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Having called the first four disciples, Jesus begins his ministry. In these opening chapters his ministry is one of both word and deed. Mark recounts how Jesus preaches and teaches, and also how Jesus has authority over demons and sickness. These first three chapters contribute to the broader theme of the first half of Mark (1:1–8:26), which is the kingly authority of Jesus, the widespread amazement, and positive reception Jesus receives.
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Mark 1:21–3:12 shows us that Jesus possesses unrivalled authority in both his teaching and his deeds.
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This section of Mark contains a number of fast-moving accounts of various events in the early ministry of Jesus. In Mark 2 we see Jesus begin to receive opposition from the religious leaders. We will therefore organize this section under the two headings “Jesus’ Authority Revered” and “Jesus’ Authority Challenged.” Read Mark 1:21–3:12 and consider the following questions. (For further background, see the ESV Study Bible, pages 1895–1898; also available online at www.esvbible.org.)
1. Jesus’ Authority Revered (1:21–45)
The very first thing Jesus does in his earthly ministry is enter the synagogue1 and teach. What does this tell us about Jesus’ goals in his earthly ministry?
Read Mark 1:22 and 1:27. What is Mark showing us about Jesus in this opening event of Jesus’ ministry?
Jesus’ healing ministry in Mark 1:29–34 shows us his great compassion. These healings also tell us something about who Jesus is and why he came. In light of Jesus’ earlier statement in Mark 1:15 that “the kingdom of God is at hand,” how do we see this kingdom advancing in verses 29–34? How might we relate this healing ministry to the events of Genesis 1–3? Consider Mark 1:34 in light of Adam and his failure to exorcise Satan from the Garden of Eden.
Mark 1:35 uses four verbs in describing Jesus’ actions one day—rising, departed, went, prayed. What does this tell us about Jesus’ priorities in his ministry? What can we learn from this for our own walk with God?
In first-century Palestine, a leper2 was someone who was not only physically unclean but also ceremonially unclean. To touch such uncleanness would make oneself unclean. In Mark 1:40–45 Jesus heals a leper not simply by speaking to him but by touching him (v. 41). Doing so did not make Jesus unclean; it made the leper clean. What does this teach us about who Jesus is and what he came to do?
2. Jesus’ Authority Challenged (2:1–3:12)
The first thing Jesus says to the paralytic who is brought to him has nothing to do with the paralysis: “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). What does this tell us about the deepest problem—the deepest “paralysis”—needing healing, not only in the paralytic but in all of us?
In Mark 2:9, in response to the scribes’ protests at Jesus’ claim to forgive sins, Jesus asks which is easier—to tell the paralytic that his sins are forgiven, or to tell him to rise and walk? This is somewhat perplexing. Which is easier? How would you answer that? The point here is evidently that it is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” because it cannot be disproven. On a deeper level, however, it is in fact harder to proclaim forgiveness of sins, because only God can do that—as the scribes rightly understand. The logic here, then, is that since Jesus can do the visible miracle (heal the paralytic), this is evidence that he also has the power to do the invisible miracle (forgive sins).
Jewish tax collectors in New Testament times collaborated financially with Rome against their fellow Jews. What is the significance of Jesus calling Levi (Matthew) in Mark 2:13–14?
A further challenge to Jesus’ authority comes in Mark 2:18–22, as the people ask why Jesus and his disciples do not fast. What is Jesus’ answer? How do Old Testament passages such as Isaiah 62:5 and Hosea 2:19–20 clarify Jesus’ answer?
In Mark 2:23–28 and 3:1–6 Jesus offends the Jewish religious leaders by doing on the Sabbath3 what they considered unlawful. How does each of these events contribute to the portrait of Jesus that Mark is drawing? How does each demonstrate Jesus’ unparalleled authority? In what way does Mark 3:7–12 then draw to a close this section of Mark describing Jesus’ early Galilean ministry?
Read through the following three sections on Gospel Glimpses, Whole-Bible Connections, and Theological Soundings. Then take time to reflect on the Personal Implications these sections may have for your walk with the Lord.
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CONTAGIOUS HOLINESS. In the Old Testament law, the uncleanness of leprosy was contagious. To touch such uncleanness was defiling. Unclean plus clean equaled unclean. In the Gospel of Mark, with the coming of the kingdom (Mark 1:15), this is turned inside out. Unclean plus clean equals clean. Defilement used to be contagious; with Jesus, holiness is contagious. This is meant to instruct not only lepers but all of us, for we are all, in the only sense that matters, unclean. Defiled morally. Unholy. Jesus brought with him a whole new way of thinking, a new mental universe in which we see ourselves not as basically clean but in danger of defilement, but as basically defiled and in need of cleansing. In Jesus that cleansing is available.
