The Doctor & The Bridegroom

Mark 2:13-22

If you read God's word, and if you've lived very long, you know this is true - knowing what is right doesn't give you the ability to do what is right. Knowing all the rules doesn't necessarily give you the ability to keep all the rules. Never has.

Lesson one of the Bible—Adam and Eve. How many rules did they have? One. Just one. And they didn’t obey it.

The people of Israel had God’s perfect law throughout their history, and on the whole they didn’t obey. Because you can’t be made holy from the outside in— by trying to live according to the perfect list of dos and don’ts. Even when you make up your own list of dos and don’ts we don’t keep that. It’ll never work.

Real holiness, true obedience, it’s impossible if your heart isn’t in it. And so, God’s people were going to need new hearts. Real obedience, real holiness had to come from the inside out. People need a new heart, a new way of thinking, a new set of desires.

You first have to be made right with God, and then you can set about living that out. something new—not an external law to obey externally. And that’s exactly what God said He would do. The prophets—people like Moses and Jeremiah and Ezekiel—all wrote about a day when God would give His people a new heart under a new covenant. And through it, God would deal with their sins and fill them with incredible joy.

In Mark 2 we see a growing conflict. In this growing conflict with the Pharisees, Jesus explains it by beginning to show us that He is bringing exactly what God promised—something new.

And Mark reveals this by giving us two pictures of who Jesus is: Jesus, the doctor to sinners, and the bridegroom of joy.

GOING DEEPER 
Parallel, Related and Referenced Passages

1) THE DOCTOR TO SINNERS
Parallel Accounts: Matthew 9:9–13, Luke 5:27–32

• Leviticus 19:2 – “Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” 
• Luke 19:10 – “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” 
• 1 Timothy 1:15 – “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 
• Ezekiel 34:15–16 – “I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the injured…” 
• Luke 18:9–14 – The Pharisee and the Tax Collector. 
• Psalm 51:17 – “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” 
• James 4:6 – “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 
• Ephesians 2:8–9 – “By grace you have been saved through faith…” 
• Romans 5:8 – “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

 
2) THE BRIDEGROOM OF JOY
Parallel Account: Luke 5:33–39

• John 3:29 – “The friend of the bridegroom rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.” 
• Revelation 19:7–9 – “The marriage of the Lamb has come.” 
• Jeremiah 31:31–34 – “I will make a new covenant… I will forgive their iniquity.” 
• Ezekiel 36:26–27 – “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.” 
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” 
• Romans 7:6 – “We serve in the new way of the Spirit, not the old way of the written code.” 
• Hebrews 8:6–13 – “Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant.” 
• Galatians 2:21 – “If righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” 
• Romans 11:6 – “If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.”