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Scripture Reading: Mark 2:1-12
In Mark 1:14-45 we have seen that the contents of the gospel service include five matters: preaching the gospel (Mark 1:14-20), teaching the truth (Mark 1:21-22), casting out demons (Mark 1:23-28), healing the sick (Mark 1:29-39), and cleansing the leper (Mark 1:40-45). Following this, in 2:1—3:6 we see the ways of carrying out the gospel service. In this section of the Gospel of Mark we have five incidents: forgiving the sins of the sick (Mark 2:1-12), feasting with sinners (Mark 2:13-17), causing His followers to be merry without fasting (Mark 2:18-22), caring for His followers’ hunger rather than for the regulations of religion (Mark 2:23-28), and caring for the relief of the suffering one rather than for the ritual of religion (Mark 3:1-6). These five cases form a single group.
It is difficult to make an outline of the Gospel of Mark. In this Gospel one case follows another without any apparent order or arrangement. For this reason, we may read Mark a number of times and still not be able to make an outline of this book or divide it into sections. But by the Lord’s mercy I believe that we have a useful outline, an outline that helps us get into all the sections of this Gospel. According to this outline, chapter one presents the complete contents of the gospel. Then in chapter two and in the first part of chapter three, we see the Lord’s way of carrying out this rich gospel.
The five incidents recorded vividly in 2:1—3:6 form one particular group, showing how the Slave-Savior as the Slave of God carried out His gospel service to care for the need of fallen people, who were captured by Satan from God and the enjoyment of God. The Lord cared for their need so that they might be rescued from their captivity and brought back to the God of enjoyment.
First, the Lord forgave the sins of the victim of sickness. He did this as God with divine authority so that He might release the sick one from Satan’s oppression (Acts 10:38) and restore him to God. The scribes considered this to be against the theology of their religion (Mark 2:1-12).
Second, as a physician to the sick and miserable people, He feasted with the tax collectors, those who were disloyal and unfaithful to their race, and with sinners despised and isolated from society, that they might taste the mercy of God and be recovered to the enjoyment of God. This was condemned by the self-righteous yet merciless scribes of the Pharisees (Mark 2:13-17).
Third, He caused His followers to be merry and happy without fasting, as a bridegroom with the sons of the bridechamber. Thus, He annulled the practice of the disciples of John (the new religionists) and the Pharisees (the old religionists), so that His followers might be delivered from the practices of their religion into the enjoyment of God’s Christ as their Bridegroom, with His righteousness as their outer clothing and His life as their inner wine in God’s New Testament economy (Mark 2:18-22).
Fourth, He allowed His followers to pick the ears of grain in the grainfields on the Sabbath that they might satisfy their hunger. Thus, they apparently broke God’s commandment concerning the Sabbath. But actually they pleased God, for the hunger of Christ’s followers was satisfied through Him, as the hunger of David and his followers was satisfied with the bread of the presence in the temple. This indicates that in God’s New Testament economy it is not a matter of keeping the regulation of religion, but of enjoying satisfaction in and through Christ as the real Sabbath rest (Mark 2:23-28).
Fifth, the Lord healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. He did not care for keeping the Sabbath, but rather cared for the health of His sheep. Thus, He indicated that in God’s New Testament economy it is not a matter of keeping regulations but of imparting life. For this, He was hated by the Pharisees — the religionists (Mark 3:1-6).
All the five merciful and living ways taken by the Slave-Savior to carry out His gospel service contradicted the formal and traditional religion and were thus abhorred by its fleshly and stubborn leaders, who were spiritually dead.
We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that chapter one of the Gospel of Mark is concerned with the gospel. This chapter tells us what the gospel is, when the gospel began, and what the contents of the gospel are. In this chapter we see the nature, substance, essence, element, contents, and reality of the gospel. I believe that the churches will carry out this rich gospel through their gospel service.
Having seen the contents of the gospel service in chapter one, we need to see the ways of carrying out the gospel service in 2:1—3:6. It is significant that in Mark the Lord Jesus does not teach us in words how to carry out the gospel service. Instead, in the Gospel of Mark He is portrayed as a working One, a serving One, not as a speaking One. Therefore, in Mark it is mainly by the Lord’s acts, not by His words, that we learn how to carry out the gospel service.
