Jesus Heals the Sick

(Gospel of Mark 1:29 - 2:12)
When Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to the house of Simon and Andrew.  Simon's mother-in-law lay sick in bed with a fever.  Jesus, who was immediately told of this, came to her, held her hand, and helped her up.  The fever at once departed, and she was able to wait upon her guests.

That evening after sundown many who were ill or possessed by demons were brought to see Jesus.  The whole town gathered outside the door of the house to watch.  Jesus cured many people with a variety of ailments.  He also exorcised many demons, but he forbad them speak for they were aware of who he was.

Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus went out to find a secluded place where he could pray.  Later, Simon and the others looked for him, and when they found him, they told Jesus, "Hey, everybody's looking for you!"  But Jesus replied, "We need to go to other towns and preach there as well, for that is why I have come."  And so he traveled around Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.

A man suffering from a serious skin disease came to him, kneeling before him and begging, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."

Jesus, feeling pity for the man, reached out his hand and touched him.  "I am willing," he said.  "Be clean!"  At once the disease left him and his skin was cleansed.  Jesus quickly sent him on his way with a stern warning, "Now don't tell anyone about this, but go to a priest and let him examine you.  Offer the sacrifices required by Moses; let that be the public acknowledgment of your cleansing."

But the man instead went out and talked freely about what had happened, spreading the news abroad, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town; he stayed out of doors in lonely hideaways.  Even then people from far and wide flocked to see him.

A few days later when Jesus returned to Capernaum, the people heard that he was staying in a certain house.  The crowds that congregated there were so great that there was no room for them, even outside.  Nevertheless, he preached his message to them.

A group arrived, bringing to him a paralytic, who was carried by four men.  They couldn't get near Jesus because of the press of people, so they laid bare the roof above where Jesus was standing and broke open a hole through which they lowered the man and the mat on which he was lying.  Jesus, so impressed by their faith in him, said to the paralyzed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven."

Some of the scribes who were there began thinking to themselves, "Why does this man talk like this?  It's blasphemy!  Only God can forgive sins."

Jesus immediately sensed what they were thinking.  He asked them, "Why do you harbor these thoughts in your mind?  Which is easier, telling a paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or ‘Rise, pick up your mat, and walk'?  I will show you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins." He turned to the paralytic and bade him, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home!”  The man leapt to his feet, collected his mat, and strode out in full view of the company.  Everyone was astounded and praised God. "We've never seen the like of this!' they declared.

Notes
1. Little is revealed of the apostles' private lives, but here we are told that Simon Peter has a mother-in-law.  One assumes that he also has a wife, perhaps children as well -- that he will more or less desert to travel around with Jesus.  (The question of how the apostles who had families managed to support them is not an issue addressed in the gospels.)

2. Jesus is in so much demand as a healer that he is mobbed wherever he goes and does his best to evade the crowds that demand his services.  Jesus is moved to help the man with the skin disease and the paralyzed man, but his compassion, like that of most people, is more or less limited to those he has immediate contact with.  Jesus does not think in terms of how many of the ill and infirm he can help, but rather how he avoid their entreaties and escape being bothered by them.  One can understand his reaction, the compassion fatigue; it is normal.  But considering he is supposed to be the Son of God, one expects something more than "normal."  In fact, the purpose of Jesus' healing seems less humanitarian than a means to further his own end, the conversion and indoctrination of the people to his belief system.

3. Jesus forbids the demons he exorcises to speak because they know who he is.  Does Jesus want to keep it a secret that he is the Son of God?  Is this revelation premature?  Yet Jesus pretty much says so when he justifies his authority to forgive sins.  One might wish to silence the demons for other reasons, but why prevent them from making a true statement?  And wouldn't the demons' testimony to his divinity strengthen Jesus' case that he is the Son of God?  "Look, it's not just me who says I'm the Son of God, even these demons say so."  Perhaps Jesus may have concluded that confirmation from demons would instead suggest that he was in cahoots with them, that he was an emissary not from God, but from the Devil.  Experience from those who may have had truck with such demons recommends avoiding discourse with them.

4. Most translations refer to those suffering from skin diseases (tzaraath in Hebrew -- the subject is treated exhaustively in Leviticus) as being lepers.  This is not necessarily the case, nor is it at all certain that ancient leprosy is the same disease as modern leprosy (Hansen's disease).  Identification of ancient diseases is always problematic even when symptoms are accurately described, and conflation of different afflictions is common, e.g., no distinction was made by the ancients between leprosy, which may have been what this individual had, and vitiligo (abnormal whitening of the skin), which may account for most of Old Testament tzaraath.

5. The man cured of his skin disease does not follow Jesus' explicit instructions, that is, to keep it dark about how he was cured.  Instead he blabs about it all over town.  One would think the man would have enough gratitude to obey the man who cured him, if not fear of crossing a man with such power.  

6. It is well established that Jesus is from Nazareth and when he preaches at the synagogue in Capernaum, one gets the impression he is a stranger in town.  Many translations suggest that he has come home to Capernaum, when all that is meant is that he had come to a house in Capernaum.  He was probably staying, as he often would, with a friend and/or follower.  It is a dwelling large enough to accommodate a large number of people, but not the masses that turn out.  The roof would have been flat and tiled most likely.  By removing the tiles, a hole and access to the interior would have been created.  The paralytic could have lowered on his mat with the four men handling ropes attached to each corner of the mat (bed, pallet, litter, couch, cot, stretcher?).  Other explanations are possible, depending upon the design of the house, which we don’t know.

7. In the text the scribes thinking to themselves, literally think in their “hearts.”  The ancients had the notion that thoughts originated not in the brain, but in the heart, just as we fancifully regard the heart as the origin of emotions.

8. Already Jesus is running afoul of members of the religious establishment who question his authority to forgive sins, the prerogative of God.  Jesus, who can read minds, chides them and says he does indeed have that authority, for he is the Son of God.  To demonstrate it, he heals the paralytic so that he can walk and make a dramatic ambulatory exit from the gathering.  This will not be the last time that Jesus uses showmanship rather than argumentation to prove a point.