Sacrifice or Showing off

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There’s a radio program that the kids and I listen to in the truck frequently, and I listen to it by choice. They really don’t have a choice. I drive, I control the radio, right?

But it’s a political talk show, and the guy deals a lot with campaigns in his state, local, even school board races. And he’s talked about how there’s a question he asks these candidates every time he deals with them. You know, when he’s trying to figure out, do I want to support this person or not?

And stick with me, because I know some of you don’t care about politics, but I’m going somewhere with this. He asks them whether they’re running for president, whether they’re running for school board. He asks them the same question.

Are you running to be somebody, or are you running to do something? And I think if we could get an honest answer to that question, that would help us as voters immensely. But you want to know if somebody’s running to do something or to be somebody.

I’ve asked my own son that, you know, when they have their student council elections. Why are you running? I don’t know.

Well, when you tell me why you’re running, I will sign the form for you to run. Sorry. God picked me for your dad.

You didn’t have a choice in it. Sorry about that. And the reason I bring that up is because it’s not just politicians.

That’s where I heard that question. But it’s not just politicians that applies to. That can apply to any one of us in our lives.

Are we doing what we’re doing to accomplish something? Are we doing it in service of a greater goal? Or are we just trying to be somebody?

What we find is that the people in politics who are running just to be somebody, that is the ultimate goal. So they’ll compromise whatever principle it is in service of the greater goal, which is to be somebody, to be somebody important. That can happen in ministry. Are you in ministry to do something?

Are you in ministry to be somebody? It can be true in your job. Are you going to work each day to do something or to be somebody?

Are you doing what you’re doing in your family to do something or to be somebody? This is a question we need to ask ourselves frequently because it’s easy to slip into the mindset of thinking we’re more important than we actually are. It’s human nature to want to run around doing everything we can to try to be somebody.

Jesus was surrounded by people who thought they were somebody and were trying to be. And it’s very evident as we read the Gospels, especially once we start looking for it, start looking for what they’re doing. As a matter of fact, I guess I’ve spent enough time around politicians and now thinking through this question.

When I see it in ministry, when I see it in myself, it really irritates me. But when I see it in other people in ministry, they’re just trying to be somebody. I don’t typically spend too much time around those people because it’s contagious.

But Jesus was surrounded by these people that just wanted to be somebody. Now, it was not contagious to Jesus. He’s God in human flesh.

He’s perfect. And so his motives are perfect all the time. But Jesus had to deal with these people whose entire focus was on how they could show off, how they could be somebody, how they could be important, how they could be wealthier, how they could be more powerful.

And they were taking it to an extreme where it was hurting others. And tonight we’re going to see what Jesus had to say about this. And we’re going to be in Mark chapter 12 where we left off this morning.

Mark chapter 12, if you turn there with me, if you don’t have your Bibles or can’t find Mark chapter 12. It’ll be up here on the screen, but once you find it, if you’d stand with me as we read together from God’s Word, we’re going to look at Mark chapter 12 starting in verse 38 and going through verse 44 tonight. It says, Then he said to them in his teaching, Beware of the scribes who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers.

These will receive greater condemnation. Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much.

Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrants. And he said to his disciples, he called his disciples to himself and said to them, Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury. for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty in all that she had, put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.

And you may be seated. Now, a lot of times we look at these as two different things. We look at the story of the widow giving to the temple as its own story, but I think it helps us to take both of these together and really see the contrast that Jesus was trying to draw between the two.

Because there were, there are two kinds of people in this story. As the title of the message would suggest, there are those who are sacrificing and there are those who are showing off. There are those who are trying to do something in service of their Lord and there are those who are trying to be somebody.

And the religious leaders of that day were definitely trying just to be somebody. They were focused on showing off. If you read Jesus’ description of them, that’s their whole reason for everything they’re doing.

That seems to be the obsession of their entire lives. When they wake up in the morning, it seems like their first thing that they think of is how to show off. Everything they do during the day is to show off.

