A Pericope in the Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Mark seemingly tells the story of the life of Jesus Christ. Closer examination of this gospel reveals an intricately crafted compilation of biblical vignettes and reports on Jesus’ life and teachings. Though interpretation varies and exact symbolic nuances are highly debated, the author of Mark (I’ll just refer to him/her as Mark from now on) presents themes showing what it means to be Christian. Much of Mark’s text assumes an interpreted voice of Jesus, meaning that his writing summarizes Christ’s lessons.Believers and followers of these teachings form the religious sect of Christianity. Because Jesus is no longer living, early Christians designed the New Testament so his lessons could continue to spread. To properly understand Mark’s mysterious style of writing, a style characterized by its tendency to explain the writer’s themes and causes both indirectly and metaphorically, the reader must develop a style of reading enabling them to expose its deeper meaning. One of Mark’s gospel vignettes, where Jesus heals a man of paralysis (Mark 2: 1-12), illustrates many of his major themes.

A dominant theme in the Gospel of Mark is that of the Messianic Secret.  The story of the paralyzed man does not directly highlight the Messianic Secret; however, the setting of the story takes place in a secret location.  Jesus was forced to avoid towns because he had recently healed a man of leprosy who in turn told everyone of his miracle (Mark 1: 45).  Upon returning to Capernaum, Jesus taught the many gathered in his home privately. 

The public teachings of Jesus were often, if not always, in the form of parables (Mark 4: 33). He used this technique to explain spiritual and intangible concepts through story-telling by identifying its parallels to something earthly and tangible.This teaching style was an extremely powerful tool that notably aided the expansion of Christianity. The ability to explain complex, ethereal concepts to a suffering, uneducated population is quite revolutionary, but these symbol-rich stories also provided a natural secrecy to Christ’s lessons.

Only to his disciples did Jesus teach lessons directly (Mark 4: 34), but they were not allowed to reveal his identity as the Messiah.  Though many theories have been proposed, the most logical reason for Jesus to only let those closest to him fully understand the Kingdom of God is to avoid persecution.  In the story of the paralyzed man, Jesus seems to require more effort from the man seeking forgiveness than with the leper.  The audience is so large that four men must lower the paralyzed man down through the roof just to be near Jesus (Mark 2: 3-4).  Perhaps this is Mark’s way of saying that a person can only be forgiven if they truly want to make an effort to change.  Only after seeing their faith does Jesus heal the paralytic (Mark 2: 5).  Because Jesus claims to forgive the man’s sins, the paralytic can represent any man without faith.  This recurrent theme of metanoia is essentially the Gospel of Mark’s main purpose: the way into the Kingdom of God is through the repentance of sins and the acceptance of Christ. 

Both the death/resurrection of Christ and negative portrayal of his disciples are important themes in the Gospel of Mark, but they were not directly applicable to the story of the paralyzed man.  I suppose it could be inferred that the disciples were not fulfilling their duties well enough, being lazy; considering a helpless paralyzed man could hardly make his way to Jesus and they did nothing to help.  Somewhat more related to this miraculous presentation of forgiveness, the crucifixion of Jesus ultimately fulfilled his role as the Messiah.  The scribes, not accepting of Jesus as the Messiah, become outraged and accuse him of blasphemy because only God can forgive sins (Mark 2: 6-7).

The evangelists distinguished themselves from traditional Jewish teachings through their belief that Jesus was the son of God; only through his sinless life and gruesome death could they be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven. Mark, specifically, structures his language to steadily become more powerful until the climax of the crucifixion. Mark seems to view Jesus’ life as a template for the Christian faith rather than a literal interpretation. For example, Mark fabricated much of the events his writing to better explain to a suffering Roman population that Jesus was the Son of God.

Mark 2: 1-12 uses the symbol of a paralyzed man to show how the questioning of Jesus cannot be forgiven because an unbelieving heart cannot stand in the face of God.  This vignette supports the theme of metanoia by suggesting that to be forgiven people must change in their hearts (beliefs) as well as their actions. This story is similar to a parable in that it teaches Christian values, but it provides a better example of the general population of the time and how they viewed Christianity. 

In reading Mark, chapter 2, I first took away merely the basic idea of forgiveness when Jesus healed the paralyzed man.  This is probably how people of that time understood forgiveness as well.  Jesus wants to change this basic understanding and offers his word to strengthen belief in him.  His teachings and resulting crucifixion are a way for anyone who accepts him as truth to receive passage into heaven and eternal life.  Mark uses the powerful image of a sinner being lowered through a roof to show that anyone who seeks forgiveness will receive it.