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Mark 2:1–12 Jesus Heals the Paralytic in Capernaum

In compiling his Gospel, Mark puts a number of traditions together. What we have in Mark is a mosaic. He uses different tiles to create his mosaic. These tiles come from various sources that Mark has in his possession. Biblical scholars would lick their chops to be able to look over Mark’s shoulder as he puts together his mosaic.

If Mark has different buckets of tiles, which bucket does he pick from in order to place Jesus “at home” in Capernaum, as he is said to be in this account? Everybody knows that Jesus’ home is Nazareth, right? Maybe one of Mark’s buckets has Jesus’ home located in Capernaum. In Mark’s telling of the story, Jesus does seem to spend a lot of time in Capernaum. Does Jesus’ family move to Capernaum later? Tradition has it that Joseph dies while Jesus is young. It is possible that Mary moves to Capernaum to be with or near relatives. Go ahead, reach into your own bucket and imagine.

One never knows how much weight to put on one piece of tile. It may be that Mark simply puts in a tile that he is given, or that he is making a theological statement. It is important to remember that the Bible is a rich mosaic and not a simple paint-by-number, one-dimensional picture. We must honor the nature of how our Scriptures are put together. Since no one is looking over Mark’s shoulder, there will be different opinions as to what Mark is doing as he tells the Jesus story.

Theologically speaking, maybe we are not to know where Jesus’ home is. Jesus’ home is where the works of God happen. Jesus is at home where people believe in the Son of Man.

Whatever home means, and to get back to the story, Jesus is there when four people show up carrying a paralyzed man. The four men cannot get near Jesus because of the crowd that has gathered. Mark has already made Jesus a star by the end of chapter one, with his brief mention of how Jesus’ fame is now established throughout all of Galilee. Remember, he is telling the Jesus story with a sense of urgency.

Mark simply states, “It was reported that he was at home,” and that is all it takes for a crowd to gather. One can imagine the scene of people packed into the tiny dwelling. Jesus does not hang out with wealthy people nor does he come from rich stock. Home is a one room, hut-like dwelling with a thatched roof. Stairs are placed on one side of the small house for perhaps climbing onto the roof to catch the cool evening breezes. Air-conditioning is a few centuries away, and creativity is the order of the day when it comes to getting cool.

Mark wants us to really see this scene. The clue to this is that he takes so many verses to describe the picture. Mark has evidently put two scenes together. Those who study such things tell us that Mark takes a healing story and puts it with another theme that he wants to portray, that of Jesus’ forgiveness of sins.

Healing stories usually take the form of a description of the person to be healed, an action by the healer, a pronouncement of the healing, and a proclamation by the person healed. Mark inserts into this standard formula the added element of the forgiveness of sins. Even the original language betrays an interruption in the text. Mark puts in another tile in order to tell his story. Mark knows that it is the fact that Jesus is going around forgiving sins that gets him into real trouble with the scribes and authorities. Mark wants to get this into his story early.

For those of us in the present day who read Mark’s words, his mosaic creates questions. Does sin cause illness? In Jesus’ day many people believe that it does. The old Deuteronomic ethic teaches that if something is physically wrong with you, either you or your parents must have committed a terrible sin. Jesus appears to be participating in this ethic.

Stepping back from the mosaic pieces and seeing the total picture allows us to see that while Jesus probably does understand the intricate relationship between psychological health and physical well-being, he definitely does not believe in the causal relationship of sin and sickness that his peers share.

The scribes, conveniently, are present in this crowded scene. It is crowded literally and theologically. The scribes do not get that Jesus is bringing in a new kingdom in which sins are forgiven by the Son of Man. All the scribes can think about is that their old kingdom has no room in it for some upstart to be forgiving sins.

Jesus “perceives in his spirit” that the scribes are questioning his actions and asks them if it is easier to say, “Get up and walk, you are well,” or, “Your sins are forgiven.” Jesus is a good reader of faces. He does not even have to wait for the scribes to raise their hands at this first-century press conference. Jesus notices their whispers and their looks of disbelief as he deals with this bound-up man struggling with paralysis.

Jesus perceives a lot of things. He knows what the scribes are thinking, and he knows that sin did not cause this man’s legs to be paralyzed. He may also know that the man on the pallet likely believes that sin is his captor. Remember, Jesus is dealing with people who are living around him at that time. We sometimes think that Jesus is talking only to us—”Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”—True, but Jesus loved the people in the Bible first. We often forget to honor who they are. Probably this man believes that his sin or his parent’s sin caused his illness. Jesus here frees him from both the bindings of his erroneous past beliefs and the physical bondage of paralysis.