The last thing they think of at night is how can I show off tomorrow? And so for that reason, he tells the people in verse 38, and you can see in the grid, if you’ve got a copy of that, that Matthew goes into more detail about this, and Jesus actually pronounces judgment on the Pharisees and scribes all throughout this. But we get right to the point in Mark here, where it says in verse 38, He said to them in His teaching, Beware of the scribes.

He’s saying, look out for these guys. Be on guard. Be aware of them.

Steer clear of them. And maybe even more tellingly, don’t try to emulate them. because when we see somebody that is successful, when we buy into the show that they’re showing off, sometimes we look at that person and we want to be like them.

We look at what they have and we want to be like that. And I’m sure there was a temptation for the people in Jerusalem to look at these leaders with envy, or at least look up to them. If you see a guy who puts on a good show, sometimes you think he must know some things.

And we look up to those people and think, if I could only be more like that. But Jesus here is warning, don’t be taken in by the show, because the example they’re putting out, the show they’re putting out, it’s not going to lead anywhere good. It’s not going to lead anywhere good for them.

It’s not going to lead anywhere good for you. That’s why he says, beware of the scribes. And then he points out some of the reasons for being wary of the scribes.

Reasons why you would want to keep the scribes at arm’s length, some of the things that they were involved in. And he lists these things throughout verses 38 through 40. He says, they desire to go around in long robes.

Now, this was not Jesus being a fashion critic and questioning their choice in outfits. This was him questioning the motivation behind what they did, because they were wearing these long robes to show off. Fabric was expensive.

Fabric still is expensive. Although I’ve never quite figured out how when you buy half the skirt, why it costs more. I don’t understand that.

Sometimes fabric is expensive. Sometimes lack of fabric is expensive. Everything’s just expensive.

But they were dressed in long robes because they were showing off. It was the king. It was the nobility.

These were the people that had the long flowing robes. And the scribes, the Pharisees, they were doing everything they could to look like wealthy, important, powerful people. Just like back in, you know, a few hundred years ago, it was considered attractive to be overweight.

Can we say it that way? What we in school used to call substantial, to be nice. That was considered attractive because it meant you had money to eat.

It meant you were wealthy and powerful. And so everybody wanted to be painted like they were substantial, right? They’re wanting to show off their riches and their importance, and so they’re buying these long flowing robes.

Just the regular tunic or whatever you’d call it that Jesus and his disciples wore was not enough. They had to have all these fabric. I’m picturing wedding dresses with the long train, but they wanted to have that kind of thing because they wanted to emulate those who were powerful.

They were showing off even in their dress. It says in verse 38, they love to have greetings in the marketplaces. And we need to understand what’s going on here.

Because I always, I was going to say I always enjoy it when I go to Walmart, but that’s not the end of the thought. I do not enjoy it when I go to Walmart. But I enjoy it when I go to Walmart or someplace and I run into somebody I know from church and we get to visit outside of church.

And it’s fun. For me anyway, I don’t know about y’all. You may hide when you, that doesn’t happen very often, so y’all might hide if you see me at Walmart.

Maybe that’s what’s going on. But that’s not what he’s talking about when he says greetings in the marketplaces. It’s not, oh, you know, shame on them, they love to run into friends and people they know at the marketplaces.

No, these guys were falling all over themselves to kiss up to important religious leaders and important leaders. It’s like they were exhausting the dictionary, trying to come up with the words to flatter somebody. And you can look at examples of this throughout history.

The one that comes to mind, and I wish I had written down his whole title, but Idi Amin, who used to be the dictator of Uganda back in the 70s, would invent these grand titles for himself. If you’ve heard of the movie The Last King of Scotland, And I’m not necessarily recommending it because it’s been so many years since I’ve seen it. I don’t remember everything that’s in it, but it was about him.

That was one of his titles, to be the last king of Scotland. But he invented these titles, Field Marshal Dr. Haji, meaning he’d made the pilgrimage to Mecca, Commander Idi Amin Dada, the conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in general, and Uganda in particular, and there was more to it than that.

but he’d just add on to this title and and dictators will do that but but they were doing this too that it was like they were inventing titles for for one another and and and fawning all over each other and coming up with compliments and and the guys who were receiving it they just ate it up so when I I don’t like to be called reverend for one thing uh for that reason the whole title thing. But when I hear other preachers or church leaders and they’re like, Reverend, doctor, apostle, so-and-so, get over yourself, man. Let it go.

