Today there is a break in the confrontations Jesus has with the Pharisees. Jesus is growing in popularity, and this has a downside to it. Jesus takes this time to withdraw and chose his twelve apostles to share in the ministry with him.

Mark 3:13-15 13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve-- designating them apostles--that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons.

Chapters two and three in the Gospel of Mark list a series of conflicts Jesus has with the Pharisees.

At first the Pharisees started as onlookers with questions for Jesus. Then it became more heated as they felt Jesus was challenging the Law of Moses.

Finally, today, we read a passage where the Pharisees are much more concerned about defeating Jesus, getting rid of him, than of anything else.

Mark 3:4 4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.

The Sabbath is a longstanding Jewish practice. Jesus corrects the Pharisees in their judgment about it but He does not abolish the principle that lays behind the Sabbath. Practicing the Sabbath can strengthen our faith in many ways.

Mark 2 27–28 And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

Some people like new things. New shoes, a new car, etc. Some like the things they are familiar with, like well-worn shoes and a reliable, albeit old, car. Jesus came bringing a lot of “newness” in how faith was expressed toward God and in the name of God. Some received this with joy, others felt something was being lost and resented it.

Jesus changes our lives. Do we embrace the new of Christ or do we resent it?

Mark 2:21-22 21 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."

Who did Jesus come for? Some people do not think they need Jesus. Their opinion is, life is fine without God.

Others feel a need but do not believe they can come to God.

Many just don’t think about it much at all.

The Pharisees were lost but didn’t know it. They were in the middle of the world’s party, and their souls were in terrible danger.

So, it is with a deep sense of irony that Jesus says:

Mark 2:17 17 "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

In today’s passage we have a story about a group of friends who decide to take a chance for the sake of their sick friend.

They are going to be quite rude in the process and even damage another person’s property!

However, they are determined to take whatever consequences come their way for the sake of their friend.

As a result, their friend gets much more than he anticipated.

Mark 2:5-7 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"