Sermon 11-10-24

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the Gospel Lesson for the 25th Sunday after Pentecost, Mark 12:38-44

Spirit and Widows

In the last few weeks of the Church Year, the lessons always turn to the week Jesus spent in Jerusalem before His crucifixion. This is why we’re in the twelfth chapter of Mark this morning. The twelfth chapter is full of the controversies Jesus had with the Jewish leadership just prior to their successful attempt to execute Him. Today’s lesson is the conclusion of the controversies.

And here Jesus issued a solemn warning to the people. Their religious  leaders were corrupt. It’s no surprise that Jesus could read the thoughts of the leaders’ hearts. Being God as well as man, He had the power to do that. And so, Jesus criticized the scribes saying in Mark 12:40 that they were those, “‘who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers.’”

The word widow is added to the English translation, perhaps because the next section of Mark is about the poor widow who put everything she had into the temple treasury. However, the Greek text in 12:40 simply reads “those who devour houses” — meaning family estates. Jesus probably meant the estates of wealthy widows. Number one, because those would be the only estates worth devouring. And number two, a widow might more easily be persuaded to spend her money supporting men who looked to be very pious and devoted. Such devouring could eventually leave the wealthy widow destitute. But, that never bothers a corrupt heart.

In the statement Jesus made about the scribes, the word translated “pretense” stands out. It means to put something forward in order to hide the true state of affairs. In other words, what we call a “cover up.” Thus, the outward religious behavior of the scribes was a cover up for their true intensions — which was to manipulate spiritually vulnerable people out of their wealth.

Spiritually vulnerable — Let’s understand something. Human beings are spiritual creatures living in a physical body. Spirit and body are so seamlessly woven together that the only way we can tell the difference is by observing physical death. But, we are spiritual creatures in need of spiritual resources.

It’s now known even by science that our spirits survive physical death. Thus, human eternal destiny is a real thing. What’s that all about?

The Christian understanding is that on a day known only to Him, Yahweh, our Creator God, will raise the dead. He will re-embody — re-incarnate — every human spirit in immortal bodies. Once again there will be the union between spirit and body that Yahweh intended for us.

However, after the resurrection, there will be a separation — a Judgment. For, Yahweh is a righteous being. Those who love unrighteousness cannot and will not dwell with Him. Those who ignore, despise or hate Him cannot and will not dwell with Him. On the other hand, those who love Him and desire to live in and by His righteousness will dwell with Him forever.

It’s at this point that Christianity teaches something most important. The eternal destiny of humans on the Day of Judgment is not established beyond death. It’s established this side of death.

Therefore, how we die here is how we will live forever. Those who die in their sins will be condemned in the Judgment. They will live forever apart from Yahweh in the evil they desired. On the other hand, those who die with their sins forgiven and covered over with Christ’s righteousness will live righteously with their righteous Creator forever. This is what makes forgiveness of sins so important. For, without this most gracious gift, humans in immortal bodies will perish into the darkness of the eternal god-playing hell that the sinful nature craves.

Thus, salvation from eternal damnation is a most important thing to those who honor and fear their Creator. And, those who dispense the knowledge of eternal salvation are very important people to those who honor and fear their Creator.

Now, if I were God, I wouldn’t entrust the knowledge of salvation into the hands of human beings prone to sin. I’d give the job to incorruptible holy angels. But Jesus chose to give the job to the likes of Peter, John, Andrew, James, Thomas and the others. Who can gainsay Him? And so the job has come down to the likes of sinful people like me.

Now, because Yahweh entrusts ultimate spiritual things into the hands of sinners, the potential for spiritual abuse and manipulation looms large over the Church. As we’re told in 1Peter 5:8,  “[our] adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” And what better person to devour than a spiritual leader of spiritual creatures? Get the leader and the sheep are left helpless and go astray. How to best get at the spiritual leader? Well, sexual immorality is probably the best and most common way. But greed and pride come in a close second and third.

The scribes of Jesus time were very important religious leaders. These were the men who copied and recopied Moses and the Prophets by hand. For this reason, they were very familiar with Scripture in a time when there were no bibles in peoples’ houses. Therefore, in order to know what is in the Scripture, people had to rely on such men as the scribes. For this reason, the scribes were honored as holy men. However, the scribes had no source of income. They had to depend on the patronage of others. And so in this scenario, the potential for spiritual abuse was a real thing. And from what Jesus said about the devouring of estates, apparently it was an all too common and real thing. It’s understandable, then, how the scribes would have been motivated to eliminate Jesus — this whistleblower and critic of their spiritual racket.

Thus, in fulfillment of prophecy, Jesus, the good shepherd, warned God’s people about their evil shepherds. And the evil shepherds didn’t like it. But in warning the people Jesus also warned the evil shepherds to repent. They were standing right there. What they were doing could not be hidden from Yahweh. It was repent or be condemned. 

Because we are spiritual creatures, Yahweh’s spiritual authority among human beings is of ultimate importance. Therefore, forgive us, O Lord for doubting this. And, O Lord, keep the hearts of your shepherds from the roaring lion.

Now, it’s well documented that there is spiritual abuse of various kinds in modern Christianity. Some of you have experienced it personally. One of our pastors, Chris Rosebrough, runs a podcast and YouTube channel where he documents and exposes spiritual abuse. And he’s not alone. There are other good people who do the same. Therefore, may the Lord protect all of them from the very temptations they expose.