HOPE FOR SINNERS, NOT THE RIGHTEOUS. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Jesus did not come for the religious elite, the socially privileged. He came for the “tax collectors and sinners,” with whom he ate (Mark 2:15). How could this be? The answer ultimately provided by Mark’s Gospel is: Jesus, the one righteous person, allowed himself on the cross to be treated as a sinner, so that sinners could be treated as righteous as they place their faith in him. Martin Luther called this “the great exchange.” To put it in terms of the healing of the leper: The only truly “clean” man who ever lived became unclean on the cross so that you and I, unclean, can be freely cleansed by simply asking for it. Or, as Paul would put it, God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
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SABBATH. Several of the events of Mark 1–3 take place on the Sabbath, climaxing in Jesus’ declaration that he is “lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28). This statement reaches all the way back to creation, when God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. His people were then instructed likewise to rest on the seventh day. This “rest” came to be identified with life in the Promised Land in the historical books of the Old Testament (Joshua—2 Chronicles). To enter the land was to enter rest. Yet even once they are in the land, true Sabbath rest remains elusive to God’s people, as indicated by later texts such as Psalm 95. Only in Jesus is real Sabbath rest found (note Matt. 11:28–30), as the letter to the Hebrews draws out (Heb. 3:7–4:13). Jesus is indeed “lord even of the Sabbath.”
SICKNESS AND HEALTH. With the fall in Eden, sickness, disease, and death entered the world. And when God gave his people the law, the curses resulting from disobedience included horrific sickness and disease (Deut. 28:22, 27, 35). Amid Israel’s ongoing moral failure, the prophets longed for the day when true health would be restored in a renewed Eden (Isa. 35:5–6; Jer. 33:6; Ezek. 34:4, 16). In Jesus this day has dawned, and one day, at his second coming, Jesus will finish what he started in his earthly ministry, eradicating all sickness once and for all (Rev. 22:1–3).
BRIDEGROOM AND BRIDE. Jesus says in Mark 2:19 that his disciples do not fast because “the bridegroom is with them.” Referring to himself in this way, Jesus links up with a whole-Bible theme in which God’s relationship with his people is likened to a husband’s relationship to his wife (e.g., Isa. 54:5; Jer. 2:1–2; 3:20; Hos. 2:16). Jesus is the ultimate bridegroom, loving his wife (the church) despite her faithlessness, to the point of dying for her (Eph. 5:25–32).
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DEITY OF CHRIST. Christ’s deity is underscored both explicitly and implicitly in this section of Mark. Explicitly, the demons fall down before Jesus and proclaim, “You are the Son of God.” (Mark 3:11). Jesus does not deflect this but receives it and orders the demons not to make him known (3:12). Implicitly, the scribes who see Jesus pronounce forgiveness on the paralytic consider this blasphemy, reasoning, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (2:7). Jesus then goes on to heal the man, confirming by the healing that he is able to do what he says, not only in healing but also in forgiving.
SIN. Jesus scandalized the religious leaders of his day by eating with “many tax collectors and sinners” (Mark 2:15). Responding to the scribes’ questioning of this practice, Jesus told them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (2:17). Jesus says this tongue in cheek—he came not to call those who presumed themselves righteous and who therefore felt no need for a Savior. In truth none are righteous (Rom. 3:9–18). All are in need of saving. What we learn of sin here is that sin manifests itself in two ways: sinful real unrighteousness (the tax collectors and sinners) and sinful bogus righteousness (the scribes and Pharisees).
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Take time to reflect on the implications of Mark 1:21–3:12 for your own life today. Make notes below on the personal implications for your walk with the Lord of (1) the Gospel Glimpses, (2) the Whole-Bible Connections, (3) the Theological Soundings, and (4) this passage as a whole.
1. Gospel Glimpses
2. Whole-Bible Connections
3. Theological Soundings
4. Mark 1:21–3:12
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Take a moment now to ask for the Lord’s blessing and help as you continue in this study of Mark. And take a moment also to look back through this unit of study, to reflect on a few key things that the Lord may be teaching you—and perhaps to highlight or underline these to review again in the future.
Definitions
1 Synagogue – In Jerusalem, worship took place at the temple. In cities other than Jerusalem, however, which had no temple, the synagogue (meaning “assembly”) was the center of Jewish worship. Synagogues were located in most of the leading towns of Israel.
2 Leper – A leper was someone suffering from leprosy, which was a term for a variety of related skin diseases, many of which were highly contagious. See Leviticus 13.
3 Sabbath – For Jews the Sabbath is Saturday, the seventh day of the week, a day of worship and rest (Gen. 2:2–3; Ex. 31:13–17). Christians meet for worship on Sunday, the day of Christ’s resurrection (Acts 20:7), and regard Sunday, rather than Saturday, as their weekly day of rest. Believers also look forward to an eternal Sabbath rest, won for them by Jesus (Heb. 4:1–16). See also “Sabbath” under the Whole-Bible Connections on page 24.
The Place of the Passage