Chapter Two

Preaching and Healing

1. And again He entered into Capernaum after [some] days; and it was heard that He was in the house.

2. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no longer room, not even about the door; and He spoke the Word to them.

3. And they came to Him, bringing one sick of the palsy, taken up by four.

4. And when they could not come near Him on account of the crowd, they unroofed the roof where He was; and having dug through, they let down the cot on which the sick of the palsy was lying down.

5. And Jesus, seeing their faith, says to the sick of the palsy, “Child, thy sins have been forgiven thee.”

6. But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,

7. “Why does He thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except one, God?”

8. And Jesus, straightway knowing in His spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things within your hearts?

9. What is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy, [Thy] sins have been forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, and take up thy cot, and walk?”

10. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on the earth (He says to the sick of the palsy),

11. “To thee I say, Arise, and take up thy cot, and go to thy house.”

12. And straightway he arose, and taking up the cot, came out before them all, so that all were amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw [it] so!”

As Jesus continues His preaching and healing ministry, He reveals more of His miraculous power — much to the wonder of the people, and much to the concern of the religious leaders. As early as the second chapter of this gospel, Jesus demonstrates what the religious leaders consider a blasphemous mode of healing: He forgives.

This takes place when four men carry a paralytic to Jesus, hoping that He can heal the paralyzed man. “Son,” says Jesus, “your sins are forgiven.” Shocked and outraged, the religious leaders say in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:5-7). In Matthew, we have to wait for nine chapters before we learn of Jesus’ power to forgive sins. In Mark, however, Jesus reveals this power almost immediately. And as He does so, He astonishes the people: “All were amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this’” (Mark 2:12).

Matthew, it will be remembered, was about the gradual revelation of Jesus’ divinity. In Mark, which has a different focus, Jesus’ divinity is established immediately. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ — the Son of God.

Old Wineskins and New Wine

13. And He went out again by the sea, and all the crowd came to Him, and He taught them.

14. And passing by, He saw Levi the [son] of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of tribute, and said to him, Follow Me; and standing up he followed Him.

15. And it came to pass, as He reclined in his house, many publicans and sinners also reclined with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many, and they followed Him.

16. And the scribes and Pharisees, seeing Him eating with publicans and sinners, said to His disciples, “Why is it that He eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?”

17. And Jesus hearing says to them, “They that have strength have no need of a physician, but they that have an illness. I came not to call the just, but sinners, to repentance.”

18. And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting; and they come and say to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples fast not?”

19. And Jesus said to them, “Can the sons of the bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them? so long as they have the Bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

20. But [the] days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

21. And no one sews a patch of unshrunk fabric on an old garment; otherwise the new [piece] that fills in takes away from the old, and the rip becomes worse.

22. And no one pours young wine into old bottles; otherwise the young wine tears the bottles, and the wine spills out, and the bottles will perish; but young wine is poured into new bottles.”

Jesus has already said that His purpose is to preach the gospel (Mark 1:38). As it is written in the Hebrew scriptures, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isaiah 61:1). This is what Jesus is doing in this gospel.

The Hebrew word for “afflicted” in the passage from Isaiah is ענֲוִָי֗ם (anawim). It means humble, meek, and therefore, by extension, it means willing to receive instruction. In fulfillment of this scripture, the next episode finds Jesus eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. These people were despised by the religious leaders; they wanted nothing to do with them. But Jesus saw them differently. He sat with them, ate with them, and drank with them. When the religious leaders saw this, they were deeply offended and said to Jesus’ disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with publicans and sinners?” (Mark 2:16). Overhearing their question, Jesus responds with these words, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:17). In other words, Jesus was not merely socializing. He was binding up the broken-hearted, proclaiming liberty, and opening prison doors to all who were imprisoned by false thoughts and evil desires. In brief, He was sharing the gospel.

In the eyes of the religious leaders, all of this was strange and unusual. According to their standards, sinners were to be avoided. They were to be regarded as despised outcasts — people with whom no one should associate. Jesus, however, was turning this upside down. Not only was He eating and drinking with them, as though at a wedding feast, but He was also saying that He was calling them to repentance. In those days, repentance was demonstrated through fasting, certainly not by eating and drinking. Confused by all of this, the religious leaders ask Jesus, “How is that the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not?” (Mark 2:18). Jesus responds with a question. He says, “Can the guests of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?” (Mark 2:19). He then adds, “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days” (Mark 2:20).

In referring to Himself as a “bridegroom,” Jesus is suggesting that He is “married” to each of us in the same way that God is married to His people. This is the “heavenly marriage” in which God, as the bridegroom and husband takes to Himself a “wife” whom He fills with His love and wisdom. This wedding and marriage is a joyous time, a time of feasting and celebration, not a time for fasting. But there will be times when we feel distant from God, times when we will hunger and thirst for His presence. These will, indeed, be times of “fasting” — times when we hunger not for food and drink, but rather for good and truth; it is a heavenly hunger for that which truly nourishes the soul. ¹

This was new. In eating and drinking with sinners, Jesus was picturing what it means to come into fellowship with God, receiving from Him the truths that can lead us to new life. Fasting from physical food and drink was the old way of demonstrating repentance; from now on, repentance would take place through examining oneself in the light of higher truth, acknowledging one’s sins, praying to the Lord for help in combating evil, and then, starting a new life.

Jesus, then, continues to describe what this new life will be like. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment,” He says; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse.” Jesus then adds, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins” (Mark 2:21-22).

Old wineskins are stiff and rigid. They have lost their suppleness and flexibility. When they are filled with wine which is still active and fermenting, they cannot expand along with the new wine. As a result, they burst, and the wine is lost. Similarly, Jesus came to proclaim a new understanding of spiritual law and a more interior understanding of spiritual life. But the religious leaders, who remain inflexible, are not able to receive the new wine that would lead to new life. They had become like hardened, dried-out wineskins that would burst under the pressure of new wine.