Stop that. Am I saying it’s a sin? No.

That’s my personal opinion. But that’s the kind of thing it reminds me of. And these guys, they just ate it up.

They loved being called rabbi. They loved being called teacher, master, doctor, brilliant one, whatever it was. They loved the fawning and the attention.

They wanted to be seen and recognized in the marketplace. They wanted to have praise heaped on them. That’s what Jesus is talking about.

They wanted the best seats in the synagogues. So when they would go to a place of worship for a time of worship, they wanted specific seating that showed how important they were. One thing I read this week said it would even be, there would be these seats of honor facing the other worshipers.

I thought, that’s bizarre. Now, I’ve seen in different churches where there may be another chair or two on the stage and maybe the music minister sits down. I don’t know that that’s what it’s talking about.

But to be seated in a position where everybody’s looking at me. You know, if you don’t come to church any of the rest of the year and then you show up on Easter and you insist on sitting in the choir, in the choir loft, all through the service, because I’ve seen this happen before, because you know everybody’s going to be able to see you all through the service and see the new threads you’ve got on. That’s the kind of thing we’re talking about.

They wanted to be seated in these positions of honor where everybody was looking at them, where everybody was focused on them. And the problem there is that the worship service, at least in their minds, has become about them. And who or what is being worshipped?

Not the Lord. They wanted to be in these positions of honor to show how important they were and how pious they were. And it bled over into the worship services.

Then he says, the best places at feasts. They loved to be honored. When they would go to parties, when they would go to feasts, whether they were religious festivals, whether they were just social occasions, they loved to be recognized and be doted on and being honored by movers and shakers in society.

It says in verse 40, they devoured widows’ houses. Now the scribes in particular had to be literate. It was their job.

Their job was writing the law, but it also meant they could write otherwise. And some of the research I ran across this week talked about how they would also be involved in legal proceedings. And so the scribes, the little old ladies would come to them when they needed to make out a will and decide who they were leaving everything to.

And the scribes would help them. And maybe not even just write down what they told them, but they would make suggestions. They would help them out.

Next thing you know, the temple owns the widow’s house. Maybe that scribe gets a cut. So they were misusing their positions of authority and influence to enrich themselves.

Verse 40 says, for a pretense, they make long prayers. They enjoyed showing off their piety. Now, some of our, I’m not naming names, and it’s the younger children who don’t know what I’m talking about anyway, but we have some children who are long-winded prayers.

right are some of your younger siblings long-winded prayers there have been times where I like that they I love that they love to pray but sometimes we’re uh we’re waiting to eat dinner and I’m thinking let’s get a move on even jesus stopped listening three 30 seconds ago these were long and I know I’m not saying my children are being like the scribes there were people who would make these long-winded prayers because everybody’s listening to them and all the important things that they have to say to God. And if you pray a long time, that’s not a bad thing. But these people were showing off in what they were doing.

Because he says for a pretense. There’s nothing wrong with long prayer, but this was for show. And you see here a sampling of all the things that they were doing that were about showing off.

Showing off how religious they were, showing off how powerful they were, showing off how wealthy they were, how influential. It was all about the show and trying to be somebody. And Jesus says in verse 40, these will receive greater condemnation. Their misuse of their positions made them even guiltier than those who sinned in ignorance.

Now God holds all of us accountable for our sins. There’s not a different set of rules for different people. God holds all of us accountable for the times we sin.

But those of us who know and teach his word and then go and do opposite, I think, are held to a higher standard. I think that’s taught throughout scripture. And so these who should have known better most of all and still were misusing their position, Jesus says theirs is going to be the greater condemnation.

They were focused on showing off. But we see that God values humble sacrifice over spectacle. See, they might have impressed themselves, they might have impressed each other, but they didn’t impress God with the things that they were doing.

