He heals and forgives a paralyzed man
2
📚And after some days he again went into Capernaum, and it was heard that he was in the house. 2 📚And immediately many gathered together, so that there was no room to receive them, no, not even near the door. And he preached the Word to them. 3 📚And they came to him, bringing a paralytic carried by four men. 4 📚And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they took off that part of the roof where he was, and when they had broken through, they let down the cot on which the paralytic was lying. 5 📚When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you”.
6 📚But there were some of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7 📚“Why is this man speaking blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 📚And when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were reasoning like this among themselves, immediately he said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? 9 📚Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’, or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your cot, and walk?’ 10 📚But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins: (he said to the paralytic) 11 📚I say to you, Get up, pick up your cot, and go to your house”.
12 📚And immediately he got up, picked up the cot, and went out in the presence of them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this”.
2:1-12 See notes at Matt 9:1-8. Mark shows how the faith of the paralytic’s friends revealed itself in great determination to overcome all obstacles. In this they are an example to us all. On persistence of faith see Matt 7:7-8; Luke 11:5-10; 18:1-8.⚜
He calls Matthew and eats in his house
13 📚And he went out again along the shore of the lake, and all the people came to him, and he taught them. 14 📚And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me”. And he got up and followed him.
2:13-14 See Matt 9:9 where Levi is called Matthew. Levi was probably his original name and Matthew his new name as an apostle. Matthew is the Greek version of a Hebrew name meaning “Gift of the LORD” (Jehovah).⚜
15 📚And it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in his house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many, and they followed him. 16 📚And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, “How is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 📚When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance”.
He answers some objections
18 📚And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast. And they came and said to him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
19 📚And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast, while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 📚But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, in those days, they will fast. 21 📚Also no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 📚And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the wineskins, the wine will be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins”.
23 📚And it came about that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and as they went, his disciples began to pick some heads of grain.
24 📚And the Pharisees said to him, “Look! Why are they doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
25 📚And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need, and was hungry, he and those who were with him? 26 📚How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the Showbread, which is not lawful to eat, except by the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
27 📚And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 📖 28 📚Therefore the Son of man 📖 is Lord 📖 also of the Sabbath”.