Mark 12:35-44
Two Attitudes
What does a Christian attitude look like? I mean, how is love for Christ, trust in Him, and a worshipful heart revealed? I believe the passage before us today has the answers. Actually, there are two very different attitudes displayed in this incident. The question you and I must answer is which one is ours.
Most of the pharisaical scribes questioned Jesus' Messiahship. As we have seen in the previous passage, though, one of them thought He was at least a Rabbi worth listening to. He had asked Jesus, apparently with a real desire to learn, what the greatest commandment was. Jesus answered him fully, and, when He was finished, He told the young man that he wasn't far from the kingdom of God.
That scribe was still present during the incident before us today. So, seizing an opportunity to teach him even more, and with the hope that perhaps others among the scribes might also be ready to listen, Jesus drove directly toward the one truth they needed most to know - Who the Scriptures say Messiah is, and therefore Who He Himself was.
Using the common method of rabbinical teaching, He asked them a question. He said, "What do you think about the Messiah (Christ)? Whose Son is He?" Of course every Jewish child knew the answer to that one, so they immediately said, "The Son of David." Having maneuvered them right where He wanted them, Jesus then asked them, how they understood David's words about the Messiah in the 110th Psalm. He pointed out that David, by the Holy Spirit, had called Messiah his Lord, saying, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool!" This Messiah you say should be David's son - David calls Him LORD! Why would he do that if He's his son?"
They all understood that their Messiah should come from David's line, that He should be David's son, but they stopped there. They didn't see Him as anything more than human. But Jesus pointed out to him that this human descendant of David was also David's LORD.
The Hebrew of Psalm 110 makes things crystal clear: when David says, "The Lord said . . ., " the Hebrew word for "Lord" is Jahweh - Jehovah. Then, when David says, ". . . said unto my Lord," the word for "Lord" is Adonai. David uses two different words, apparently because he was speaking of two different Persons! The one is Jehovah-God, and the other is "my Lord." But every Jew knew that no man should have any "lord" but Jehovah! It was unthinkable. So in speaking of two different "lords," David is actually speaking about two of the Persons of the Trinity. Not only so, but Jesus tells us that he said what he said "by the Holy Spirit." Way back here in the Old Testament the entire Trinity is in view!
Jews like these Pharisaical scribes would understand very well what David was saying, even if they didn't fully understand what it meant. He was saying "Jehovah-God said to Jehovah-Lord, Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool." Jesus was using this Psalm to teach that Messiah is much more than human. He is GOD.
I can't help believing that it was Jesus' longing for the almost-believing scribe that led Him to say what He said in the next seven verses. In these verses, two kinds of hearts are presented to our view. In the one instance, we see the hypocritical scribe, a scribe who goes about in long robes. He loves to be seen and heard greeting other important scribes and leaders in the marketplace, he rushes to get the best seat at the synagogue and the most prominent positions at feasts, he is merciless in private, but makes long prayers in public. In stark contrast, though, is the widow who gives her whole living to the treasury just because in her heart she is giving it to God.
I can't help thinking that Jesus is saying in all this that a humble heart, a heart that sees its Savior as GOD, a heart that worships Him and sincerely gives itself to Him is far to be preferred to the one that, if the truth were known, is really only worshipping itself and is seeking only the acclaim of the religious world.
But we tend to think that these things don't apply to us, since Jesus was dealing only with religious leaders. After all, we don't go around in long robes. We don't stand around in the marketplace greeting other leaders to show our association with them. We don't make long prayers in public. So these things don't apply to us, right? Wrong!
The most obvious fault of those with whom Jesus dealt here is that they were more concerned with impressing others with their religiosity than in pleasing God. Are we never guilty of that? Let's start our investigation close to home: do we occasionally try to impress ourselves? Do we spend ten minutes in prayer, followed immediately by self congratulations? How do we feel after we have given our tithes and offerings? Do we ever look down on others who don't understand the Scriptures as well as we do? The real key to any of this is to be aware of who we thank for any successes we have. Do we thank our Father in Heaven, or do we mostly want others to know so that we ourselves might be congratulated?
There's an exemplary person in the passage before us. We need to be like her. We need to feel deeply that all that we have and all that we are are His. Instead of the showiness of the hypocrite there needs to be a private, quiet, deeply felt and joyous thankfulness to God, along with a prayer for continuing grace to serve Him and Him alone.
For this to happen we need first to know Jesus Christ as our GOD and to love Him above all else. He needs to be preeminent in our thoughts. If He's preeminent, self will be in its rightful - and joyful - place.
And that's not all. We also need to see in this incident the heart of our Lord Himself. He was seeking the scribe. He's seeking us as well. With that in mind, it should be obvious that He will be more than willing to help us to a right attitude by His Spirit. Let's ask Him for that. Let's ask Him to change our hard hearts, to give us soft, loving hearts, hearts whose life is worship.
AMEN