# Mark 02 📖: Jesus Forgives and Heals [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Mark Overview]] | [[Mark 01]] | [[Mark 03]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) #### Healing and Forgiving a Paralytic [[Matthew 09]] **Principle**: The greatest healing is salvation. [[#Verse 01.]] Now after some days, when he returned to Capernaum, the news spread that he was at home.  [[#Verse 02.]] So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even by the door, and he preached the word to them. [[#Verse 03.]] Some people came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.  [[#Verse 04.]] When they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Jesus. Then, after tearing it out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on.  [[#Verse 05.]] When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” [[#Verse 06.]] [^1]  Now some of the experts in the law were sitting there, turning these things over in their minds: [[#Verse 07.]] “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” [[#Verse 08.]] Now immediately, when Jesus realized in his spirit that they were contemplating such thoughts, he said to them, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?  [[#Verse 09.]] Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’? [[#Verse 10.]] But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—he said to the paralytic—  [[#Verse 11.]] “I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.” [[#Verse 12.]] And immediately the man stood up, took his stretcher, and went out in front of them all. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” #### The Call of Levi; Eating with Sinners **Principle**: God redeems those who seem unredeemable. [[#Verse 13.]] Jesus went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them.  [[#Verse 14.]] As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.  [[#Verse 15.]] As Jesus was having a meal in Levi’s home, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  [[#Verse 16.]] When the experts in the law and the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  [[#Verse 17.]] When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” #### The Superiority of the New **Principle**: Jesus makes all things new. [[#Verse 18.]] Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came to Jesus and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”  [[#Verse 19.]] Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast.  [[#Verse 20.]] But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and at that time they will fast.  [[#Verse 21.]] No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse.  [[Matthew 19#Verse 16]] [[#Verse 22.]] And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.” #### Lord of the Sabbath **Principle**: God’s Word brings freedom, not bondage. [[#Verse 23.]] Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick some heads of wheat as they made their way. [[#Verse 24.]] So the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?”  [[#Verse 25.]] He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry—  [[#Verse 26.]] how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the sacred bread, which is against the law for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?”  [[#Verse 27.]] Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.  [[#Verse 28.]] For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ###### Verse 23. ###### Verse 24. ###### Verse 25. ###### Verse 26. ###### Verse 27. ###### Verse 28. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. Houses in Capernaum were typically built of basalt stone with flat roofs of wooden beams, branches, and packed clay, which could be dug through (2:4). 2. The scribes were right that only God can forgive sins (2:7; Isaiah 43:25). Jesus' words were a claim to divine authority. 3. "Son of Man" (2:10) was Jesus' favorite title for Himself, drawn from Daniel 7:13-14. 4. Levi the tax collector (2:14) is called Matthew in Matthew 9:9. 5. Tax collectors in Galilee gathered tolls and customs for Herod Antipas. They were widely despised as dishonest and as collaborators. 6. Sharing a meal in the ancient Near East signaled acceptance and friendship, which is why the Pharisees objected (2:16). 7. The Law required only one yearly fast, on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-31). Some Pharisees fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12). 8. Wineskins were made from goatskin. New wine still fermenting would stretch and burst an old, brittle skin (2:22). 9. The Law allowed travelers to pick grain by hand from a neighbor's field (Deuteronomy 23:25). The Pharisees objected only because it was the Sabbath. 10. 1 Samuel 21 names Ahimelech as the priest who gave David the bread. Jesus says it happened "in the days of Abiathar" (2:26), Ahimelech's son, who became the well-known high priest of David's reign. ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the Son of Man with authority on earth to forgive sins (2:10), the physician who came for sinners (2:17), and the Lord of the Sabbath (2:28). He is the Bridegroom God promised to His people (John 3:29). ## 🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. Four friends carried a paralyzed man and dug through a roof to get him to Jesus (2:3-5). Who in your life needs you to carry them to Jesus? 2. Jesus forgave the man's sins before He healed his body (2:5). Why do you think Jesus addressed his deepest need first? 3. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners and said He came for the sick (2:15-17). Who might feel unwelcome at our table, and how can we change that? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 5: Seeing their faith, Jesus tells the paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven. - 📖 verse 17: Jesus came to call sinners, not those who think they are righteous. - 📖 verses 27-28: The Sabbath was made for people, and the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. ## 🔗 Related Passages - 🔗 [[Isaiah 43#Verse 25.|Isaiah 43:25]] - I alone blot out your transgressions. - 🔗 [[Daniel 07#Verse 13.|Daniel 7:13-14]] - The Son of Man given authority and dominion. - 🔗 [[Luke 19#Verse 10.|Luke 19:10]] - The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. - 🔗 [[John 03#Verse 29.|John 3:29]] - The bridegroom and his friend. - 🔗 [[1 Samuel 21#Verse 01.|1 Samuel 21:1-6]] - David eats the consecrated bread. - 🔗 [[Exodus 20#Verse 08.|Exodus 20:8-11]] - The Sabbath as rest and remembrance. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Mark 02- SOAP|Faith For Others]] ## 📂 Internal Notes [^1]: [[Series_TheWay_Part5-Live.To.Give]]