So, beware of the shepherd who pays a pastoral visit and then announces, “the Lord told me that you’re going to place a thousand dollars in my hand tonight.” Beware of those making extraordinary claims in the Name of the Lord. Beware of those who claim some kind of prophetic pipeline from the Lord in order to manipulate. These are the false shepherds Jesus was warning against. They have been overcome by greed or some other sin.

Now, when Jesus had finished His teaching against the scribes, He went and sat in front of the temple offering chest and observed people as they made their gifts. Incredibly, a poor widow put in the offering chest everything she had. What prompted her to do so? Should she have done it? What would become of her? These and many more questions must go unanswered because the text doesn’t tell us anything further about her.

We know from Scripture that Judas Iscariot was the keeper of the disciples’ small treasury. Perhaps Jesus ordered Judas to give her a gift from their treasury to meet her needs. We just don’t know.

However, there are several things we can glean from the picture. Most importantly, the widow exhibited great love and devotion to Yahweh. She put in everything she had. Second, she showed great faith in Yahweh. Somehow He would supply her needs. Third was the point Jesus made. Her gift was small, but proportionately it was huge.

Forty years ago this month I made a decision similar to the widow’s. In October I had made up my mind to leave the congregation I had served in Pennsylvania for five years. My family and I had no place to go. But, I had dreams that perhaps I could start a congregation out here on Long Island. My parents were willing to let us come live with them in Wantagh. My resignation would take effect at the end of the coming January.

In November of 1984, then, I and some members of the Pennsylvania congregation I served attended a meeting being held by some charismatic people in a town nearby. I no longer remember who sponsored the meeting or what it was for. However, several important things happened to me at that meeting — one of which was that I became convinced that I should make an offering of a thousand dollars to the Lord. Of course, in 1984 that was big money. And it was all we had in our bank account. Facing the prospect of no income beyond January, it was definitely a stretch.

I made the gift. And, in its wake two things happened. First, the congregation I had served honored me greatly with parting gifts. I left there with $1,500 in the bank. Second, in mid-January a connection was made with this congregation. And here we still are. I’m still amazed by the whole thing.

In the late eighties there was an annual Lutheran Charismatic conference that met in Albany. On our way there in 1987, our little car developed an engine knock. I can’t tell you how many hours I had spent fixing that car. And now this had happened. So, again, at that conference an opportunity came to offer a thousand dollars. By that time I had become infected with a certain amount of Word-Faith theology. Therefore, thinking along Word-Faith lines, I planted in faith what’s called “seed money” to obtain a new vehicle. 

Now, just to make sure everyone knows, no one at that conference espoused or taught Word-Faith theology. This was something I had picked up through the influence of a family member. In any event, I gave the thousand. It was money I had saved to pay my taxes. And this time there was a different outcome. I had to pay those taxes. So I had to go into debt for a period of time to pay our family expenses. That’s the only time we were ever forced to live on credit. And no car came. It was two years before another used car appeared, courtesy of my brother who worked for a dealership. By that time I had renounced any Word-Faith teaching I had absorbed. And so, I never again gave a thousand like that. I wasn’t ever again going to go into debt to make an offering. I merely stuck with the commitment that I had made years earlier to tithe.

My point in telling these stories is that I want to discourage any widow or elderly person here from planting so-called “seed money”. Also, I don’t want anyone here to play hero and do what the widow of Mark 12 did by giving everything she had. Jesus marveled at her. But He commanded no one to do the same.

Again, Jesus marveled because the amount she gave was so little, but proportionally it was so huge. Every week in all the churches of the world offerings like that come in. The offering is small. However, proportionally it’s huge. And such offerings come from true love and devotion to the Lord.

Commentators on Mark 12 note that there is a deep contrast in this section between scribes who devour widows’ estates and this particular widow. Hearts that put forward what looks like devotion to Yahweh in order to cover up willful corruption are contrasted here with the much purer devotion of this poor widow. She loved greatly. She was committed to Yahweh. She had a simple heart and a simple devotion to our God. 

This was in contrast to the scribes who appeared to have great, flowery devotion to Yahweh — a devotion far greater than hers. But in reality, their hearts were filled with greed. That’s what we should take away from Jesus’ final teaching and this incident with the widow. Put together, the two are about spiritual authority and spiritual leadership. Thus, this is much more a teaching for me than for you.

However, in general it is better to come before the Lord in simple love and trust. It’s not wrong to have great learning. But it’s better to have great learning tempered by simple love and trust.

When I think about it, simple love and trust come from simple acknowledgment of our situation. As it’s written in Romans 3:23-24, “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. . . .”

Falling short of the glory of God leaves us doomed to eternal darkness without Yahweh and without righteousness. On the other hand, having our lives justified by the blood of Jesus and by His sacrifice is a great, gracious gift that grants us eternal righteous life with Yahweh. We can’t add to this gift out of any righteous living on our part. It’s all Jesus’ work. It has to be all His work. Otherwise we’re doomed. For any “righteous” living we do is always compromised one way or another by sin. On the other hand, the righteous living that Jesus did is uncompromised in any way by sin. That He did this living for us so that our sins might be forgiven is beyond comprehension, but is the truth. This is where simple love and trust begins. If I confess my sins, He will forgive them. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.