Jesus has the ability to deal with whatever comes up. The poor old scribes are one-dimensional in their view. They simply cannot handle this man whose difficulties are both physical and spiritual. That is part of the scribes’ problem. The scribes have made religion one-dimensional and empty. The people are, as one song puts it, “standing knee deep in a river and dying of thirst.” Jesus comes to give people some much-needed water. He does it by opening up the gap between the physical and the spiritual world and showing the relationship between the two.

Mark puts these two worlds together in this one story. Jesus’ whole life is a story of helping people see the relationship between the physical and the spiritual, but after all, papyrus is a rare commodity and Mark has only so much time. Mark puts a number of elements together; those of us who read his words can step back and look at the total picture.

Jesus calls himself “Son of Man” here for the first time. The people of Jesus’ day hear this as a reference to the triumphant apocalyptic figure in Daniel to whom was given “dominion, glory and kingship.”(See Daniel 7: 13–14). Jesus evidently wants people’s ears to perk up when he uses this title. He wants them to know that for sure that something big is happening.

Jesus later turns this apocalyptic image on its head by the way he lives out the role. Many people do not like this change. The people in Jesus day are weary of waiting for deliverance. They want an angel-like, conquering figure to come in and vaporize the Romans, use a magic wand to alter the hearts of the religious leaders, and cut Caesar’s throat. This Son of Man fails on all counts.

Jesus is at home in Capernaum because he forgives sins and releases a man from the bondage of infirmity. Home is where the heart is and Jesus’ heart is wrapped around forgiving sins and freeing people for a new life. The scribes cannot see the forest for the trees nor can they see the big picture for the tiles. All they can see is a popular upstart who does not have the proper credentials to be messing with the forgiveness of sins.

Forgiving sins is a monopoly, and the established religion as it is practiced at that time, with its specific Temple rituals and sacrifices, has a market on the product. The Temple is rather like the old U.S. telephone system, Ma Bell. It does not want the break-up of what it considers to be a good thing.

Jesus is not interested in monopolies and knows that it is time for a change. Mark’s telling of the story is built around a threatened break-up of the religious monopoly. The solution to keeping the monopoly in place is handled in a late night negotiation resulting in a crucifixion. The seeds for a “final solution” are planted in this chapter.

The first twelve verses of Mark chapter two can be seen as a parallel of the entire Gospel of Mark: A new kingdom is being initiated that will not be tolerated by the old kingdom. Mark knows the end of the story and wants the reader to already begin seeing the handwriting on the wall.

On one level, the healing of the man affected by paralysis can be understood as an allegory. Sin binds us. Faith can free us from our bindings. We can walk into a new life if we believe. Does this mean that the story does not literally happen?

If I see a butterfly and tell a child that the butterfly is like resurrection, it does not mean the butterfly is not a butterfly. Jesus heals a man who is brought to him by people who believe that Jesus has power to set people free. Their efforts are rewarded by a healing story that we now have forever. Jesus heals the man’s legs and then frees his soul from the burden of the heavy chains of shame. He does the latter at no extra charge since the first liberation is also free. Unlike the professional scribes who murmur to themselves about this release, Jesus does not charge for his services of forgiveness.

You can leave your turtle doves and money at home. They are marketable in the old kingdom but their value is undermined in the new kingdom that Jesus brings. Freedom is in the air, and it is dangerous.

Mark 2:13–17 The Call of Levi/Eating with Tax Collectors

I love Mark’s geography. It is both picturesque and theological. Here we find Jesus “out again beside the sea,” with “the whole crowd gathered around him.” I have been privileged to walk beside this sea. I experienced why Jesus must have loved it so. His life was so crowded and this sea is so inviting and expansive.

I imagine Jesus rising early before his disciples and simply looking out over this sea. In actuality it is a lake compared to many of the seas on our planet. But to the people of Jesus’ day, and to Jesus I imagine, it is indeed a sea of possibilities. Out of it comes industry. Out if it come a good number of Jesus’ disciples. He plucks Peter, James, John and Andrew from their nets with remnants of this sea still dripping from the webbing.

