For today let's read all of Mark 2, the lens through which we'll consider this week's reflections.
Mark 2
A
few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he
had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no
room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some
men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since
they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in
the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was
lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son,
your sins are forgiven.”
Now some teachers of the law were sitting there,
thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s
blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus knew in his
spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to
them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to
this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat
and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on
earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up,
take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full
view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We
have never seen anything like this!”
Once
again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he
began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus
sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him,
and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s
house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples,
for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who
were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they
asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On
hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a
doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Now
John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and
asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the
Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” Jesus answered, “How can the
guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as
they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will
be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. No one sews a patch of
unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from
the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old
wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the
wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
One
Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked
along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look,
why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” He answered, “Have
you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in
need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house
of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And
he also gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath
was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is
Lord even of the Sabbath.”
All Scripture references
are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973,
1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights
reserved worldwide.
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