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FEBRUARY 20
2 Treasures of wickedness went out in the presence of them all, so that all
profit nothing, were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We
But righteousness delivers from never saw anything like this!”
death. 13 Then He went out again by the sea; and
3 The LORD will not allow the righteous all the multitude came to Him, and He taught
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soul to famish, them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son
But He casts away the desire of the of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He
wicked. said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and
followed Him.
Mark 2:1–28 15 Now it happened, as He was dining in
And again He entered Capernaum after Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sin-
2 some days, and it was heard that He was in ners also sat together with Jesus and His dis-
the house. Immediately many gathered ciples; for there were many, and they followed
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together, so that there was no longer room to Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees
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receive them, not even near the door. And He saw Him eating with the tax collectors and
3
preached the word to them. Then they came sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it
to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried that He eats and drinks with tax collectors
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by four men. And when they could not come and sinners?”
near Him because of the crowd, they uncov- 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them,
ered the roof where He was. So when they had “Those who are well have no need of a
broken through, they let down the bed on physician, but those who are sick. I did not
which the paralytic was lying. come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the repentance.”
paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” 18 The disciples of John and of the
Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and
said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John
and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples
do not fast?”
2:5 When Jesus saw their faith. The aggres- 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of
sive, persistent effort of the paralytic’s friends
was visible evidence of their faith in Christ to the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is
heal. “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” with them? As long as they have the bride-
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Many Jews in that day believed that all disease groom with them they cannot fast. But the
and affliction was a direct result of one’s sins. days will come when the bridegroom will be
This paralytic may have believed that as well; taken away from them, and then they will fast
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thus he would have welcomed forgiveness of in those days. No one sews a piece of
his sins before healing.The Greek verb for “are unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the
forgiven” refers to sending or driving away new piece pulls away from the old, and the
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(see Ps.103:12; Jer.31:34; Mic.7:19).Thus Jesus tear is made worse. And no one puts new
dismissed the man’s sin and freed him from wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine
the guilt of it. bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and
the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must
be put into new wineskins.”
6 And some of the scribes were sitting there
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and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this
Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can
forgive sins but God alone?”
8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in 2:24 what is not lawful on the Sabbath.
His spirit that they reasoned thus within them- Rabbinical tradition had interpreted the rub-
selves, He said to them, “Why do you reason bing of grain in the hands (see Luke 6:1) as a
about these things in your hearts? Which is form of threshing and forbidden it. Reaping
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easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are for profit on the Sabbath was forbidden by
forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your Mosaic Law (Ex. 34:21), but that was obviously
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bed and walk’? But that you may know that not the situation here. Actually the Pharisees’
charge was itself sinful since they were hold-
the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive ing their tradition on a par with God’s Word.
sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you,
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arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and
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