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Marcos 2

VBL · Chapter 2/16

1Pocos días después, Jesús regresó a su casa en Capernaúm y se difundió la noticia de que él estaba allí.

2Mucha gente se amontonó dentro de la casa, tanto que se llenó y la multitud llegaba hasta fuera de la puerta. Jesús les hablaba de la buena noticia.

3Cuatro hombres habían traído a un hombre que estaba paralítico,

4pero no pudieron acercarse a Jesús por la multitud que estaba allí. Así que subieron al techo y lo abrieron. Después que hicieron una abertura sobre el sitio donde estaba Jesús, bajaron la camilla con el hombre paralítico sobre ella.

5Cuando Jesús vio la fe que tuvieron estos hombres, le dijo al hombre paralítico: “Amigo, tus pecados están perdonados”.

6Entonces algunos de los maestros religiosos que estaban sentados allí dijeron para sí:

7“¿Por qué habla él de esta manera? ¡Está blasfemando! ¿Quién puede perdonar pecados? ¡Solo Dios puede hacer eso!”

8Pero Jesús supo inmediatamente lo que ellos estaban pensando. Entonces les dijo: “¿Por qué piensan así?

9¿Qué es más fácil: decirle al paralítico ‘tus pecados están perdonados,’ o ‘levántate, toma tu camilla y camina’?

10Pero para que se convenzan de que el Hijo del hombre tiene autoridad para perdonar pecados,

11yo te digo (dirigiéndose al paralítico), ‘Levántate, recoge tu camilla y vete a casa’”.

12Entonces el paralítico se levantó, recogió su camilla y caminó frente a todos los que estaban allí. Y todos estaban asombrados, y alababan a Dios, diciendo: “¡Nunca hemos visto algo así!”

13Luego Jesús salió y se ubicó junto al mar una vez más y le enseñaba a las multitudes que venían a él.

14Mientras caminaba, vio a Leví, el hijo de Alfeo, sentado en la mesa de los recaudadores de impuestos.

15Esa noche Jesús cenó en la casa de Leví. Muchos recaudadores de impuestos y “pecadores” se unieron a Jesús y sus discípulos para la cena, porque muchos de ellos lo seguían.

16Cuando los líderes religiosos de los fariseos vieron a Jesús comiendo con tales personas, le preguntaron a los discípulos de Jesús: “¿Por qué Jesús come con los recaudadores de impuestos y pecadores?”

17Cuando Jesús escuchó esto, les dijo: “No son las personas sanas las que necesitan de un médico, sino las que están enfermas. No he venido a invitar a los que hacen lo correcto, sino a quienes no lo hacen, a los pecadores”.

18Aconteció que los discípulos de Juan y los fariseos estaban ayunando. Algunos de ellos vinieron donde Jesús estaba y le preguntaron: “¿Por qué los discípulos de Juan y los fariseos ayunan, pero tus discípulos no lo hacen?”

19“¿Acaso los invitados a una fiesta de bodas ayunan mientras el novio está con ellos?” preguntó Jesús. “No. Mientras el novio está con ellos, ellos no pueden ayunar.

20Pero viene el día en que el novio será arrebatado de en medio de ellos, y entonces ellos ayunarán.

21Nadie coloca un parche nuevo en ropas viejas. De lo contrario el parche nuevo se encogería y se despegaría de la ropa vieja y la rasgadura sería peor.

22Nadie echa vino nuevo en odres viejos. De ser así, el vino rompería los odres y se dañaría tanto el vino como los odres. No. La gente echa el vino nuevo en odres nuevos”.

23Sucedió que un día sábado, mientras Jesús caminaba por los campos de trigo, sus discípulos comenzaron a recoger espigas por el camino.

24Los fariseos le preguntaron entonces a Jesús: “Mira, ¿por qué ellos están haciendo algo que no está permitido hacer en sábado?”

25“¿Acaso ustedes no han leído lo que hizo David cuando él y sus hombres tuvieron hambre?” les preguntó Jesús.

26“Él entró a la casa de Dios cuando Abiatar era el sumo sacerdote, y comió del pan de la consagración, del cual no podía comer nadie, excepto los sacerdotes, y lo dio a comer a sus hombres también”.

27“El sábado fue hecho para beneficio de ustedes, y no ustedes para beneficio del sábado”, les dijo.

28“Así que el Hijo del hombre es Señor incluso del sábado”.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus heals and forgives the sins of a paralyzed man lowered through the roof, calls the tax collector Levi to follow him, and defends his disciples against the Pharisees' criticism over fasting and picking grain on the Sabbath.

Explanation

Common houses in Galilee had clay roofs with wooden beams, accessible by an outside staircase, making it plausible that the four men could dig through to lower their paralyzed friend down to Jesus. By saying 'your sins are forgiven' before even healing the man, Jesus provokes the scribes, who correctly recognize that only God can forgive sins — and the physical healing confirms that divine authority. Levi (also called Matthew) was a tax collector, a profession seen as collaboration with the Roman oppressor and associated with dishonesty; his calling shows that no one is beyond the reach of Jesus' invitation. The closing statement, 'the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath,' sums up a principle still valid today: religious rules should serve human well-being, not the other way around.

