Mark 2:8, commentary and pictures

Jesus looked straight into the unspoken thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees and laid open the evil reasoning they were holding inside their own hearts. They were condemning him as a blasphemer for telling the paralytic his sins were forgiven, insisting that forgiving sins belongs to God alone. He met their secret charge by proving before them all that he holds God's own right to pardon, commanding the helpless man to rise and walk in full strength. He lifted the heavier burden first, giving peace and cleansing to the sin-sick soul so the diseased body could then be reached and made whole. He alone can pardon the sinner, and no human mediator or religious form can take his place.

Historical Setting

The scene is Capernaum, where Jesus had come again on his mission and was staying as a guest in Peter's house. He was teaching beside the lake and then inside the crowded house, with his disciples seated near him to hear and understand truths to carry to all lands through all ages. Men, women and children flocked from every direction, and inside and outside pressed a promiscuous multitude of all grades of society and many nationalities, drawn by desire to hear, by curiosity and love of excitement, by dim understanding in which seeds of life could lodge, and by hope to hear and to be healed. It belongs to the record in Mark 2:1-12 in which the lame, the blind, the paralytic and those dying of various maladies rise up in health praising God for deliverance, and to the account of the healing of the one sick of the palsy.

Pharisees, scribes, doctors and teachers of the law were also gathered near. They concealed intense hatred and jealousy of his power and wisdom and wicked purposes in their hearts while closely watching his words. They hoped to confuse him, to draw him out and surprise him into contradiction or forbidden heresy, and to find grounds to accuse him as an impostor and condemn him to death.

These hostile watchers had refused the paralytic hope and declared him under God's curse for sin. They were waiting to see what Jesus would do with so urgent a case. Looking into one another's faces they shared one thought that something must be done to arrest the tide of feeling turning toward Jesus, for they feared losing their influence over the people and over the multitude watching with awe.

Paralytic's Need and Faith

The man was a local paralytic reduced to utter helplessness by incurable palsy, who had given up all hope of recovery. His was a case so urgent that dissolution was already working on the body.

Dissipation and love of the pleasures of sin had been the main cause of his palsy, his life had been a transgression of God's law and his bodily affliction was the penalty of his crime. He therefore feared he would not be tolerated in the presence of the pure Physician, believing his sinful life and illness made him unwelcome.

Friends and relatives had heard Jesus's gracious teaching and seen His wonderful miracles and that He turned no one away, with even loathsome lepers finding access to His presence and being healed, so they began to hope the paralytic might be relieved if he could be brought under Jesus's notice. He had heard from friends that Jesus could cure every malady, spoke mercy to the despairing, and set people free from Satan's power by a word of authority, which revived his hope and made him long to see Jesus and place himself in His hands.

His deepest need was relief from the burden of sin and assurance of forgiveness and peace with God, for he had carried for months the burden of sin with no relief. He hoped Jesus would pardon his sins and relieve his troubled mind, and was content to live or die according to Jesus' will, believing that pardon alone would be enough.

Jesus Himself had drawn the perplexed and doubting man to Himself to give hope to the guilty and wretched. His divine Spirit had stirred the sinner's heart while still at home and brought conviction to his conscience. He watched the first glimmer of faith that Jesus was his only helper deepen into belief and grow stronger with every effort to come into His presence. He acknowledged the simple faith proved by persevering effort under perplexing difficulties to reach Him, and answered the silent entreaty of his pleading eyes with pardon, peace, and healing.

The Pharisees' reasoning reflected their belief that sickness and distress were evidence of God's anger at a person's sin. They treated his illness as proof of God's anger at sin, a cold judgment that contrasts with Jesus' mercy toward the helpless and the hope that He can forgive sins. Their judgment was mistaken and hypocritical, for they treated suffering as proof of divine anger while they themselves were corrupt.

Perceiving Hidden Reasoning

Immediately Jesus perceived in his spirit the inward reasoning they kept within themselves, knowing by divine insight the unspoken thoughts and silent objections in their hearts without any words exchanged between them. He understood the paralytic's whole case as well, for he himself had drawn the perplexed and doubting man, stirred his heart while still at home, brought conviction to his conscience, and watched the first glimmer of faith that Jesus was his only helper deepen into belief and grow stronger with every effort to come into his presence. He acknowledged the simple faith proved by persevering effort under perplexing difficulties and answered the silent entreaty of pleading eyes with pardon, peace and healing. They said nothing aloud but looked into one another's faces sharing one thought, and Jesus read those hidden thoughts, fixed his reproving glance upon them so that they cowered and drew back, and exposed their hearts by asking why they reasoned these things in their hearts.

