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The Gospel According to Mark:
Jesus Heals and Forgives | Mark 2:1-12
Read Mark 2:1-12
Reintroducing the Book of Mark
The Gospel According to Mark:
The Book of Mark was likely the first of the Gospels to be written down, around 50-70 AD. Now things in this time were written down and recorded but there was still quite an emphasis on the oral sharing tradition. This Gospel is also the shortest of the four Gospels with only 16 chapters.
The Bible Project lays out the Gospel of Mark into three parts:
Mark 1-8a begins Jesus’ ministry, and addresses the question of “Who is Jesus?” while primarily taking place in Galilee
Mark 8b-10 continues, and addresses the question of “What does it mean for Jesus to be the Messiah?” while taking place “on the way” to Jerusalem for the last time
Mark 11-16, concludes the narrative by answering the question “How does Jesus become the King?” during Jesus’ last time in Jerusalem before his death and resurrection.
This is what Enduring Word Commentary has to say to introduce us to the Gospel of Mark:
Revelation 4:7 describes the cherubim around God’s throne as beings with four faces: a lion, a calf, a man, and an eagle. By long tradition, the church has attributed one of these “faces” to each of the Gospels, according to the character and message of the particular Gospel. In the cathedrals of Europe this motif is repeated again and again by carvings or paintings of each one of these creatures, typically with a book. Over the centuries, different traditions have connected these four faces of the cherubim in different ways. One way of thinking has connected the Gospel of Mark with the ox, because the Gospel of Mark shows Jesus as a servant, just as an ox is an animal of work and service. The Gospel of Mark shows Jesus as the Servant of God, as a Workman of God.
- Enduring Word Commentary, https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/mark-1/
One of the purposes of Mark’s Gospel is to make the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection accessible to as many people as possible. There is not an emphasis on the Jewish traditions as there is in other Gospels in order for the message of Jesus to be heard and understood by as many people as possible. Mark’s primary audience at the time was mostly Roman Gentiles who were seeking Jesus and likely they would not have the context to understand the ins and outs of Jewish life at the time.
The Point: Jesus has all authority, as His Father, to heal us and forgive our sins.
As mentioned earlier, this first part of the Gospel of Mark is for us, the people in Jesus’ time and us now in this room, to learn who Jesus is. Now the passage we are focused on now can be separated into three parts. First Jesus is teaching, then He forgives the sins of the man, and lastly He demonstrates His authority to forgive sins and His power to heal. You can find other accounts of this story in Luke 5:17–26 and Matthew 9:2–8.
Jesus is teaching – sharing with people – but He gets interrupted
When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them. And they *came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.
Mark 2:1-4 NASB 1995
As we begin, BibleRef reminds us what Jesus has already done in Mark 1:
“To this point, He has revealed His authority over demons (Mark 1:23–26, 32), physical disease (Mark 1:29–34, 40–42), and traditional teachers who timidly interpret Scripture according to the teachings of past rabbis (Mark 1:21–22).”
Jesus is not shy about who He is and what He is there to do, to lead people back to a right relationship with God after generations of sin and false worship.
Setting the scene for this passage, this house Jesus was preaching from likely was not the biggest or grandest, but it was filled with so many people that no one extra could be in the room, as tight as sardines. Jesus was there to preach to the people, He was not there to perform miracles, but while He was preaching, a paralysed man was lowered from the roof by his friends who wanted Jesus to heal their friend. Now some might say Jesus was someone who performed miracles and preached here and there, but David Guzik says that Jesus was a teacher first and foremost, who also performed miracles.
Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus preached, yet he still emphasised the preaching ministry of Jesus as he did in Mark 1:28 and Mark 1:38-39.
“It is clear that he was avoiding the streets because they had been turned into a healing campaign. Everywhere he went people besieged him with requests for healing and the casting out of demons, so that he was unable to do what he had come to do primarily, which was to preach the Word.” (Stedman)
- Enduring Word Commentary, https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/mark-2/
Now, take a moment and think about the man and his friends. He was not able to move himself and relied on those around him to help him and care for him. His friends fought for him, they knew the best thing for their friend was to find Jesus to heal him. When there wasn’t an easy way to reach Jesus, they made a way. It likely was not easy and required a big level of trust between these friends and the paralysed man. If Jesus decided not to heal this man, or wasn’t able to, it wasn’t going to be easy to have this man lifted back out of the house and they had already interrupted Jesus’ message.
Jesus forgives the paralysed man of his sins
And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic, “ Son, your sins are forgiven.” But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Mark 2:5-7 NASB 1995
Jesus saw the faith of these men that their friend could and would be healed by Jesus. Their faith in Jesus was so strong that they did what most people would say is too much but they were blessed for their faith.
When Jesus addresses the paralysed man, He calls him son, using a term of familiarity even though it was likely this man had never met Jesus before. As He addresses the man, He also forgives him. That is not exactly what this man was seeking. Instead, Jesus dealt with this man’s greatest need, forgiving his sins. What good is it to be physically well and go to Hell? It is better to be right with God in your spirit above all else.
“Forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs. It meets the greatest need; it costs the greatest price; and it brings the greatest blessing and the most lasting results.” (Wiersbe)
- Enduring Word Commentary
Now the religious leader that were in the room, were examining what Jesus had to say and doubting His authority to forgive sins. They did three things right as leaders:
They went to hear what Jesus was saying, as was their duty.
They examined what He had say, making sure that it wasn’t just nonsense but was Scripturally correct
They did come to right conclusion: God is the only one who can forgive sins
But the thing that they did that took away from all of this, is that they did so out of a heart to catch Jesus doing something wrong, not genuine curiosity.
Jesus demonstrates His authority to forgive sins and His power to heal
Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
Mark 2:8-12 NASB 1995
Now as Jesus knew what the religious leaders were thinking and feeling, He spoke directly to them by saying, “it may be easier to understand and believe in a physical healing, but there is so much more power in forgiving sins, which I have the authority to do so as I am God.” Jesus wasn’t just given the authority to forgive sins through God but instead, because He is God Himself, He has the authority to forgive sins.
The Son of Man: Jesus often referred to Himself with this title. The idea is not of “perfect man” or “ideal man” or “common man,” but a reference to Daniel 7:13-14, where the coming King of Glory, coming to judge the world, has the title Son of Man.
i. Jesus used this title often because in His day, it was a Messianic title free from political and nationalistic sentiment. Jesus could have more commonly referred to Himself as “King” or “Christ,” but those titles, in the ears of His audience, sounded like “the One Who Will Defeat the Romans.” Son of Man was “Christ’s favourite designation of himself, a claim to be the Messiah in terms that could not easily be attacked.” (Robertson)
- Enduring Word Commentary
The scene closes with the man being healed by Jesus and immediately, not after a few tries or after a few days, but right after Jesus spoke the words, the man got to his feet. Imagine yourself in that situation. Imagine Jesus did NOT heal that man? If you were the man, how would you react in that situation? If you were one of the man’s friends, how would you get your friend out of there again? What about the homeowner, his house had been taken apart and this guy wasn’t even healed?
Luckily, that isn’t what really happened, but in the few seconds between Jesus speaking and the man getting up that was probably a very tense house. Jesus could not and would not fail to heal this man because He is enough.
As the people who were there to listen to Jesus saw this moment of faith and seeing a miracle, they were in awe of Jesus. They were excited that they were able to witness God’s power at work.
The Point: Jesus has all authority, as His Father, to heal us and forgive our sins.
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