Mark 2

Healing and Forgiving a Paralytic
Now after some days, when he returned to Capernaum, the news spread that he was 
at home. 2 So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even by the 
door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some people came bringing to him a 
paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 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. 5 When Jesus saw 
their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some 
of the experts in the law were sitting there, turning these things over in their 
minds: 7 “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive 
sins but God alone?” 8 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? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your 
sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’? 10 But 
so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”
—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher, and go 
home.” 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
13 Jesus went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught 
them. 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. 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. 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?” 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
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?” 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. 20 But the days are coming when the 
bridegroom will be taken from them, and at that time they will fast. 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. 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
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. 24 So the Pharisees said to 
him, “Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?” 25 He 
said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and 
his companions were hungry— 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?” 27 Then he said to them, 
“The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. 28 For this reason 
the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

NET

Mark 2 makes it clear to me that Jesus came to break the religious status quo. Even in Christianity today, it’s unfortunate that we have such a rigid view of who God is, who Jesus is, how we should relate to him, etc. It’s right there in the Bible that He is not who we expect him to be!

Maybe it’s just a part of human nature that we think God should impose rigid rules on how we should behave and who should be favored and privileged. But perhaps that reflects that depravity of humanity–that if we were God, we think he should favor the healthy, the ones who have their shit together, etc. In reality, as Jesus shows in Mark 2, he wants to spend time with the sinners, the tax collectors, the sick, the poor, etc.

So whenever we want to impose rules on what we think God wants or expects of us, maybe we should go back to Mark 2. Maybe God doesn’t care about social norms or power structures. We worship a God who truly cares about us being hungry, more than Sabbath laws. We worship a God who wants to heal the sick, more than being distracted from his plans to preach. We worship a God who wants to hang out with the outcasts in society, more than the rich and successful. We worship a God who likes to party when it’s appropriate, more than being super serious and pious all the time.