What he perceived was evil reasoning, for they inwardly condemned him and challenged his forgiveness as evil. They accused him of assuming infinite power belonging to God alone, called him a blasphemer for forgiving sins, questioned his authority to forgive, and sought to use his words of divine pardon as grounds for accusing him of a crime worthy of death. They reasoned that he spoke blasphemies because only God can forgive sins, murmuring in their hearts, Who can forgive sins but God only. That view was shaped by the priests' tormenting suggestion that God had cast the paralytic off because of his sins, from which Jesus had freed him by giving peace of mind in declaring his sins forgiven.

Authority to Forgive Sins

When Jesus spoke to the paralytic let down through the roof that his sins were forgiven, he laid bare the scribes' inward reasoning and called them to examine it, confronting their silent charge that his pardon was blasphemy and their intent to turn his words into grounds for accusation. They had judged his declaration of forgiveness as blasphemy and questioned his authority to forgive, and he exposed that hidden reasoning by asking why they entertained such thoughts in their hearts.

He then proved that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins by commanding the paralytic to arise, take up his bed and walk, and the man immediately did so before them all. That visible healing gave compelling evidence of power both to forgive sins and to heal the sick. The healed man stood before them in full vigor, carrying with ease the couch on which he had been borne, with arms that had been lifeless now quick to obey his will and flesh that had been shrunken and leaden-hued now fresh and ruddy with health. He walked with a firm, free step, hope written in every line of his face, all gloom gone and peace and purity in place of the marks of sin and suffering, so that all except the faultfinders were amazed and glorified God.

His home was filled with rejoicing, tears of joy and glad thanksgivings, and God was glorified through His Son. He and his family became fully faithful to Christ who had brought light into their darkened home, with no doubt dimming their faith and no unbelief marring their loyalty, ready even to lay down their lives for Jesus. That restoration to health brought hope, joy and deep faith to his family.

The scribes saw that Christ possessed the power to forgive which belongs to God alone and claimed it as his own prerogative. His gentle dignity and miraculous work stood in marked contrast to their proud and self-righteous bearing, leaving them dumb with amazement, overwhelmed with defeat, disconcerted and abashed, with no opportunity to turn the multitude by prejudice and jealousy. They recognized the presence of a superior being but would not confess it, and for the time their influence over the people was forgotten. Yet hatred and unbelief hardened others against that evidence. Jesus alone can pardon the sinner and has authority to forgive sins, which no human mediator or religious form can take his place in giving. The encounter displays his power to forgive and warns against caviling and condemning others while regarding oneself as holy. In another application the same blindness appears in religious leaders who accuse the Lord who made the Sabbath of breaking it, as if they had put out their own eyes.

Healing Soul and Body

Jesus understood the man's condition, that the burden of sin weighed on him more heavily than his bodily suffering. He saw a sickness of soul far worse than bodily suffering in a case so urgent that dissolution was already working on the body, and knew the greatest burden carried for months was sin with no relief. That burden of sin, with its unrest and unsatisfied desires, is the foundation of many physical maladies.

He therefore lifted that heavy burden first by forgiving sins. That forgiveness brought hope for despair and peace and joy for doubt and gloom, with relief to the mind and cleansing of the soul. The paralytic needed that healing of the soul before he could appreciate healing of the body. With the mind restored to peace the suffering body could then be reached and healed to life and strength and health. That peace of mind prepares the way for faith in what was promised to be done, while unforgiven sin hinders recovery.

The story illustrates power to heal the soul. It shows wondrous love stooping to heal the guilty and the afflicted, with divinity sorrowing over suffering humanity and soothing its ills. That display of marvelous power leaves the message of salvation beyond doubt, and the mercies of a compassionate Redeemer are not to be slighted.

He met people in their immediate trouble and pointed them toward the home above. He addressed the sick man with forgiveness and peace and the call to sin no more. His ministry to spiritual and physical needs makes him the great Medical Missionary. He is the sin-pardoning Saviour and Restorer who saves souls and bodies together, joining forgiveness of sin with physical healing, and the great Physician who can heal both soul and body.

That joined soul-and-body work is the work his followers are to do. It binds together preaching the truth and healing the sick. It includes caring for the sick through hospitals and providing healthful exercise such as cultivating the soil. In this way medical missionary work does its work as the right arm of the body.

Successful treatment of disease must minister to the diseased mind and relieve the sin-burdened conscience before the body can be fully reached. Physicians and caregivers who care for those sick in mind and body are therefore to point their patients to him. They are to instruct in the principles of true temperance, warn the careless, cheer the disconsolate and hopeless, and wisely prescribe for the health of the suffering. They are also to show patients the way of salvation, lead them to repentance, and offer forgiveness, since physical healing matters but is not enough alone. The sick and suffering today should trust him, look to him and live.