Some Thoughts on Mark Chapter 2: Houses, Temples, Crowds and Healings

I mentioned this in a previous post, but this year both my Church and I am working through the Gospel of Mark (every year my Church works through a different Gospel beginning with Christmas and moving through Lent and Easter).

What has struck me in the beginning chapter is how this Gospel’s penchant for jumping straight into an already moving story fit well with my journey through the book of Numbers in 2025. The commentary I used for Numbers was the phenomenal recent entry into the Tyndale Old Testament series by Peter Altmann and Caio Peters. They talk about how their preferred title (which ultimately just went with Numbers) was “In the Wilderness.” But more than this theme, one of the defining traits of Numbers is its emphasis on the journey in the wilderness. It is a story of a people on the move in the inbetween space that is this wilderness, slavery on one side and the promised land on the other.

For the Gospel According to Mark, I’ve been using James R. Edwards’ commentary with the Pillar New Testament series. In it he emphasizes the intentional pacing of this Gospel matching this equal theme of being “on the way.” Everything in Mark is framed be movement between spaces, beginning “in the wilderness” (1:4) and culminating in this final statment, “go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee.” Although its largely considered to be later additions, I also really like the shorter ending, evidenced in at least one source:

And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.

I’m reminded here too of Kaitlin B Curtice’s Everything Is a Story : Reclaiming the Power of Stories to Heal and Shape Our Lives, and how she speaking of stories, be it ours or be it anything (everything is a story) being born into a plot that is already on its way. The way Mark jumps straight into the narrative feels largely like how it is that we come into this world. Our stories, as all stories do, begin with someone else telling it from the perspective of our particular narrative breaking into theirs. 

This past sunday my church was in chapter 2, and I’ve really been ruminating on a couple of insights, both from the morning and from the commentary:

• Edwards talks about how the greek verb tenses in this passage help structure the narrative of chapter 2, which tells the story of the paralytic being lowered through the roof of the house to get to Jesus. He describes it as “an older story being introduced in the present tense (2:3-11) that Mark frames by an introduction and conclusion (2:1-2/12). One of the key things this structure reveals is the audience of the story- the introduction “So many gatherred around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them (verse 2),” culminates in “And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying “We have never seen anything like this!” As my pastor pointed out, the word for amazed is the same word used to describe their encounter with the empty tomb in 16:8, the final verse of the Gospel.
• If, then, the focus of this narrative in Mark chapter 2 is on the crowd, or the “them,” or the “so many,” it is interesting then to think about what Mark is doing with this image. So often we jump straight to the scribes in the story whom are raising questions about Jesus’ actions. What is this passage wanting to say about and/or to the crowd? Here both my commentary and my pastor brought some insights. First, where is the crowd positioned? In front of the door. What’s the implication? They are blocking the way to Jesus, as the story suggests. In their own fervor to get to Jesus they have their backs turned to those who need Jesus. Second, what does Jesus see when they are lowering the man who needs Jesus through the roof? It says he sees “their faith.” One of the things my Pastor pointed out in relating these two things- the people blocking the way and the people lowering the man, is that it raises the question of how it is our faith acts on behalf of those around us. Something the crowd is neglecting by having their backs turned to the world that exists behind them. In fact, Edwards sees this is a common theme in Mark, where the term crowd is made synonymous with passivity, with the single most common outcome being that they obstruct the way to or access to Jesus.
• Even more interesting to add the note from Edwards that house (oikos) and crowd (ochlos) funciton as an alliterative rhyme used to indicate those inside and those outside.
• Another interesting note is what Jesus is doing with the crowd when they block the entrance to the house- Jesus is preaching the word to them (verse 2). This connects back to the initial descriptive of Jesus in 1:14, where he is proclaiming the good news of God- the person and story of Jesus. No surprise then that this story is all about Jesus’ identity. Here he is doing something only God can do- forgive sins. An act that is intimately tied to the restoration of this paralyzed man’s body. For any Jewish reader, they would have understood this to be a sign that the fullness of time, or the arrival of God’s kingdom was upon them.
• Edwards’ notes that the house Jesus arrives at in verse 1 (“it was reported that he was at home”) seems to be connected to the previous mention of “home” in 1:29, which is Peter’s house. There home is paralelled with “synagogue.” Edwards argues that the imagery Mark is looking to convey here is intentional, which is using this house to convey an image of the temple. This is akin to Jesus teaching in the temple with its description of the inner and outer courts. Thus already the foreshadowing looms large in Mark, making the clear interest of his Gospel, moving so furiously towards the climax of the death and resurrection, front and center.