Jesus receives a man who spares no cost to come… ¹ A number of days later Jesus returned to Capernaum and the news quickly spread that he was at home.

² Immediately a crowd gathered and soon there was no more room, not even around the door. And Jesus spoke the word to them.

³ Four people came, carrying a paralyzed man to Jesus.

⁴ When they couldn’t get close to Jesus because of the crowd, they broke and removed the roof above Jesus! Then (with the roof removed), they lowered the mat where the paralyzed man was lying.

⁵ Jesus, recognizing their expectant trust that he could and would help,faithHeb 11 said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your selfish tendencies and choicessins are forgiven.”⊕🔑 Jesus healed many people previously. This is the first time he forgave too. How was this man different from the others?

…But inflexible religious tradition is offended ⁶ But some of the religious experts who were scribes were sitting there reasoning silently in their hearts.

⁷ “Why does this man defame and insult God like that? It’s blasphemy! Who can forgive all of another person’s selfish tendencies and choicessins except for God–and only him?” they thought to themselves.

⁸ Immediately Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned silently this way so he asked them, “Why do you question and criticize? ⁹ Which is easier to tell a paralyzed person: ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or, ‘Get up, pick up your bed, and walk?’

¹⁰ But to prove that the Son of Man⊕This new title, Son of Man, is a reference to Daniel’s prophesy.Dan 7:13-15Dan 7:9-28⊕This is the first time Jesus claimed to be God. has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Jesus then addressed the paralyzed man) ¹¹ “Get up, pick up your mat, and return home.”

¹² The man got up, immediately picked up his mat, and went out in front of them all! Everyone was amazed; they spoke with soaring words about God!or: glorified God “We have never seen anything like this!” they said.⊕🔑 Religious Tradition now has a choice: will they accept Jesus’s kingly authority as superior to their current religious understanding or will they oppose him? Those of us with religious traditions have the same choice.

Jesus is close to people who recognize their own need… ¹³ Jesus returned to the seashore; a very large crowd came together, and Jesus taught them. ¹⁴ As he passed the tax office, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus working there. “Follow me,” Jesus said. And Levi got up and followed him.

¹⁵ Later, Jesus was reclining at the meal table in Levi’s house, and many other tax collectors and socially unacceptable “sinners” sat down with Jesus and his students;disciples there were many of these kinds of people, and they followed Jesus.

…But Religious Tradition is offended by Jesus’s openness toward people who know their hearts are sick ¹⁶ But the religious experts who were scribes and conservative teachers known as Pharisees questioned Jesus’s studentsdisciples when they saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors.

“Why does Jesus eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” these respected religious teachers asked Jesus’s students.disciples

¹⁷ Overhearing this, Jesus replied, “Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to call people who think they are right in God’s sight,the ‘righteous’, but Jesus is being sarcastic but people who ultimately prefer pursuing selfish pleasuresinners to recognize the hurt that this choice causes and to have a deep, profound change of heart.”to repentance

Religious tradition is blind to who Jesus is… ¹⁸ John’s studentsdisciples and some Pharisees–religious Conservatives–were fasting by temporarily going without something to instead focus more clearly on God. They came to Jesus and questioned, “Why do John’s studentsdisciples and the Pharisees’ studentsdisciples fast, but your studentsdisciples don’t fast?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered, “Can the honored groomsmen at a wedding deprive themselves while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast. ²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and beginning that day they will fast.

²¹ ⊕🔑 To escape religious tradition, a person needs a new covering for one’s naked shame and flexibility to receive the new wine. The new clothes and the flexibility to receive the new wine are obtained by choosing the Ruler’s roads over our own selfish cultural preferences and accepting God’s forgiveness with expectant trust. The new wine itself (that causes us to grow) is obtained by hearing and applying Jesus’s teaching.“Nobody patches an old shrunken piece of clothes using new fabric that hasn’t shrunk yet. Otherwise when the new patch shrinks, it will tear away from the old cloth; it will make a worse hole than before. ²² No one puts new wine into old (brittle) wine-skins; otherwise when the new wine ferments it will expand, cause the old skins to burst, the wine to pour out, and the wine-skins to be destroyed. Instead, they put new wine into fresh wine-skins.”⊕🔑 Jesus reaches out to all those whose religious traditions get in the way of God’s Kingdom in their lives–and explains how to escape. The sheer number of stories Mark tells about this topic indicates how difficult this can be.

…But those who recognize their hunger are filled ²³ On the Sabbath day Jesus and his studentsdisciples were going through some grain fields and his studentsdisciples began to pick ears of grain to eat.Lev 19:9-10The Law of Moses explicitly permitted poor people to eat grain from the corners of others’ fields.

²⁴ “Look! why do they do what is against (traditional religious) law on the sacred Sabbath day?” these religious ConservativesPharasees objected.

²⁵ Jesus replied, “Didn’t you ever read what David did when he was needy, when he was hungry?1Sa 20 He, along with those who were with him? ²⁶ Do you remember how David entered God’s house when Abiathar was high priest and ate the ceremonial show bread? And do you remember how it is against the Law of Moses for anyone to eat the temple bread except for the priests–but David ate it and gave some to those who were with him too?” 1Sa 21:1-6

²⁷ Jesus said to them,⊕🔑 These religious conservatives were unwilling to be flexible about their traditional laws, much less learn how to apply the Law of Moses correctly from Jesus. Ultimately, their allegiance was to their own Religious “Kingdom” and its earthly political power instead of to God’s kingdom. “The special Sabbath day was made to meet people’s needs, not men and women for the Sabbath. ²⁸ Therefore the Son of Man is The Ruler, even over the Sabbath!”