It is beside this sea that Mark places Jesus for a series of controversy stories. One must remember that, as Mark shared these stories, his audience was involved in their own set of controversies. Mark’s audience was the early church. They were embroiled in arguments over who might sit at the table with them, and who was allowed inside the community of believers. There were very definite standards of who was in and who was out. Against such a backdrop, Mark retold the stories of chapter two.

Levi is unknown after this story. He is not mentioned again. Early tradition equates him with Matthew the tax collector, but no such connection is made by Mark. Levi is simply a tax collector who has his table set up somewhere by the sea. This is rather like a first-century lemonade stand, except that the lemonade on offer to the people is really more just a bitter taste in their mouths—but they have to pay the price anyway.

The tax collectors are hated by the people and by the Jewish establishment. Tax collectors are usually Jewish locals who are under contract by the government. They siphon off some money for themselves when they collect the taxes, and siphon it off again before they pay their Roman bosses.

Who knows why Levi responds so quickly to Jesus’ request to “follow me”? Mark is a master at leaving it to the imagination. Can it be that Levi simply follows out of curiosity? Maybe he is tired of his way of making it. Is Levi so surprised that someone like Jesus makes such an offer that Levi simply goes along for the ride? Or is Levi, like others whom Jesus encounters, just ripe for the picking? Perhaps one of Jesus’ divine attributes is a kind of radar that can target those who are ready, as in the familiar saying, “When you are ready to learn the teacher will come.”

Mark uses this story of Levi to make a point. Jesus ends up in Levi’s house. The place is as full of sinners as a barroom is full of smoke. If you have ever been in such a barroom, and are not a smoker, then you remember that when you come out, you reek of smoke. If you get this picture, you will understand what the scribes of the Pharisees say next.

According to them, because Jesus lowers himself to eat with tax collectors and those sinners who do not keep the Jewish law, Jesus reeks with the smell of the company he keeps. He renders himself “unclean.”

The law-abiding scribes of the Pharisees point this out to Jesus. Jesus waves his hand just enough to clear the smoke from in front of his face and informs the non-smoking clergy that those who do not need to quit smoking are unlikely to need a patch. (For those of you who have lost my imagery, a nicotine patch is a smoking cessation aid. This is a good example of the maxim that if you have to explain an image it begins to lose something. This is why Mark does so little explaining in his gospel.)

Jesus responds to the scribes that “those who are well have no need of a physician.” Jesus is making it clear that he has come for people who are aware that they need help. Jesus also breaks the crystal vase that the religious establishment has been keeping on the shelf. The crystal container is meant to hold something very precious, but it has become a museum piece whose main purpose is to collect the dust of the ages.

Jesus breaks the container like the glass that is broken at a Jewish wedding. He announces to the keepers of the crystal that fine crystal is out and the cheap glass is in. He wants to offer water to the thirsty and he knows that the folks by the sea will not drink anything from crystal containers.

Jesus may as well have kicked in the door to Levi’s house and let everybody in. Jesus loves to kick in doors. When he kicks in the door on this particular night, smoke comes pouring out. After all, to continue with the smoking analogy, these are smokers. What did the Pharisees expect to see?

Although Jesus does not smoke, he smells like smoke his whole ministry. He never lights up but he still loves the people who do. Jesus ends up hanging out with them a lot, and many of them end up kicking the habit. Jesus has a keen sense of smell. He can smell the smoke on the Pharisees’ robes even when others cannot. He guesses that they are the kind who preach sermons about the evils of smoking only to light up late at night when no one is looking. Needless to say, the Pharisees do not like anyone blowing their cover or smelling their clothes.

The Pharisees either have to find another way to wash out their clothes and hang them out to dry so that the smoke will clear, or they have to find a way to hang Jesus out to dry. Guess which plan is on their minds?

Mark 2:18–28 Controversy over the Old and the New

Giving up things has a long tradition in religious practice. Fasting is like a Hallmark greeting card when it comes to piety. Fasting shows “you really care.” The religious leaders of Jesus’ day love to send greeting cards. Too often, however, they like to flaunt their faith by wearing T-shirts with slogans. John’s disciples evidently wear T-shirts that say “Fasting R Us.” Fasting is one of their defining traditions.

It seems that John’s disciples are lean and mean in their style. Some of them think the end is right around the corner and they want to be found ready by not being engulfed by the world. They fast regularly to be like first-century Boy Scouts; on the back of the T-shirts reads a complementary phrase, “Be Prepared.”