They didn’t impress God with the show that they put on. And if we need to impress anybody, that’s who we should want to impress. Verse 41 says, Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how people put money into the treasury.

And many who were rich put in much. There’s this just matter-of-fact way that it’s being recorded. As though Jesus is sitting here watching and and doesn’t really, he’s not moved by any of it.

We can picture Jesus just sitting there watching the spectacle as they come in and they clink their coins into the coffers. And I’ve read some historical descriptions this week about the different boxes that they would have and the noise that would go on as all this was taking place. Jesus is just sitting there seemingly unmoved by all of it.

He watched the people putting the money in the treasury. He watched them show off and it didn’t impress him. But verse 42 says, Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites which make a quadrants.

We don’t know this for sure, but Jesus may have been the only one who paid any attention to this woman. And the reason I say that is just human nature. All these people are going and throwing in tons of money.

She may have been embarrassed that she only had this little bit to offer and so probably was quiet and subtle about it. And yet, Jesus noticed it. God notices even what seems small to us.

God notices the things we don’t pay attention to. Jesus paid attention to this woman. And when he wanted to show his disciples someone who was truly honoring God, he pointed to her.

He didn’t point to the religious leaders in all their fancy clothes and with all their rituals and their pretense and all the fanfare. He didn’t point to them. He points to this little widow woman who in the eyes of people had nothing to offer and said she gave more than they did.

Now, we need to understand she gave an almost insignificant amount of money. In terms of the temple’s balance sheet, it was not insignificant to her. It was a huge sacrifice for her.

But in terms of the temple’s balance sheet, it was insignificant. It was nothing. And I did some of the math.

You really can’t compare. I mean, there’s no exchange rate to compare their money to ours necessarily. But we know from the Greek these coins are called leptons.

They’re the smallest coins that they had. It says two of them equal a quadrans. Each one of those equaled a 64th of a denarius.

Before you start to glaze, here’s the point of this. A denarius was an average one day’s salary for an agricultural laborer. So you go out and work in the fields from sunup to sundown.

you’d most likely be paid about a denarius. And so I sat down and figured out the percentages. These two leptons, these two coins, are worth 1.

64th of a day’s wages for an agricultural laborer. So looking at our standard 8-hour day, because we don’t necessarily work sunup to sundown like they did, looking at a standard 8-hour workday at minimum wage, applying the same percentage of the day and the same pay scale there, this for her was the equivalent of 91 cents from a minimum wage worker today. And Jesus said it was her life savings.

I know that’s a lot of math, that’s a lot of history. Why do I go into that with you? Because it tells us just how little she had.

They say this is her life savings, and for somebody working minimum wage today, it would be the equivalent of 91 cents. That’s what she put in the box for the temple. That’s what she gave to the Lord.

And I’m sure nobody else noticed 91 cents, two little coins. I don’t really pay attention to the money. I’m glad we have others who do because I would forget it was in here.

But every once in a while, I’ll walk through the auditorium after Bill has taken and put the money where it’s supposed to go and the plates are back in here and somebody’s come through, maybe a child, and thrown a few pennies in there. and it always makes me smile because I think either we made somebody somebody has more and we made them really mad with something I said in the message kind of like leaving a three-cent tip on the table or a child had some pennies and came through and said I want to give them to the Lord this woman took all she had and gave it to the temple and that’s what Jesus noticed that’s what he pointed out. And he said, it says, he called his disciples to himself and said to them, assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury.

And I think it’s important for us to see these stories together because a lot of times this story is taken as a message on giving. You know, give sacrificially. And I believe we’re supposed to.

But really, in context of what he’s just said about all those people who are going through the rituals of putting the money in there. Jesus looks at what she did versus what they did and said what she did was more impressive. What she did was more.

And so he has both elevated her at the same time he has completely undercut the worth of what everybody else has just done with their showing off. They had worked so hard to put on this show of how religious they were, how much they were doing for God. And Jesus in one fell swoop said, yeah, it’s less than what she did.

