A Greater Offense and A Greater Offering

Introduction

Back in 2000, I worked at a bank as a teller. I was taught my position by a long-time teller and supervisor, but because the bank was short-staffed, my training went by quickly. Within a couple of days I was on my own and I was to ask questions if I ever didn’t know how to do something. For the first couple of months everything was fine. However, there was a day when a gentleman came in with his paycheck. He was a day-laborer and so the check was hand-written by the owner of the construction company. He handed me his check to cash, I opened up the account make sure the money was there to cash the check; it was, and I handed him his money: all $2,500 of it. He thanked me and went on his way. The next morning, I was informed that I was missing $2,250 from my drawer. And a few moments later we were informed as to why that was so. I had cashed a $250 check for $2,500.

How is that possible? I looked at the little box where the dollar amount is given rather than the line where the dollar amount is written out. To me, the numbers looked like $2,500. But on the line it was clearly written “two-hundred fifty xx/100.” In all my training, I had never been taught to look at the line. If you’re wondering if I was fired, I was not. However, my supervisor and I both got a good talking to. The man was caught the same day. He had already spent the money on the bills he was behind on which was why he didn’t say anything. Instead of pressing charges, the bank gave him a lone in the amount of $2500 and he had to pay it back little by little. I, however, still had a hard time remembering to look at the line rather than the little box. You would have thought that such an event would have stayed with me. It did; but it didn’t change me.

Now, what does that story have to do with anything? Simply this: when we are are taught wrongly or sloppily, bad things can happen to everyone around us. You may have had a similar experience in which you were taught to do something a certain way and then found out later that it was the incorrect way and maybe damage had been done somehow, or maybe not. But either way, there’s frustration—so much frustration. Suddenly we’ve got to relearn everything.

This morning, we see Jesus no longer talking to the Scribes, but talking about them. And in so doing, we see Jesus teaches the disciples two lessons about the kingdom. The first lesson is summed up in a question: For what are you looking? The second is similar: How are you looking?

For What Are You Looking?

How Are You Looking?

Luke 20:45–21:4 ESV

And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

For What Are You Looking?

The first lesson that the disciples learn in this passage is that they must be careful for what they are looking. This is really the heart of Jesus’s warning.

Luke 20:45–47 ESV

And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

As we saw before, the Scribes were teachers of the TaNaK: The Torah, The Neviim, and The Ketuvim. That is the Old Testament. The Torah was the first five books of the Bible, the Neviim were the Prophets which included The Major Prophets (minus Daniel), the Minor Prophets, and Joshua through 2 Kings. The Ketuvim are the Writings, which include everything else: Ruth, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther, The Books of Wisdom, Daniel, and Lamentations. So everything that we have in our Old Testament, they had in what was considered the TaNaK.

These were the lawyers, the experts. They knew it, the people knew it, everyone knew it. And here is Jesus saying to his disciples (so everyone could hear): Beware of the scribes. It wasn’t a warning against knowledge, but against desire. Notice what he warns them about: they are the ones who like to walk around in long robes.

You may have heard that long tassels on robes would mean holy living. That’s true. Those who had long tassels were showing off that they were holy men. Long robes however, meant something different. Long robes meant that these men were men of leisure. Think about it for a moment. If you lived in an agrarian culture—a farming culture—you’re not going to be wearing long robes. They would get in the way. They’d get muddy OR WORSE! For the Scribes to wear long robes meant that they didn’t have to work hard. They liked to live in the lap of luxury. Beware the Scribes who look for an easy life.

Beware the Scribes who love greetings in marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues. Not only do they look to live an easy life, they also desire to be well-known. They want the fanfare that comes with fame. They want the accolades, the greetings. They look to be the guy everyone wants to know. They want the best seats, the seats of honor. They want to sit at the cool kids table.

Jesus warns the disciples, be careful for what you are looking. As Jesus’s disciples, they are not to look for an easy life. They are not to be looking to be liked by others. They are not to be looking for places of honor.

Look at what it takes to get there. They devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. As Scribes, lawyers, these men would often be the executors of estates. Imagine a man dies and leaves his widow behind. Along comes the executor of the estate that was supposed to make sure that everything is done lawfully and is done in order. Instead, he devours the widow’s house. In other words, he has cheated the widow out of what was hers. He may claim that the house must be sold to pay of debts, but keep much of the money himself and give her a portion of it. How else is he going to be able to buy the long robes and live a life of leisure? He’s got to make money somehow!

