Mark 12:35-44

Who Do You Say that I Am  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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What is this? Someone put a few pieces of blank paper on the pulpit. Doreen, we need to do a better job of cleaning this place up. This pulpit is serious business.
Over the last few weeks in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has been questioned and antagonized and attempts to trap Him were made, but now Jesus is going to do some teaching that centers on what it looks like when we make Jesus is Lord?
Get right into the text because the pregame is on soon and I don’t want to miss it!
Mark 12:35–44 (ESV)
35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’ 37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.
38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Pray

Jesus is Lord. Don’t pretend to be pious, demonstrate your devotion.

Jesus is Lord. (34-37)

Mark 12:35–37 (ESV)
35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’ 37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.
As we open up this text we see Jesus, once again teaching. He had been teaching for three years now and amazing everyone along the way. So now even at the end of His life, He is teaching in the temple.
Now remember, this is the last week of His life and it started with Him being heralded by the masses as being the Son of David. They were making sure that everyone knew that they considered Him to be the Messiah. The shouted it out.
But since the beginning of this last week, He had been amazing people in unexpected ways. He turns over tables. Demands that the Chief Priests, Scribe and Elders answer Him. He made the Pharisees look foolish. He told the Sadducees they were dead wrong and He told a genuine seeker that he wasn’t that far from the Kingdom of God.
The text ended last week with Mark telling us that,
Mark 12:34 (ESV)
34 And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
The people were amazed at His conviction and unprecedented power to put people in their place, so the crowd just sits in stunned silence for a bit and out of that silence a the voice of Jesus is heard…and Mark tell us,
Mark 12:35 (ESV)
35 And as Jesus taught in the temple,
Jesus always wants to teach us. Every moment is a teaching moment for a disciples. It doesn’t just happen during our “quite times,” or when we are sitting under good bible teaching and preaching. Our discipleship is
Discipleship is learning how to live out the remainder of our days and regenerated and redeemed humans. We talked about this a few weeks back.
The Resurrection power of God has already replaced the immaterial part of us. Our hearts of stone have been exchanged with hearts flesh. We now have hearts that are tender toward God instead of being stout, obstinate and cold.
God’s work of grace has revitalized the most vital part of our humanity. We have been given new hearts and one day we will be given new bodies!
Now that we are regenerated and redeemed and freed, we now have the ability to start living in a whole new way.
The end goal of discipleship is to be crafted into the image of the One doing the discipling. A disciple puts aside their own personal desires and obediently embraces the will of the One that are attempting to emulate. And Jesus so graciously engages us with on the job, intensive and extensive training.
Our whole lives are “on the job training” to look more like Jesus.
Where do we need some more training? What lesson is He trying to teach you these days?
Here we see Jesus teaching once again and He is about to reveal something that no one saw coming!
He is going to teach that the Coming Messiah was going to transcend everyone’s expectations of Him from the most quoted OT passage in the new!
He is going to quote from a Messianic Psalm, Psalm 110 and blows peoples minds.
Let’s look carefully at what He says.
Mark 12:35 (ESV)
35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?
He poses a stimulating riddle.
How can “the Christ/Messiah” be the son of David?
Now at that time everyone knew the Christ would be a son from the line of David, so nothing new here. Jesus what are you getting at?
With it being Super Bowl Sunday, I need at least one football reference right? There is an old adage in football that states, “You have to run the ball to set up the pass.”
What is meant by that is, sometimes when you execute a successful running game for a significant chunk of the game, then the defense will have to bring more defenders closer to the line in order to “stop the run,” however when they do that, it makes them susceptible to the offense throwing long passes that will move them further down the field.
