SUMMARY
Jewish leaders have contact with JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. and conflict ensues concerning his authority.
ANALYSIS
The cleansing of the leperA leper is one who suffers from a chronic disease that eats away the flesh; it is now known as Hansen's Disease. At one time lepers were shunned as outcasts and lived in restricted or quarantined communities. Lepers appear in healing stories in both the... in the previous story leads into Jesus’ inaugural encounter with the Jewish authorities in this cycle of five conflict stories. The first conflict brings together two religious questions concerning healing (2:1-5a, 11-12) and forgiving (2:5b-10), revealing Jesus to be the Son of Man who has authority on earth to forgive sins and heal. When Jesus calls LeviSon of Jacob and Leah, brother to Reuben, Simeon, and Dinah. to follow him and eats with tax collectors, a second conflict erupts with the religious leaders (2:13-17). The question of fasting is the third conflict in which Jesus uses two images to teach about the truth of his presence. Wedding guests do not fast when the bridegroom (Jesus) is present, and new wine (Jesus) cannot be held in old wineskins (2:18-22). The fourth conflict story centers around the SabbathSabbath is a weekly day of rest, the seventh day, observed on Saturday in Judaism and on Sunday in Christianity. In the book of Genesis, God rested on the seventh day; in the Gospel accounts Jesus and his disciples are criticized by some for not... violation by Jesus and his disciples who pluck grain on the Sabbath, concluding with Jesus’ proclamation that he is the Son of Man who is the lord of the Sabbath (2:23-28). The fifth conflict story also concerns Sabbath violation as Jesus works by healing a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath (3:1-6).