For a pretense he makes long prayers. We don’t use the word pretense much anymore, but it just means that someone is playing make-believe. In playing make-believe, the Scribes make long prayers. They have look holy. They have to sound holy. They have to be able to cover up what they do behind closed doors. They have to make it seem unbelievable if someone were to say the things Jesus was saying. They said everything right, but it was all make-believe.

Jesus warned the disciples that these things cannot their desires. Do not let leisure and fame and popularity be your mission. This is not who you are to be or what you are to do.

These were the teachers of the day. They were the ones people went to with their questions. They were trusted. And here they were teaching the wrong things, overlooking the proper things. They were betraying their office. They were hypocrites playing make-believe. And so many were affected by their poor teaching. So Jesus said, “They will receive the greater condemnation.” Their offense was greater and thus so will their condemnation be.

Now, maybe this will put to rest that all sins are equal. They’re not. Jesus just stated that these Scribes would receive the greater condemnation. That means there is a lesser condemnation. John wrote that if we see our brother committing sin that does not lead to death we shall pray and God will give him life. Then he says, there is sin that leads to death and that we ought not pray for that. Then he says that all sin is wrongdoing, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

James makes it clear that while all sin makes us transgressors of the law, it is only because to transgress the law is to be in rebellion against God. He never intended to say that every sin is as bad as every other sin. Otherwise, just a few verses later, he makes an error when he says that not everyone one should be teachers because they know that those who teach are judged with greater strictness. Which is Jesus’s point here.

The Scribes were teaching bad theology, not only with their lips but with their lifestyle as well. Peter took this to heart when he told the elders in his first letter

1 Peter 5:1–3 ESV

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

Not only are they to be expositors of God’s Word, but examples to God’s flock. They are not to do it for shameful gain (money); they are not to domineer and want the accolades. They are to do this because this is God’s calling on their lives.

But this is not just about pastors. This is about life. And so I ask: for what are we looking? What kind of life are we wanting? Desiring? Longing?

Very few people set out in life to take advantage of widows and cheat them out of house and home. It happens slowly. There’s a goal in mind. There’s something out there for which someone looks to have or be or do. And it becomes the driving purpose of his/her life. And decisions are made without thinking about the consequences. Compromises are made, little ones at first, but before long the consciences is becoming more and more seared and so larger compromises become easier.

It’s clear that some of these disciples had aspirations. James and John were asking to sit at Jesus’s left and right hands. They had not thought of what that entailed. They thought it would be a place of power and leisure, but instead it would be a place of pain and suffering.

Jesus warned all his disciples in front of everyone: beware the Scribes; they are not your heroes.

How Are You Looking?

This takes us to the next warning. The first was summed up in the question for what are you looking? The second is similar but altogether different. How Are You Looking? As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we are to see things differently. In other words we are to look at the happenings of this world through the lens of Jesus, or if you prefer, the eyes of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 21:1–4 ESV

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Now, I don’t think Luke put these two events together haphazardly. It would seem that they happened consecutively. Jesus gave his first warning against the Scribes and then looked up and saw the people giving their offerings. But in our Bibles there’s a chapter break and that can so easily cause us to think of these two events as separate, having little or nothing to do with each other.

But notice that Jesus first sees the rich putting their gifts into the offering box. He was just warning the disciples against being like the Scribes who enjoyed the life of luxury and leisure. They wore the long robes, they went to the parties. If you’re from the eighties, you might consider these as regular figures on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Robin Leach would be talking about how fabulous their lives are.

And here they are all philanthropic. They’re giving to charity. They’re giving to the temple causes.

Now in the temple there were all these boxes decorated to look like trumpets. There were thirteen of them and they were marked. You could give to the temple’s maintenance or to new utensils or you could even give to help the poor. There were all types of special offerings being taken up. And look, how fabulous it is to be rich and condescend to help the little people!

That’s how most people would see this event. But not Jesus. He noticed something no one else did. A little old widow giving two small copper coins, the actual name was leptas. She gave two leptas; it’s the only Jewish coin mentioned in the New Testament.