Because he said, for all they put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood. And what you and I need to see and what we need to understand here, the real difference was not the amount they gave. The real difference was not the percentage that they gave.

This has nothing to do with the money, as far as I can tell. The difference between the two is that you had one kind of person who was trying to get everything they could out of serving God. And you had another kind of person who was putting everything she had into serving God.

And that is the difference between sacrifice and showing off. And it is so easy. It’s so easy to fall into the showing off category.

I don’t tell you that tonight because I’m trying to call anybody out and say, shame on you for showing off. I’m saying it because I know it’s human nature. It’s that trap.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our, we know our worship is not a show, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking of it that way. I was in a panic just a few moments ago. I knew that our piano player was not going to be with us tonight.

He had told me that, and then I was reminded of that just before we started, and Christy normally says, I need you to get, you know, in those cases, I need you to get us started with the keyboard, and I thought I had to step out of rehearsal early this morning, and that fourth song, you notice we didn’t do the fourth song? Because I’m playing the keyboard, and I’ve never heard that song in my life. I wasn’t even at rehearsal this morning.

I’m going, this is going to be a train wreck. The service is going to be ruined. Who cares?

I mean, not who cares if the service is ruined. Who cares if I don’t know how to play that song on the piano? It’s not a show.

If I had to sit down and let the guitars take the lead, it’s not the end of the world. But it’s so easy to worry about getting things just right. when it really doesn’t matter.

I mean, yes, we want to give God our best, but we’re not putting on a show. And on a Sunday where we have lots of guests here, lots of first-time people that we hope will come back and be with us, it’s easy to think, oh, gee, I hope they like the text I’ve picked out today and they get something out of it. No, I’ve got to do my best. Oh, I hope they like the music.

I hope we’re not putting on a show here. But it’s so easy to start thinking that way. You see what I’m saying?

It’s so easy to slip into that mindset. But here’s the thing. What we’re doing in our worship is about Jesus Christ. It’s about giving all that we have and all that we are to him.

If God forbid a tornado were to come through tonight and just take this building away, and next thing you know, we’re meeting, I don’t even know, find some half dilapidated building downtown to try to do something at the last minute. Would we be any less his church? I’m not saying we need to do that, but we might be more like the early church, just meeting together, worshiping Jesus without all the trappings of show.

And again, I want to be very clear as I’m saying these things, because none of this is in my notes, just came to me when I got up here. None of this is to say that we’re trying to put on a show here, or that it’s wrong to have instruments, or it’s wrong to have lights, or it’s wrong to have a church building. Just saying we need to view those as tools, and remember that our worship is not about a show, it’s about a sacrifice of praise.

It’s about an offering of ourselves. This woman is held up to us as an incredible example. But even at that, even with her sacrifice, she is not the example here.

In this preaching workshop this week, all of us who went, including the non-preachers, we heard about this very thing. You know, you don’t preach a message and make Abraham the example. You don’t preach a message and make David the example.

Because the question was, well, which David am I supposed to follow? The David who went out and fought Goliath or the David who committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed her husband. I see the problem there.

Ultimately, it has to point back to Jesus Christ. What she did as giving a sacrifice is impressive to God because God values sacrifice and he showed how important sacrifice was when he sent his son for us. The greatest sacrifice that’s ever been given was not the woman with her two coins. That just points to an even greater sacrifice, the one that Jesus Christ made at the cross.

There’s no sacrifice ever made that was greater than the one he made. But her sacrifice there reminds us of the importance that God puts on sacrifice. And he cared enough about it that he made the sacrifice himself.

And so we, in turn, in our worship, we’re not here to put on a show and glorify ourselves. And I’m talking about whether you’re on the stage or just coming to church. We’re not here to put on a show for others or show for guests.

We are here to sacrifice our time. We’re here to sacrifice our attention. We’re here to sacrifice our hearts in worship.

We’re here to offer everything we have to Him in honor, in honor of that incredible sacrifice that Jesus Christ made. He deserves to be honored. He deserves to be honored for what He’s done for us.

And this is just one more example in Scripture of how somebody can honor his sacrifice with their own.