Fun facts

  • 'Sons of the bridechamber' was a Jewish idiom for the guests of honor at a wedding, who were exempt from required fasting during the celebration — which is why Jesus' comparison made immediate sense to his listeners.
  • The mention of 'Abiathar the high priest' when citing the episode of David eating the bread of the Presence is a small historical detail that has sparked debate among scholars, since the account in 1 Samuel 21 actually names Ahimelech, Abiathar's father, as the priest at the time.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Marcos 2:1Capernaum already functions as a kind of headquarters for Jesus in Galilee, and word that He was home spreads quickly through the town.
  2. Marcos 2:2The house fills up so much that there is no room left even near the door — this detail explains why the men in the next verse have to come in through the roof, since there was no other way to reach Jesus.
  3. Marcos 2:3Carrying a mat with someone lying on it took several people holding the corners; four men was the usual number for this kind of improvised transport.
  4. Marcos 2:4Simple Galilean houses had flat roofs, made of beams covered with packed clay and straw, with an outside stairway leading up — nothing like a tiled roof. Breaking a hole there was hard work but doable, and it could be repaired afterward. The scene shows just how packed the house was: there was no other way to get near Jesus.
  5. Marcos 2:5It is the faith of the friends who carried the paralyzed man, not necessarily his alone, that Jesus recognizes here — the text makes clear that the collective effort to bring him mattered.
  6. Marcos 2:6Scribes were experts in the law who tended to keep a close eye on what traveling teachers taught, ready to judge whether something sounded wrong or heretical.
  7. Marcos 2:7For the scribes, the forgiveness of sins was something that happened only between a person and God, normally through sacrifice at the temple. An ordinary man saying this in the street sounded like he was putting himself in God’s place, and it is this shock, more than the healing, that produces the first accusation against Jesus in Mark. His answer links the authority to forgive to the ability to heal, as public proof before everyone.
  8. Marcos 2:8Jesus responds to a thought no one had said out loud, a detail the text highlights as extraordinary perception, not simply reading facial expressions.
  9. Marcos 2:9Forgiving sins is something that can’t be verified by the naked eye, while telling a paralyzed man to walk either works on the spot or it doesn’t. Jesus chooses the second option, easier to check, as public proof of the first.
  10. Marcos 2:10“Son of man” is the title Jesus uses most often for Himself in the Gospels, an expression drawn from the book of Daniel that He deliberately leaves ambiguous. This is its first appearance in Mark, tied here to the authority to forgive sins.
  11. Marcos 2:11The command comes in three parts — get up, take up the mat, and go home — a sequence of actions that anyone there could check with their own eyes.
  12. Marcos 2:12The man carries his own mat out, in front of everyone who had been packed into that house moments before — the healing becomes visible, immediate proof for the whole crowd.
  13. Marcos 2:13After the crowded scene inside the house, Jesus goes back to the open space by the sea, where more people could fit to hear Him teach.
  14. Marcos 2:14Levi worked collecting taxes for the Roman government, a job Jews of the time considered almost a betrayal, since the money funded the foreign occupation and the collector usually profited by overcharging. That’s why “publicans” always appears alongside sinners in the Gospel, as a social category as much as a moral one. Jesus calling one of them to follow Him was a gesture that offended religious people of the day.
  15. Marcos 2:15A dinner at Levi’s house gathering several tax collectors and other disreputable people suggests a farewell party for his old work circle, now that he had decided to follow Jesus.
  16. Marcos 2:16Instead of confronting Jesus directly, the scribes and Pharisees complain first to the disciples — an indirect way of questioning the company their teacher chose to keep.
  17. Marcos 2:17The comparison with doctor and patient is direct: Jesus explains His choice of company by saying He did not come to seek those who already considered themselves righteous, but those who knew they needed help.
  18. Marcos 2:18The Pharisees and John’s disciples fasted on fixed days as a devotional practice, something common among religious groups of the time. That’s why it seemed odd to them that Jesus’s disciples did not follow the same custom.
  19. Marcos 2:19Fasting on specific days was a common practice among religious groups of the time, a sign of mourning or of waiting for something not yet arrived. Jesus compares His presence to a wedding feast, an occasion when no one fasts while the bridegroom is there. The idea is simple: fasting fits waiting, not a celebration that has already begun.
  20. Marcos 2:20This is one of the first hints, still disguised as an image, that Jesus would not stay with the disciples forever — “the bridegroom shall be taken away” points to His own death, though no one grasps that at the time.
  21. Marcos 2:21A patch of new cloth shrinks when washed and ends up tearing the old fabric around it, making the hole worse instead of fixing it. The image shows that carelessly mixing the new with the old only ruins both.
  22. Marcos 2:22Wineskins were made of animal hide, and older ones lost their elasticity over time; new wine still fermenting needed a new skin, flexible enough to stretch without splitting.
  23. Marcos 2:23The law allowed picking a handful of grain by hand to eat on the spot, but doing so on the sabbath, the day of rest, counted as harvesting to the stricter Pharisees, even though it was a small gesture.
  24. Marcos 2:24The law allowed picking a handful of grain by hand from a neighbor’s field to satisfy hunger on the spot, so it was not theft. The problem for the Pharisees was that picking, even a handful, counted as harvest work, forbidden on the sabbath under a strict reading of the law. Jesus does not deny the rule, but argues that it exists to serve people, not the other way around.
  25. Marcos 2:25Jesus responds with a well-known episode from David’s story, who ate bread reserved only for priests when he was hungry and on the run — a biblical example used to justify need taking priority over the rule.
  26. Marcos 2:26The shewbread was twelve loaves set out each week before the altar, reserved for priests to eat once replaced. Jesus recalls that David, hungry and on the run, ate this bread even though he was not a priest, and no one condemned him for it. It’s an argument for human need over ritual rule, in the same spirit as the debate about the sabbath.
  27. Marcos 2:27This is the line that sums up the whole argument: the sabbath exists for people’s good, not the other way around. Jesus is not canceling the practice, only reordering its priority.
  28. Marcos 2:28Claiming authority even over the sabbath, one of the most sacred commandments in Jewish law, was quite a statement — the kind that helps explain why the religious leaders start watching Him closely from here on.

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