While Jesus acknowledges that there is value to the spiritual discipline of fasting, and that there are appropriate times for fasting, he does not so much appreciate the way they have of drawing attention to their devotion. Outward signs are important to them, but Jesus is more interested in the inward sources of their devotion.

Let us not misunderstand Jesus here. There is the danger of making him into yet another slogan, like the line from Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Jesus affirms the practice of fasting, but declares that now is neither the time, nor the place for it.

Jesus takes a bite out of the way of viewing things of his contemporaries. They are concerned with outward signs of devotion and being prepared for the end, but Jesus asks, “Why fast when the party is going on?” He announces to the fasting groups of his day that “the time is at hand,” the bridegroom is present. This is not the time for fasting. Mark’s emphasis in these verses is on the joy and the abundance of life that Jesus is offering.

Change is hard for religious types. We get stuck easily within our comfort zones. In the next few verses of this chapter in Mark, Jesus speaks of how things need to change because old ways can sometimes be like oil that has not been changed in an engine. Things get sluggish and it is not at all good for the overall running of the engine.

Since the engine analogy does not quite fit (we are a long time from Henry Ford after all), Jesus uses what is at hand and understandable to his audience. He speaks of sewing an un-shrunk piece of new fabric onto an old garment. Jesus also uses the image of putting new wine in old wineskins. Both practices result in ripping or spilling.

Jesus is getting his audience ready for some ripping and spilling. The theological irony is that these two verbs describe what end up happening to Jesus. The old is not ready for the new. Trying to sew a Jesus patch onto existing fabric still has its problems. Jesus is speaking of the need for a whole new garment.

Can it be that what is happening in our present day is that many people want simply to sew a Jesus patch onto their daily outfits and go on about business as usual? When the laundry is done, the wearer may discover that the new patch has pulled away from the old garment.

Mark then tells a story to make Jesus’ point. This would be like the preacher on Sunday morning stopping the sermon and pointing to a chancel drama for emphasis. Actions, especially dramatic ones, speak louder than words.

Jesus’ disciples are caught eating grain from a field on the Sabbath. The Jews considered the Sabbath, one of their oldest traditions, not to be tampered with. However, not only do Jesus’ disciples not tip-toe carefully through the tulips, they trample all over everything. This field is not filled with tulips but with grain. They eat the grain because they are in need.

The Pharisees, like children watching other children do something wrong, tattle on the law breakers. It is the Sabbath. To break it in this way is an ultimate no-no. In the story, Jesus drops a few lines of Scripture about how the hero of the faith, David himself, had him some fast food one Sabbath.

Most commentators say that Jesus stretches the point here. The example that Jesus uses does not exactly fit. The disciples are eating grain from a field, while King David takes some of the specially consecrated bread from the temple. By doing this, Jesus helps all preachers out who reach deep to make an example fit the theme.

Jesus defends this use of an old story by stating that his general point is that something new has arrived, and the old way of seeing and doing will not fit.

Jesus finally just goes ahead and says what he means, “I am Lord of the Sabbath!” You can bet that got some people’s attention. Some of the Pharisees can be heard in the back of the crowd saying something like, “Did he say he was bored with the Sabbath? What’s the matter with him?”

When the correction is made, the crowd gets real quiet, and someone hears the sound of a garment being torn or wine being spilled all over the ground. The old is not going to handle the new. The religious establishment does not need or want a “Lord.” There is but one Lord and they already have him boxed in the Temple. The religious leaders want no one, especially some upstart from Nazareth or Capernaum, or wherever he is from, messing with the old traditions.

“Lord of the Sabbath, really! Somebody needs to take him down a notch or two.” Plans are heard in the background even in these early chapters of Mark. Mark wants to make it crystal clear just why Jesus is hung up to dry like some piece of cloth.

Jesus is more interested in human need than he is in religious practice. This was and is good news for humankind, but not such good news for the establishment. Institutional religion easily gains a self-preserving quality. Jesus was and is a constant challenge to those who think they have finally got the recipe for the best wine or who finish sewing the garment and want no new additions.

Jesus wants people fed no matter what day it is. He wants power to be present no matter how uncomfortable it makes those who like it the way it has always been. And yes, he will tear things up if need be to make sure that people stay alive to the constantly changing spirit which “blows where it wills.” I know that is from another Gospel but it applies to the same Lord.