In 2:1—3:6 the Lord does not tell us how to carry out the gospel service. Instead, He does certain things, and the five incidents recorded in this portion of the Gospel of Mark show us how the Lord carried out the gospel service. If we would know how to carry out this service, we need to consider what the Lord does in forgiving the sins of the sick, in feasting with sinners, in causing His followers to be merry without fasting, in caring for His followers’ hunger rather than for religion’s regulation, and in caring for the relief of the suffering one rather than for the ritual of religion.
Many readers of the Bible enjoy the stories in the Gospel of Mark. The five incidents recorded in 2:1—3:6 may be taken merely as stories, stories used in children’s meeting or for reading to children at bedtime. No doubt, these incidents are very good stories. The Bible is a sacred book, a holy writing, and therefore it contains the best stories. However, we should not be satisfied merely to know the stories in the Gospel of Mark.
Because I was not satisfied with such knowledge but was looking to the Lord for light concerning this Gospel, the Lord showed me that in Mark 1 the gospel is fully displayed in His gospel service. In no other chapter of the Scriptures do we have such a full display of the gospel as we have in chapter one of Mark. Not even in the writings of Paul can we find a single chapter that gives us such a detailed and full display of the gospel in its nature and contents. However, we need to be enlightened in order to see what is revealed in chapter one of Mark. Someone may memorize this chapter, yet still not have any light concerning it. Someone else may thoroughly study this chapter in Greek, knowing the meaning of every Greek word, and nevertheless not have any light concerning the gospel displayed in this chapter. I believe that, by the Lord’s mercy, we have seen a clear view of the gospel displayed in chapter one of Mark. Now we also should have a clear view of the Lord’s way to carry out the gospel service, that is, a clear view of what the Lord practices in His gospel service. Let us now go on to consider the first incident related to this, the incident of forgiving the sins of the sick (2:1-12).
While the Lord was in a house at Capernaum, speaking the word to those who were gathered together, a paralytic carried by four men was brought to Him (2:1-3). This paralytic signifies a sinner paralyzed by sin, one who is unable to walk and move before God.
Mark 2:4 says, “And not being able to bring him to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof where He was; and having dug through, they lowered the bed on which the paralytic was lying.” Their zeal in seeking the Slave-Savior’s healing compelled the seekers to break through the proper barrier — something which might be considered a wild deed. Then through the roof they lowered the bed, a small mattress or pad, on which the sick man was lying.
Verse 5 says, “And Jesus, seeing their faith, says to the paralytic, Child, your sins are forgiven!” This faith, issuing from hearing the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17), indicates that the seekers had heard of the Slave-Savior. Seeing their faith, the Lord called the paralytic a “child.” This loving word of the Slave-Savior implies kindness. Here the Lord’s human virtue was expressed.
The Lord said to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven!” Sins were the cause of his sickness. The Slave-Savior’s word here touched the cause so that there might be a different effect. Once the sins were forgiven, the sickness was healed.
It is important and meaningful that the first incident in this section on the carrying out of the gospel service is a case of forgiving the sins of a sick person. This indicates that in carrying out the gospel the first thing that must be done is to help people have their sins forgiven.
As fallen human beings, our basic problem is our sin. When God created man, man was pure, clean, and without sin. At the end of Genesis 1 God looked at His creation and said, “Very good.” It is a great matter for God to utter such words as “very good.” Man had been created in the image of God and according to the likeness of God. Furthermore, God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). This breath of life became the spirit of man within him. Therefore, man in God’s creation has the image of God, the likeness of God, and a spirit within him. As a creature, he was clean, pure, and complete. However, according to Genesis 3, the evil one, the Devil, the enemy of God, came in to poison the man created by God. Man was “bitten” by the serpent, and sin was injected into man’s being.
All the problems of mankind are the result of sin. Because of sin, the situation of fallen mankind is hopeless. Because of sin, everyone has been corrupted. Do you not believe that mankind, including you, has been corrupted? Do you not believe that your neighborhood, your city, and your country have been corrupted by sin? The whole world has been corrupted by sin. Therefore, in carrying out the gospel service, the first thing we must do is to show people how they may have their sins forgiven. Because all the problems of mankind are the result of sin, sin must be dealt with if people are to be restored to God.
Many of us can testify that in the past we tried our best to get a good education so that we might have a promising future. Nevertheless, the problem of sin remained unsolved and caused more and more corruption. But on the day we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him, our sins were forgiven.