Similarly, they had become like worn-out garments that would not be able to withstand the pressure of a new cloth sewed onto it, for when the new cloth began to shrink, it would tear apart the old garment. The old way of viewing things — old wineskins and old garments — was to consider sinners unclean and unworthy of one’s company. To sit in their company, to speak with them, and perhaps even to share one’s faith with them, was considered highly inappropriate. But Jesus brought a new view, a new way of being, and a new way of understanding what it means to love God and one’s neighbor. He had come to preach the gospel, not to socialize with the religious elite; He had come to call sinners to repentance, not to support their evil ways. He had come to introduce everyone to a new way of life, beginning with repentance, and He was doing just that.

A practical application

As we consider the old wineskins that can no longer expand and the worn-out garments that can easily tear, we need to examine ourselves, asking, “In what ways have I become hard and inflexible? In what ways do my worn-out ideas need to be replaced by new visions of what is true? In what ways are my rigid attitudes unable to stretch with new ideas? In what ways can I expand my consciousness by learning new ways of being? These are important questions to consider as we sit at the table with Jesus and receive the new wine He offers.

The Lord of the Sabbath

23. And it came to pass, that He went through the grain on the Sabbaths; and His disciples began to make [their] way, plucking the ears [of grain].

24. And the Pharisees said to Him, “Behold, why are they doing on the Sabbaths what is not permitted?”

25. And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he had need and hungered, he and they that were with him,

26. How he entered into the house of God in [the time] of Abiathar the chief priest, and ate the bread [which was] set out, which is not permitted to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those that were with him?”

27. And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

28. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.”

Jesus has been showing how old traditions must yield to a new way of understanding religious faith and religious life. According to the Hebrew scriptures, it was forbidden to touch a person with a skin disease (Leviticus 5:3), and yet Jesus not only touched a leper but healed him. According to the Hebrew scriptures, repentance from sin should take place through various forms of self-denial, called “afflicting one’s soul,” fasting being the most common form of repentance (Leviticus 23:26-29). For Jesus, however, repentance begins with learning the truth and then striving to live according to it. This was the new wine (truth) that could not be put into old wineskins; it was the new cloth (good) that could not be sewn onto old garments.

In the next episode, Jesus deals with another tradition that needed to be understood differently. It was the Sabbath day, and as He went through the grain fields, His disciples began to pick ears of corn. When the religious leaders saw this, they said to Jesus, “Why are they doing on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?” (Mark 2:24). According to the religious leaders, any kind of work on the Sabbath was considered unlawful. While the Hebrew scriptures forbade activities such as kindling a fire on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3) or carrying a heavy burden on the Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:21), the religious leaders went even further, devising intricate rules for further defining what these things meant. Rather than see the spiritual meaning behind these laws (for example, “do not kindle a fire” means “do not start to get angry” and “do not carry a burden” means “do not carry a grudge”), these laws were interpreted literally. People were not allowed to cook meals (because that would require “kindling a fire”) or even lift a child (because that would be “carrying a burden”).

So, when Jesus permitted His disciples to pluck ears of corn on the Sabbath day, the religious leaders accused Him of violating the Sabbath commandment. Jesus responds by saying that even David ate the showbread in the temple and shared it with others. In other words, Jesus is saying that there are times when the law of charity — feeding the hungry — must prevail over religious tradition. “The Sabbath was made for man,” says Jesus. “Not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

In allowing His disciples to pluck and eat grain on the Sabbath, Jesus demonstrates that it is possible to be flexible and yielding without violating the spirit of the Sabbath commandment. “The Sabbath was made for man,” says Jesus. The commandments are given to open us to the fullness of life. “Not man for the Sabbath.” The commandments should not be seen as regulations that limit our freedom, but rather as God’s prescription for happiness. If we take the medicine as recommended, we acknowledge the wisdom of the Divine Physician. As Jesus had just said in the previous episode, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

When truth comes into our life, it comes as a great light revealing hidden evils we have not been willing to face or never knew we had. But it also comes as a light which leads us to a new vision of the heavenly kingdom. Such a new vision involves a completely new way of regarding the Sabbath. This new vision is like new wine that cannot be poured into old, stiff wineskins, and like new cloth that cannot be sewn onto old fraying garments.

In this regard, one of the many blessings that Jesus brought to earth was a new way of regarding the Sabbath. On one level Jesus was teaching that strict adherence to Sabbath law was not necessarily a virtue. However, at a more interior level, He was teaching that plucking corn represents a state of spiritual hunger for the divine truth. This “spiritual hunger” represents a true Sabbath state, for the Sabbath day should be reserved as a day of instruction in holy things — a day for spiritual nourishment, a time to listen to the gospel and learn about what is holy. Like the publicans and sinners who sat at the table eating and drinking with Jesus, we are called to do the same. As it is written, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). ²

As this chapter draws to a close, Jesus makes a powerful statement about His divinity. “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath,” He says. As we have seen, this gospel begins with the bold proclamation that Jesus is “the Son of God.” And here, at the end of the second chapter, Jesus refers to Himself as “Lord of the Sabbath” — a powerful and provocative claim. It is especially provocative when we realize that such a claim would be deeply offensive to the religious leaders. They would, in fact, regard it as blasphemy, since they knew that only God Himself could be called “Lord of the Sabbath.”

Nevertheless, Jesus is making that claim about Himself, and it is only the second chapter of Mark. Things are moving quickly. In fact, in the very next episode, Jesus will demonstrate yet another way that He is, indeed, Lord of the Sabbath.

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