This first question is like Jesus running the ball. He is setting them up to thrown something way over the heads. He is drawing them in to torch their minds. Their concept of the Messiah is WAY to small and it needs to be exposed and expanded.
Everybody knew that the Messiah would be a Son of David, but then Jesus takes them to a Psalm of David and shows them what David said about this Messiah.
Mark 12:36–37 (ESV)
36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’ 37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.
Ok, their is a lot going on here that honestly is quite confusing. So let’s slowly walk it through.
First notice that Jesus explicitly attributes the words of David to the Holy Spirit. This is one of those texts that we can go to that helps establish the inspiration of Scripture.
This is Psalm 110 and David writes, “the Lord (Yahweh) said to my Lord (Adoni),” (Adoni meaning master or Lord in this context).
The personal God Yahweh addresses David’s Son as “David’s Master or David’s Lord.”
This means that David’s Son is superior to David. Now, the key to understanding this is to understand the culture in which it was written.
In the patriarchal society that this was written, father’s were supreme in command. They had authority over everything in the family and that extended down to the next generation and every generation after that. Children and their children had great reverence for their fathers and grandfathers.
So when David, by inspiration of the Spirit addresses one of his offspring as His Lord or Master, that surely rose some eyebrows.
One author writes,
“The expected term for David to use when speaking of his future kin was “son” because he would in fact be a son/descendant of David. However, he calls him “lord,” which suggests this future son is David’s superior.” - Peter Lee
David says one of his future descendants was “my Lord” or his master. This suggests that David believed the Messiah that was coming at some point in history from his line was not merely be a human figure, He would be an embodiment of the divine Yahweh himself.
And this is how the rest of the NT authors who quoted this Psalm understood it as well.
Psalm 110 is quoted or alluded to at least 27 times in the NT.
So David sees this coming one as more than just a human with political endeavors on this planet, this “more than human” coming one is invited to sit at the right hand of God Almighty and rule and reign over every enemy physical or spiritual!
Yahweh has decreed that He will establish a king that will be opposed, but that will ultimately experience triumph.
Opposition will visit this coming One, but He will be crowned with the highest authority and seated in the most privilege, and honored place while watching those opposed to Him become His footstool.
This reminds me of what happened to the kings who opposed the Israelites when they were invested in conquering the land God promised to give them.
Joshua 10:24 (ESV)
24 And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, “Come near; put your feet on the necks of these kings.” Then they came near and put their feet on their necks.
Joshua 10:25 (ESV)
25 And Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.”
Joshua 10:26 (ESV)
26 And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees.
The conquest narrative is familiar to those listening to Jesus speak in the temple that day. They knew what it meant when someone says, “enemies under your feet.”
Jesus is saying that the Messiah that David is referring to, that is coming from His line is not “just a son,” but He is the Lord who will occupy a position of unparalleled authority at the right hand of God. All those opposed to His Lordship will be subjugated and subdued and placed under His feet to be crushed.
That is the role of the Messiah!
And remember what the crowds were shouting a few days back?
Mark 11:9–10 (ESV)
9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
The crowd was identifying Jesus as the Messiah, but here in our text He is saying that “He as Messiah is a lot more than they bargained for.”
The freedom He was about to bring wasn’t just political, it was over principalities and powers of this present darkness and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
This is a bold and tantalizing claim and that is why Mark finishes this section by saying.
Mark 12:37 (ESV)
37 And the great throng heard him gladly.
What Jesus was saying was entertaining to say the least! Whoa. If He is who He says He is, make no mistake, Him being here in this temple is going to make some waves. I am sure that this take on what David said would be on everyone’s minds in the market for the days to come.
David’s Son is David’s Lord? Interesting. Who did the crowd say that Jesus was upon arrival a week ago? Son of David? Hmm.
The first point in the passage is Jesus is Lord, and that leads naturally into the 2nd and 3rd point.