In 2:1 through 12 we have a case showing us that the first task done by the Lord as the Slave-Savior in carrying out His gospel service was to forgive sins. This was the reason the Lord said in 2:5, “Child, your sins are forgiven!” This word was probably a shock to the paralytic and to the four who had brought him to the Lord. They no doubt had never thought that the cause of his sickness was sin. But much to their surprise, the Lord told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven.
According to verses 6 and 7, when the scribes heard this word, they were reasoning in their hearts: “But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, Why is this man speaking this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except one — God?” Scribes and Pharisees, as the proponents of the old and dead religion, were motivated and used by Satan, the enemy of God, to oppose, resist, and frustrate the gospel service of the Slave of God throughout all His ministry (2:16, 24; 3:22; 7:5; 8:11; 9:14; 10:2; 11:27; 12:13, 28). They thought they worshipped God and were zealous for Him, not knowing that the very God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was immediately before them in the form of a slave to serve them. They were blinded by their traditional religion from seeing Him in God’s economy, and they plotted to kill Him (3:6; 11:18; 14:1). Later they actually killed Him (8:31; 10:33; 14:43, 53; 15:1, 31).
The reasoning scribes, who considered themselves “scriptural” and “theological,” acknowledged the Slave-Savior merely as a man, even a despised Nazarene (John 1:45-46). They did not realize that the One who forgave the sins of the paralytic was actually the forgiving God incarnated in the form of a lowly man. The scribes, assuming that they knew the Scriptures, thought that only God had authority to forgive sins, and that Jesus, who in their eyes was only a man, blasphemed God when He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” This indicates that they did not realize that the Lord was God. By uttering such a word, they rejected Him. This was the first rejection by the leaders of the Jewish religion.
In their hearts the scribes accused the Lord of blaspheming God. They seemed to be saying, “Who is this claiming to forgive sins? Only God has the authority to do such a thing. We know that this man is a Nazarene. How can a despised Nazarene forgive someone’s sins?”
The scribes did not realize that the Lord knew what they were reasoning in their hearts. Concerning this, verse 8 says, “And immediately Jesus, knowing in His spirit that they were reasoning this way among themselves, says to them, Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts?” Literally, the Greek word rendered “knowing” means fully knowing. The Slave-Savior knew the seekers’ faith, the sick one’s sins (v. 5), and the scribes’ inward reasoning. This indicates that He was omniscient. Such omniscience, manifesting His divine attribute, unveils His deity as the omniscient God.
The scribes must have been shocked at the Lord’s word. They may have said to themselves, “We didn’t say anything. How does He know what we were reasoning in our hearts?” The Lord knew their reasonings because He was not only a Nazarene — He was also the omniscient God.
A striking point in the Gospel of Mark is that this Gospel presents the Lord in the likeness of man and in the form of a slave. The scribes did not realize that within the humanity of this Slave there was deity. The Lord behaved Himself in such a way as to indicate that within His humanity there was deity. The Lord was a Nazarene in the form of a slave; yet He had omniscience. Because He was omniscient, He knew what the scribes were saying in their hearts. Instead of arguing with them, He simply spoke the facts.
According to verse 9, the Lord went on to ask the scribes this question, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, and pick up your bed and walk?” Here the Lord did not say, “Which is more difficult,” because to Him nothing is difficult. For Him to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” was easier than to say, “Rise, and pick up your bed and walk.”
Verses 10 and 11 say, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins — He says to the paralytic, To you I say, Rise, pick up your bed and go to your house.” The Slave-Savior was the very God incarnated, not regarding equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was outwardly in the likeness and fashion of man, even in the form of a slave, but inwardly, He was God (Phil. 2:6-7). He was the Slave-Savior and the God-Savior as well. Hence, He had not only the ability to save the sinners, but also the authority to forgive their sins. In this incident He forgave people’s sins as God, but asserted that He was the Son of Man. This indicates that He was the true God and a real Man, possessing deity and humanity. In Him men could see both His divine attribute and human virtue.
These verses indicate that in order to show that He had authority to forgive sins, the Lord said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your bed and go to your house.” This was the healing of the paralytic. The Lord’s salvation not only forgives our sins, but also makes us “rise and walk.” It is not rise and walk first, and then be forgiven of our sins; that would be by works. Instead, it is to be forgiven of our sins first, and then to rise and walk; this is by grace.
