What Does Mark 2: 1-12 Mean

Mark 2:1-12 illustrates a relationship between faith and healing, with Jesus (referred to as the Son of Man) at the center of the narrative. The story starts in Capernaum, which is referred to as Jesus’ new home. Four friends bring a paralyzed man to Christ, who was surrounded by a crowd of people, by breaking through the roof, since houses at that time often had a flat roof made of mud. Jesus first says to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5). After this, scribes question his ability to perform miracles and claim it as blasphemy, turning the story from a miracle working to a controversy. Jesus asks the rhetorical question, “Which is easier… to say… your sins are forgiven or.. Stand up and take your mat and walk?” Jesus then tells

In ancient Hebrew, it can be translated many different ways, but one I found interesting was one meaning “I.” Scot McKnight notes, “In the Gospels, it (son of man) does not function as a normal term for man at all: it functions as a title, and it generally refers to Jesus alone.” No matter the translation, the matter of authority is what should be focused on. Mark 1:21-28 first introduces this authority when Jesus performs an exorcism. It is in Mark 2:1-12 that first correlates authority with forgiving one’s sins and is labeled as a blasphemer. James Edwards comes to the conclusion, “The focus in 2:1-12 thus shifts from the physical paralysis of the lame man to the spiritual paralysis of the teachers of the law.”5 Jesus contrasting the Jewish sects gives a verdict of His authority. This periscope is all about this verdict. Doughty wants readers to understand that it doesn’t deal with “ecclesiological matters, but with Christological.” In other words, this pericope is less about Christ as the anointed one and who the Jews sought to be the Messiah, but rather about a christ who forgives a Gentile paralytic of his sins. The Jews were upset because in their minds nobody aside from God had the authority to forgive sins and condemned Christ. This condemnation escalates to the cross for the sole purpose of letting the reader know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth. The Jews rejection of this is a theme that remains throughout the