1 And when he returned to Caperna-um after some days, it was reported that he was at home.
Jesus’ healing of the leper took him outside of Caperna-um, this makes sense since lepers were required to live outside of the towns or city limits. Jesus returns from the Judean countryside to Caperna-um, his home base of operations. His arrival is reported because of his fame, previous to the healing of the leper, Jesus heals all the sick and possessed in the city so his appearance is obviously very exciting even if they do not know who he actually is yet.
2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them.
In chapter 1 we are told all of the town came to Jesus to be healed, we are seeing a repeat in a sense, everyone wants to see the new miracle making rabbi. The house they are gathered in is likely Simon’s house which was in Caperna-um and was rather large but apparently not large enough for the huge crowds. Jesus is preaching to them from the house, this is likely continued teachings on the Mosaic law and the prophets, this was the footing he used to preach the kingdom of God, it is was foretells it after all.
3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay.
Jesus has attracted so much attention and the crowds have grown so large that people are unable to approach the house in the normal way. Four men have bringing their paralytic friend to be healed by Jesus but they can not get through the crowds. In order to get to Jesus they remove the roof from above him and let him down on a pallet through the opening. This can be a confusing text if you aren’t aware of the common house layout in this culture and time.
A typical first century Judaean house did not have a set of stairs on the inside of the building, but on the outside. This would lead to the roof which was flat, it was not just shelter from the skies but also served as a floor for a communal area. This is where most families spent their time when it was hot, which it was a lot of the time. People did not have gardens to relax in, they relaxed on their roofs. So the men have climbed the side stairs and dug through lattice of mud, reeds and would that would have made up the walls and roof of the structure.
5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”
Upon seeing the tenacity and willingness to dig through Simon’s roof in order to get the paralytic to Jesus, he acknowledges their faith. Miracles are worked through faith in Jesus’ ability to do the act, elsewhere it says he did not do many miracles in Nazareth because of their lack of faith. Here they filled with faith and demonstrate through how far they are willing to go to reach Jesus.
Instead of concentrating on the obvious physical problems the man has, Jesus focuses on the spiritual well being of the man. This spiritual ailment, our fallen nature, is in fact the root of sickness and death, unfortunately normal people do not have the ability to fix this invisible fallenness or its symptoms. Jesus however is not a normal person, he is fully man but he is also fully God. He also calls the man son just before forgiving his sins,
6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,
7 “Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Some scribes in sitting by the house, probably keeping watch on the large crowds and what they are focusing on, it would likely draw their curiosity. They were the consultants of the Law, whether a member of the Pharisee or Sadducee parties or even the regular people, you sought out the services of the Scribes for they were experts in the Law. They would be particularly curious of why the people were so excited; is the crowd excited by something unkosher?
Upon hearing Jesus’ mending of the man spiritually by forgiving his sins the scribes are left “questioning in their hearts” this means their convictions by which they live are being challenged by the very words of Jesus. They need not vocalise it out loud. Although verse 7 is put in quotation marks, there was no grammar in the original Greek and Mark is actually describing the thoughts the Scribes were having in opposition of Jesus. Instead of being amazed by the mass healings which lured them to the place they get stuck on his statement of forgiving sins which in the first century Jewish context, this is actually a REALLY bad thing. Unless you happen to be God that is. Jesus is putting himself in the place of God, whose authority it is that can forgive sins. People complain about Jesus not claiming divinity outside of John’s Gospel but this alone is a beacon of divinity if you understand the context
8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question thus in your hearts?
“Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit” so Jesus is essentially reading their minds or more in line with the context of the passage, reading their hearts. He does not physically hear the statements from them, he can supernaturally read their very thoughts. So he questions them back, out loud. This interaction always seems funny to me, imagine thinking something and someone responds to your thoughts, challenging what you were seething about. He simply asks them why do they question his statements in their hearts. If his actions demonstrate his words to be true, why are they mad?
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk’?
Because of their hardness of heart, Jesus seeks to solidify his implicit divine statement by doing a divine action. He asks what is easier to say “your sins are forgiven” or “rise, take up your pallet and walk”? He is essentially, “you don’t believe these words I speak? how about a miracle before your very eyes?” Upon seeing this they should have no reason to argue with him, unless they continued to harden their hearts.
10 But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—
11 “I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.”
The forgiving of sins and the fixing of our fallen nature isn’t just one of the nice things that Jesus does in his ministry. One of the core parts of the incarnation is the fixing of our fallen human nature. This is why, like in other places, he does a physical miracle, a sign to the Jews, that acts as a witness to his claims.
One of his most important missions is fixing our nature, forgiving our sins so for them to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he does a physical healing as a witness before them. The use of the Son of Man title, the divine figure from Daniel continues to hint at Jesus divine identity.
The Son of Man is the one who will receive power and authority from the Ancient of Days, the Father in Heaven. He basically does a cluster bomb of divine statements and actions that would take a long period of time to process intellectually, but something people with faith would just submit to. So he tells the paralytic to rise and go home.
12 And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
The man who was literally paralysed rises, picks up the pallet that once supported him and walks before all of those present. People are rightly amazed and give thanks to God. They are not recognising Jesus as God but definitely recognise him as a Prophet through whom God works. This is positive development unfortunately it does not go much further.
The people exclaim that they had never seen anything like this before. Although the Old Testament is filled with the miraculous the Jews have been living in a silent period of several centuries without a prophet or a king. That along with the declaration that he can forgive sins, this episode with Jesus is definitely not like anything they had seen. This authority to forgive sins is proven and demonstrated by Jesus here and in other places and later in the Gospel narrative he will explicitly breathe on his apostles and bestow upon them this exact same authority to bind and loose sins.
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