Mark 2

8. Why reason ye these things in your hearts--or, as in Matthew, ( Matthew 9:4 ) "Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?"

9. Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee--or "are forgiven thee";
or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk?--"Is it easier to command away disease than to bid away sin? If, then, I do the one which you can see, know thus that I have done the other, which you cannot see."

10. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins--that forgiving power dwells in the Person of this Man, and is exercised by Him while on this earth and going out and in with you.
(he saith to the sick of the palsy),

11. I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house--This taking up the portable couch, and walking home with it, was designed to prove the completeness of the cure.

12. And immediately he arose, took up the bed--"Sweet saying!" says BENGEL: "The bed had borne the man: now the man bore the bed."
and went forth before them all--proclaiming by that act to the multitude, whose wondering eyes would follow him as he pressed through them, that He who could work such a glorious miracle of healing, must indeed "have power on earth to forgive sins."
We never saw it on this fashion--"never saw it thus," or, as we say, "never saw the like." In Luke ( Luke 5:26 ) it is, "We have seen strange [unexpected] things to-day"--referring both to the miracles wrought and the forgiveness of sins pronounced by Human Lips. In Matthew ( Matthew 9:8 ) it is, "They marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men." At forgiving power they wondered not, but that a man, to all appearance like one of themselves, should possess it!

Mark 2:13-17 . LEVI'S (OR MATTHEW'S) CALL AND FEAST. ( = Matthew 9:9-13 Luke 5:27-32 ).

Mark 2:18-22 . DISCOURSE ON FASTING. ( = Matthew 9:14-17 Luke 5:33-39 ).

Mark 2:23-28 . PLUCKING CORN-EARS ON THE SABBATH DAY. ( = Matthew 12:1-8 , Luke 6:1-5 ).