In verse 12 we have a concluding word concerning this incident: “And he rose, and immediately, having picked up the bed, he went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We have never seen anything like this!” Here we have the fulfillment of the Slave-Savior’s word, “Rise, pick up your bed.” To say, “Your sins are forgiven,” was easier than to say, “Rise, pick up your bed and walk.” Since the latter was fulfilled, the former, the easier one, was surely also fulfilled. This is strong evidence that the Slave-Savior has authority to forgive sins on earth.
The paralytic rose, picked up his bed, and went out before all. The Lord enabled the paralytic not only to walk, but also to pick up his bed and walk. Formerly the bed bore him; now he bears it. This is the power of the Lord’s salvation. Moreover, this paralytic was brought to the Lord by others, but he went home by himself. This indicates that it is not that the sinner can come to the Lord, but that the sinner can go forth from the Lord by the Lord’s salvation.
In this incident we see both the humanity and the deity of the Slave-Savior. When the Lord referred to the paralytic as a child, the Lord conducted Himself in a very human manner. The Lord addressed him in an intimate way, in a way full of human kindness. But when the Lord told the paralytic to rise, take up his bed, and go home, He manifested His deity. Therefore, the Lord’s deity was manifested in His humanity. His humanity was full of virtue, and His deity was full of authority. The Lord’s glory seen here was the expression of His authority. The Lord’s word to the sick man to rise, pick up his bed, and go home was not a word of teaching; it was a word of authority. This word was confirmed by the fact that the paralytic then received the ability, the energy to rise, pick up his bed, and walk. All those gathered there saw the Lord’s authority, glory, and honor. Therefore, in this case we see the Lord’s humanity displayed in its virtue and perfection and His deity manifested in its glory and honor.
When the paralytic picked up his bed and walked away, the mouths of the opposers, the scribes and the Pharisees, were shut. They were put to silence by the Lord’s authority in His deity and also by His kindness in His humanity. Here we see a slave; yet in Him God is manifested. Because many saw the Lord’s deity manifested in His humanity, they followed Him.
According to the incident in 2:1-12, the first thing we must learn in our preaching of the gospel is to help others have their sins forgiven. It is significant that the Lord did not say to the paralytic, “I am sorry that you are sick. But I want you to know that this sickness comes from sin. Because you are paralyzed, you must have sinned in some way. You know what sins you have committed.” If the Lord had preached to the paralytic like this, he may have argued with Him, saying, “No, I have always been a good person. I have been kind to others. But suddenly I became paralyzed.” We should learn of the Lord Jesus not to argue with others concerning their sins. That will only stir up their anger and cause them not to care for what we have to say. We should follow the Lord Jesus to tell people that their sins are forgiven. Of course, this does not mean that we should literally repeat the words, “Your sins are forgiven.” My point is that we need to follow the principle seen here.
When we approach people for the preaching of the gospel, we need to be inwardly praying. However, we should not let them know that we are praying. Then the Lord may lead us to say something like this: “Dear friends, only the Lord Jesus, as the Son of God and our Redeemer, has the authority, power, and ability to forgive our sins.” Instead of saying “your sins,” we should say “our sins.” The Lord could speak of “your sins” because He was not a sinner. We, however, must include ourselves, for we know that we too are sinners. This means that we should not tell people that they are sinful. Instead, we should tell them that only the Lord has the ability to forgive us our sins. We may go on to say, “In our human life, all troubles and problems come from our sins. We need to have our sins forgiven, and only the Lord Jesus has the authority to do this.”
If we present the gospel to others in the proper way, the Holy Spirit will honor our speaking. Then those who listen to us will be deeply impressed with the word that only the Lord Jesus can forgive our sins. The result is that this word concerning forgiveness will be sown into them as the seed of the gospel.
Another way to help people experience the forgiveness of sins is to read Mark 2:1-12 with them in a living way. We may take out a pocket version of the Gospel of Mark and read it in a prevailing way in order to impress others with the fact that only the Lord Jesus can forgive a person’s sins. Then we may help them see that peace comes as the result of having our sins forgiven. According to the sequence of the cases in 2:1—3:6, the first way to carry out the preaching of the gospel is to help others have their sins forgiven.
