Mark 2
28 verses
Chapter 2 presents five consecutive controversies that introduce the growing conflict between Jesus and the religious establishment. The healing of the paralytic lowered through the roof by four determined friends becomes the occasion for the first Son of Man claim: Jesus forgives the man's sins (which the scribes immediately recognize as a divine prerogative), then heals the paralysis as visible proof that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive — the verifiable miracle serving as evidence for the unverifiable forgiveness. The call of Levi the tax collector from his booth and the subsequent dinner with tax collectors and sinners produces the Pharisees' objection and Jesus' medical analogy: the physician comes for the sick, not the healthy — I have not come to call the righteous but sinners, with the irony that the righteous in view may be those who only consider themselves righteous. The fasting controversy introduces the bridegroom metaphor (Jesus identifying himself with the divine bridegroom of the Old Testament), the first explicit anticipation of his death, and the new-wineskins teaching: the kingdom Jesus brings is new wine that cannot be contained within the old forms no matter how venerable. The two Sabbath controversies — grain plucking and the David precedent, Sabbath healing and the Sabbath-was-made-for-man principle — culminate in the chapter's most sweeping authority claim: the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.
0 1Open verse page →
2
And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.
0 0Open verse page →
3
And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.
0 2Open verse page →
4
And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
0 0Open verse page →
5
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
0 0Open verse page →
6
But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
0 0Open verse page →
7
Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
0 0Open verse page →
8
And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
0 0Open verse page →
God is faithful in every circumstance.. Reading the Psalms alongside this gives a fuller picture of what the author was ...
9
Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
1 0Open verse page →
10
But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
0 0Open verse page →
God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. ...
11
I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
1 0Open verse page →
12
And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
0 0Open verse page →
13
And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.
0 0Open verse page →
14
And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alpheus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.
0 0Open verse page →
15
And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.
0 0Open verse page →
16
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
0 0Open verse page →
17
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
0 0Open verse page →
18
And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?
0 0Open verse page →
19
And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
0 0Open verse page →
20
But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
0 0Open verse page →
21
No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.
0 0Open verse page →
22
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.
0 0Open verse page →
23
And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
0 1Open verse page →
24
And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
0 0Open verse page →
25
And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
0 0Open verse page →
26
How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?
0 0Open verse page →
27
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
0 0Open verse page →
28
Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
0 0Open verse page →
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
No notes on this chapter yet. Be the first to write one!