detail a man remembers who was actually there to see it. The faith Mark shows us here is four friends who would rather tear open a roof than leave the man they carried lying outside the door.
Levi sits at a tax booth. Men like him were despised twice over, both as collaborators who worked for Rome and as cheats who often took more than they were owed. To share a meal with such people was no small courtesy, for in that world a shared table meant acceptance and welcome. Jesus does not pretend their sin is nothing. He simply claims a doctor’s right to be found where the sick are.
To pluck a few heads of grain for a hungry traveler was permitted by the Law itself (Deuteronomy 23:25). What the Pharisees objected to was work on the Sabbath as their traditions had come to define it. Jesus answers first by pointing to David’s hunger in 1 Samuel 21, and then He goes further than any rabbi would dare. The Son of Man, He says, is Lord of that day.
Mark 2:1–12 (BSB)
¹ A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum. And when the people heard that He was home, ² they gathered in such large numbers that there was no more room, not even outside the door, as Jesus spoke the word to them. ³ Then a paralytic was brought to Him, carried by four men. ⁴ Since they were unable to get to Jesus through the crowd, they uncovered the roof above Him, made an opening, and lowered the paralytic on his mat. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ At once Jesus knew in His spirit that they were thinking this way within themselves. “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?” He asked. ⁹ “Which is easier: to say to a paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” He said to the paralytic, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” ¹² And immediately the man got up, picked up his mat, and walked out in front of them all. As a result, they were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Jesus is home again, and the house fills so full that even the doorway is blocked. He is speaking the word to them when four men arrive who refuse to be turned back by the crowd. Their faith digs through the roof, and their faith lowers their friend down into the room. And when Jesus sees that faith, He speaks first not to the man’s useless legs but to the guilt he carries. “Son, your sins are forgiven.” It is a tender word, and it meets the man as a person to be loved rather than a problem to be fixed.
The scribes are quite right that God alone can forgive sins, and quite wrong about the man standing before them. Jesus reads the charge they have not spoken aloud. It is easy to say “your sins are forgiven,” because no one can see whether anything has happened, and it is far harder to say “get up and walk,” because everyone will see at once whether it is true. So He says both. The exousia, pronounced ex-oo-SEE-ah. Strong's G1849, authority, rightful power, the right to act. We met this word yesterday, and here it returns with a sharper edge. It is no longer only a matter of teaching and of demons obeying. Now it is the right to forgive sins here on earth. Forgiveness in Jesus’ mouth is not a warm feeling He stirs up in a person. It is an act He performs with real authority. The silent charge of blasphemy rising in the scribes’ hearts is exactly the right shock to feel, if Jesus is only a man. But if He is who He says, then this crowded house in Capernaum has become the very place where heaven’s verdict comes down and rests upon a paralyzed man on his mat. to forgive on earth is sealed before their eyes by a man who stands, rolls up his mat, and walks out in front of them all. The title Jesus takes for Himself is “Son of Man,” the figure Daniel saw receiving everlasting dominion from the Ancient of Days, and at the very same time a real man walking among men. This is no small or borrowed dignity. It is the Man who reigns with the authority of God.
Mark 2:13–17 (BSB)
¹³ Once again Jesus went out beside the sea. All the people came to Him, and He taught them there. ¹⁴ As He was walking along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Levi got up and followed Him. ¹⁵ While Jesus was dining 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 scribes who were Pharisees saw Jesus eating with these people, they asked His disciples, “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
It is the same authority now turned toward a new place. Jesus says “Follow Me,” and Levi simply gets up and goes. The feast that follows in Levi’s house is not an embarrassment to be explained away but the very heart of the mission. The Pharisees are scandalized by it, for a holy teacher has sat down to eat with exactly the wrong sort of people. Jesus answers them with a doctor’s plain logic. He has not come for those who imagine themselves healthy, but for sinners who are willing to admit that they are sick. The One who forgave sins on a mat now takes His seat at the table where forgiveness is needed most.
Mark 2:18–22 (BSB)
¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were often fasting. So people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t Your disciples fast like John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees?” ¹⁹ Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? As long as He is with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. ²¹ No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result. ²² And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”
Jesus does not condemn fasting. He simply gives it a new time. The Bridegroom is here, and that word is a bold claim to make about Himself, for in the Old Testament it is the LORD who is the husband of His people. While the Bridegroom is present, joy is what fits the hour, the joy of a wedding feast. But then a shadow falls across His words, for the day is coming when the Bridegroom will be taken away, and already we can see the cross standing in the distance. The little pictures of the patch and the wineskins make the same point as the mat and the meal before them. Jesus has not come to make a few small improvements to the old religion. The kingdom He brings is new wine altogether, and the One who forgives sins on earth is no mere mender of a worn and brittle faith.
Mark 2:23–28 (BSB)
²³ One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along. ²⁴ So the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” ²⁵ Jesus replied, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? ²⁶ During the high priesthood of Abiathar, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which was lawful only for the priests. And he gave some to his companions as well.” ²⁷ Then Jesus declared, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸ Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
A quiet walk through the grainfields turns into a courtroom. The Pharisees look and see unlawful work being done, while Jesus looks and sees hungry disciples and a holy day that has been twisted from a gift into a trap. He points first to David’s hunger, which set a precedent of mercy long ago, and then to the purpose God had for the day from the beginning: the Sabbath was made for the good of man, and not man for the Sabbath. And then comes the claim that answers back to verse 10. The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. It is the same exousia once more, and it means that the One who forgives sins also owns the calendar of God’s own people. Mark 2 does not close with a small adjustment to the rules. It closes with a Lord.
Study notes Going deeper
Only God speaks forgiveness the way Jesus speaks it here, and so when Jesus does it, there are only two things it can mean. Either He is blaspheming, or He is revealing who He truly is. And the title He chooses for Himself is the very title of the One who is given everlasting rule.
"I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more." Isaiah 43:25 (BSB)
"In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." Daniel 7:13–14 (BSB)
The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. The healed man on his mat, the shared meal in Levi’s house, and the Sabbath in the grainfields are all saying one and the same thing.