Now keep in mind what Jesus just said about these Scribes. “They devour widows’ houses.” In other words, they cheated the widows out of their livelihood. So, this widow may actually be poor because the rich made her that way. And remember that the Scribes were the teachers, for better or worse, and one of the teachings they would have adhered to was not from the Bible but from tradition.

The oral tradition said that the least amount of money that could be given to the temple was two leptas. They were worth so little that one lepta was not enough. It was more hassle than it was worth. So it could have been that the widow would not have had to give all she had to live on, but could have given half, but as she was taught, one was not enough; she must give two. And so she gave all she had.

Now, she did this in faith. Jesus looks at her gift as one of faith and love and abundant generosity. Most people would have overlooked it. The priests who would have counted the offering would have probably rolled their eyes because now they have to deal with the lepta. But Jesus saw this woman’s offering as a a greater act than the giving of the rich.

We cannot forget that one of Luke’s themes has to do with Jesus’s exalting those on the fringe of society. He exalts the lepers, the poor, the widows, the orphans, the children, the beggars. Those people that the disciples and other followers tried to hide or keep back or rebuke, were the very ones Jesus said, “let them come and do not forbid them” or “bring them to me.” In the same way he saw this most impoverished widow like no one else. She had given all she had to live on; what an example of faith!

It is all at once a condemnation against those who forced her to do such a thing and an commendation to give unto the Lord in total faith. What can we learn from this widow? So much!

Let us not think that because some man or woman has grown older, and perhaps have lost the love of their lives, that they are now unimportant to the faith, unimportant to the church. We cannot forget about Anna in Luke 2, the widow of Nain, this widow. They are the embodiment of active faith. Paul tells the churches not to forget about their widows but to take care of them—those who have shown their faith faithfully. He tells older women to instruct younger women, older men to instruct younger men. As we will sing in just a moment: “As saint of old still line the way, retelling triumphs of his grace, we hear the calls and hunger for the day, when, with Christ, we stand in glory.”

Those who are older and are elderly have an important roll in God’s plan for the church. Jesus sees it. Do we?

Will we look and see it like Jesus? Most would see a widow who is past her prime, who has nothing to teach, nothing to give, one who is irrelevant. Yet Jesus saw a woman who stood as an example if we his followers look through the eyes of the Spirit.

How are you looking at this world? James tells us that we need to be careful about thinking like the world thinks. We want to be all buddy buddy with the rich. We tell them to sit here in a good place while we tell the poor to stand over there or sit at our feet. He says then that if we do that, we have made distinctions and have become judges with evil thoughts. It’s the rich who oppress, take us to court, and blaspheme the honorable name by which we have been called. In essence, we need to stop seeing this world as the world sees this world and start seeing it as God does. James wrote,

James 2:5 ESV

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

The world thinks the rich are the blessed ones, but it generally is just the opposite. Do we see it that way? How are we looking at this world? Are we looking at it through the eyes of redemption so that everything is turned up on its head? Or are we sticking with the status quo and seeing things the way the unredeemed see them? Are we seeing the amazing movement of God in our political landscape or are we cowering in fear for the next election? Are we seeing God’s work in technology and how he is using it to reach the masses and so we can redeem and take dominion over social media and other modes of information or are we consuming it like others or fearful of how it may harm? Are we looking at things through redeemed eyes, eyes of the Spirit, or through worldy eyes?

Conclusion

As we finish out this text this morning, we have two questions lingering. For what are we looking? What are our goals? What are we wanting in this life? Are we all about the lap of luxury and leisure or are we about working so we can give? On the one hand we see the Scribes who are rich with no worries are condemned, but the widow with no money is commended.

And we have the question of how are we looking at this world? Are we looking at it the same way as everyone else or are we seeing it the way Jesus does?

You see, Jesus died on that cross and rose from the dead, not just so we could be forgiven, but so that we could be redeemed. He not only forgives our sins, but restores our senses. We are in the process of becoming whole again. But it is a two-way street. What God is working in our spirits, we are to live in our bodies.

Our goals are redeemed. What we look for in this life is redeemed. But so is how we look at this life. Both our passions and our perceptions are being redeemed inwardly, but are we living those outwardly?

Prayer

Our heavenly Father,

May both our passions and perceptions be redeemed so that we act upon them both. May we not aspire to what the world aspires and may we not see as the world sees. May our closeness to Jesus determine our dreams and our vision.

In Jesus’s name. Amen.