Catholic Commentary on Mark 2

"Which is easier: to say to this paralysed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'?" (Mark 2:9)

Through the Roof

Four men carry a paralysed friend to Jesus. The house is so crowded they cannot get through the door. So they climb to the roof, dig through it, and lower the man on his mat through the hole. When Jesus sees their faith, he says to the paralysed man: Son, your sins are forgiven. The scribes present are scandalised: only God can forgive sins. They are right about the theology. They are wrong about who is standing in front of them.

Jesus responds by healing the man's body as the visible sign that he has the authority to heal his soul: But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. The physical healing is the lesser miracle. The forgiveness is the greater one. This is the order the Church has always maintained: the salvation of the soul is the primary purpose of every ministry, including the ministry of healing. The Sacrament of Confession is the extension of this moment in time: the same authority, given to the Church, to say to every person who comes in repentance: your sins are forgiven.

The Call of Levi

Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, sitting at his tax booth. Tax collectors were despised doubly: as collaborators with Rome and as habitual cheats. Jesus walks past and says: Follow me. Levi gets up and follows. Then Jesus eats at his house with many tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees object to his company. Jesus answers with one of his most penetrating responses: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

St. Augustine, who himself spent years in a life far from God before his conversion, wrote that this verse was the hinge of his hope: Christ came precisely for people like him, people who had made a spectacular mess of their lives. The righteous who need no physician are not a category that exists in reality; they are a category of self-deception.

New Wine, New Wineskins

Jesus uses three images to describe the newness he brings: a wedding feast where fasting is inappropriate, a new cloth that will tear an old garment, and new wine that will burst old wineskins. The point is not that the old covenant was bad. It was from God. The point is that the old forms cannot contain the new reality. Jesus is not a reform of Judaism. He is its fulfilment and its transformation into something the old categories cannot hold.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, four friends refused to accept that their companion had no access to Jesus. They tore a roof open. Who in your life needs you to be that kind of friend: persistent, creative, undeterred by crowds or obstacles? And what paralysis of your own, physical, spiritual, or moral, do you need to lower through the roof to the feet of Christ today?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you forgave the paralysed man before you healed him, and you called a tax collector from his booth and made him a disciple. Come to us in our paralysis and our sin. Speak your word of forgiveness, raise us up, and set us on the path of following you. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

2
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
(Matthew 9:1–8; Luke 5:17–26)
1 A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum. And when the people heard that He was home, 2 they gathered in such large numbers that there was no more room, not even outside the door, as Jesus spoke the word to them.
 
3 Then a paralytic was brought to Him, carried by four men. 4 Since they were unable to get to Jesus through the crowd, they uncovered the roof above Him, made an opening, and lowered the paralytic on his mat.
 
5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
 
6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
 
8 At once Jesus knew in His spirit that they were thinking this way within themselves. “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?” He asked. 9 “Which is easier: to say to a paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, 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, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”
 
12 And immediately the man got up, picked up his mat, and walked out in front of them all. As a result, they were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Jesus Calls Levi
(Matthew 9:9–13; Luke 5:27–32)
 
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the sea. All the people came to Him, and He taught them there.
 
14 As He was walking along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Levi got up and followed Him.
 
15 While Jesus was dining at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and His disciples—for there were many who followed Him. 16 When the scribes who were Pharisees saw Jesus eating with these people, they asked His disciples, “Why does He eat * 2:16 BYZ and TR include and drink; see Luke 5:30. with tax collectors and sinners?”
 
17 On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Questions about Fasting
(Matthew 9:14–15; Luke 5:33–35)
 
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were often fasting. So people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t Your disciples fast like John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees?”
 
19 Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? As long as He is with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
The Patches and the Wineskins
(Matthew 9:16–17; Luke 5:36–39)
 
21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result.
 
22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”† 2:22 Tischendorf does not include Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.
The Lord of the Sabbath
(1 Samuel 21:1–7; Matthew 12:1–8; Luke 6:1–5)
 
23 One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along. 24 So the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
 
25 Jesus replied, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 During the high priesthood of Abiathar, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread,‡ 2:26 Or the Bread of the Presence which was lawful only for the priests. And he gave some to his companions as well.”
 
27 Then Jesus declared, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

*2:16 2:16 BYZ and TR include and drink; see Luke 5:30.

†2:22 2:22 Tischendorf does not include Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.

‡2:26 2:26 Or the Bread of the Presence

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