This section of Mark's Gospel begins with two stories that illustrate Jesus' authority to forgive sins and reconcile people to God. In the first story, four men dig through a thatched roof and lower their paralyzed friend to Jesus, in the midst of a crowded house, for healing. (In Luke's version of this story, the men remove tiles from the roof; Luke apparently comes from an urbanized Roman environment and is not as familiar with how peasant homes in Galilee are constructed.) Jesus is impressed with their faith--their willingness to do something outrageous and risky because of their trust that Jesus will be able to help. We expect Jesus to heal the man. Instead, Jesus announces that the man is forgiven. Mark seems to be making the point that central to Jesus' ministry is reconciling people to God--removing all obstacles of sin, guilt, shame, or ritual impurity--so that God's kingdom can be entered into and enjoyed by all.
The scribes, the educated readers and interpreters of scripture and religious law, are offended that Jesus pronounces forgiveness on this man. Only God can forgive, so Jesus is presuming to speak for God! Who does he think he is--a great prophet?! Besides, forgiveness must be mediated by a priest after one has offered the proper sacrifice; or at the very least, as the prophets of the Old Testament demanded, the man must demonstrate sincere repentance before forgiveness is obtained. But this paralyzed man has neither offered sacrifices nor repented.
Jesus is saying, in effect, that God is not stingy with forgiveness; it is not difficult to obtain; even the faith of one's friends can bring us to forgiveness. God's kingdom is breaking into our world and God's forgiveness is readily available.
But does Jesus really have this authority to announce God's generous forgiveness? To demonstrate that he does, Jesus heals the paralytic. Physical healing becomes a symbol for spiritual healing. Jesus did not heal people primarily for humanitarian reasons, merely to relieve physical suffering, but as a way of enacting and making real God's spiritual healing and presence in our lives. The Gospel of Mark is not saying that illness is caused by sin, but that physical healing and spiritual healing are fundamentally connected--each represents the kingdom of Satan being defeated by the kingdom of God.
For the first time, Jesus calls himself "the Son of Man." This title can simply mean "human being" or it can refer to the figure in Daniel 7:13 who comes on clouds of glory to establish the kingdom of God on earth. So in verse 10 Jesus is either saying that (all) human beings have the authority to pronounce God's forgiveness, or--more likely--he is saying he has the authority to do this because he is God's exalted ruler of the kingdom of God. Much later in Mark, Jesus will turn "the Son of Man" expectations on their head by telling his disciples the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, and die.
The second story about reconciliation concerns a tax collector, Levi, who follows Jesus and throws a banquet for Jesus which includes many of Levi's unsavory friends. Again the scribes are offended--this time because Jesus is eating with "tax collectors and sinners." What is Jesus supposedly doing wrong?
Tax collectors were among the most despised people in Jesus' day. They collected money for a puppet government (King Herod's) run by the Romans. Tax collectors grew rich collecting taxes because they got a piece of the proceeds. From the standpoint of poor Jewish peasants, nothing could be more galling than a fellow Jew getting rich by oppressing the poor and working for an illegitimate govenment. Ancient rabbis said there were two kinds of people it was acceptable to lie to: robbers and tax collectors.
And so it is astonishing that Jesus calls a tax collector to follow him--and that the tax collector does! Jesus should not be eating with him for two reasons: Levi is ritually impure (because he interacts with Gentiles), and Levi is a moral outcast. To eat with a person (in Jesus' culture) is to symbolically accept them. So again, Jesus is implying an offer of forgiveness to one who does not deserve it.
The issue of eating with those who do not follow Moses' laws was a controversial issue in the early church as well. In Galatians 2 we can see how the issue of eating with Gentiles nearly tore apart the church in Antioch, and--at least for a time--caused a split between Paul and Peter. So this story of Jesus' table fellowship with tax collectors and other ritually and morally impure people must have been of crucial importance to Mark.
Jesus defends his table fellowship with the ritually and morally impure by saying he is, in effect, a doctor. He is here to cure (just as he cured/forgave the paralytic); so he will go where the sick are and offer them healing. This makes perfect sense, and yet for those of us who take pride in our goodness, it is galling to have God's representative spending time with the undeserving and giving them so freely what they don't deserve.
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