Don’t pretend to be pious. (38-40)

Mark 12:38 (ESV)
38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes,
Once again, Mark points out that Jesus is teaching. And He has quite the opening line.
Beware. See and Notice. Watch out. βλέπω written in the present, active, imperative and second person plural form Βλέπετε.
With raised voice Jesus says, “Everyone listen to my raised voice. Look at and notice something with me. The scribes!
Whoa! Talk about causing waves! If anyone doubted the validity of Jesus self-assumed authority, they wouldn’t anymore.
He is about to call out the teachers of the law in an inescapable way.
Mark 12:38–40 (ESV)
38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
He calls them out for their hypocritical attitudes and actions. They wanted their accomplishments and accolades to be noticed by men, but all they did was invite the judgement of God.
We won’t unpack all their actions today. We will simply notice what Jesus wants us to notice. They did a whole bunch of religious stuff to impress people and all it accomplished was their greater condemnation.
This tells us that just doing the right thing isn’t enough, we have to do it and do it for the right reasons to escape judgement. If we only do the externals and haven’t been changed at our core, then we are in trouble.
And if we just talk about doing something, but never do it, we are in trouble.
We can’t pretend to be pious.
This is something John Bunyan surfaces in his story The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory of the Christian life and walk.
He introduces this idea by way of a character called, “Talkative.”
Talkative is a man that Christian and Faithful meet on their journey to the Celestial City.
Christian spoke on, ‘He talketh of prayer, of repentance, of faith, and of the new birth; but he knows but only to talk of them. I have been in his family, and have observed him both at home and abroad; and I know what I say of him is the truth. His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of savour. There is neither prayer, nor sign of repentance for sin; yea, the brute, in his kind, serves God far better than he. He is the very stain, reproach, and shame of religion to all that know him. It can hardly have a good word in all that end of the town where he dwells, through him. Thus say the common people that know him, “A saint abroad, and a devil at home.”‘
‘His poor family finds it so; he is such a churl, such a railer at, and so unreasonable with his servants, that they neither know how to do for or speak to him. This Talkative (if it be possible) will go beyond the worst cheat and scoundrel, defraud, beguile, and overreach them.’ - Bunyan
This character represents the hypocrisy of those who talk about religion and even “relationship with God,” without living it.
1 John 2:6 (ESV)
6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
What we need and what these called out by Jesus scribes lacked was a genuine conversion. What they had plenty of outward displays of pretend piety.
Don’t pretend to be pious, rather…

Demonstrate your devotion. (41-44)

Mark 12:41 (ESV)
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums.
First of all Jesus “sat down,” and that is an important detail to notice because it means that Jesus, as a Rabbi, is once again teaching.
In that culture rabbis taught from a seated position. In first century Judaism, a rabbi sitting down is the equivalent of a 21st century pastor stepping up to a pulpit.
When I come up here, you all expect me to give some instruction. It would be weird if I just stood up here for 30-40 minutes and said nothing. Some my like that, but it would be weird.
Jesus sat down, “opposite the treasury” so that He could watch people putting money in the offering box so that He could have real life objects lessons to highlight when He was teaching!
This is intense too!
Jesus positioned Himself “opposite the treasury,” so that He was in an optimal position to watch people give their money!
Just FYI we don’t do that here. We have discrete, unassuming offering boxes on the back wall and gym, that we on rare occasions we remind people of so that they can exercise their generosity and tangible faith through monetary tithes and gift giving. You can give online as well.
But here Jesus positions Himself in a place in order to observe and teach about what true devotion looks like. He wants to be able to observe peoples “faith” and “generosity” by the way they gave and what they gave.
And then along comes a widow, maybe a widow that was just devoured by the hypocritical scribes from verse 40 and she… Mark 12:42
Mark 12:42 (ESV)
42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.
Jesus could see and hear here devotion. He heard the clink of two copper coins, two λεπτa hit the bottom of the box and the sight of the drop and the sound of the clink was a demonstration of here devotion.
This is a λεπτa by the way. Someone gave it to me a while back. It is old, but it isn’t worth much, just like it wasn’t worth much back in the day, but Jesus was so amazed by what He saw that..
Mark 12:43–44 (ESV)
43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Jesus calls His disciples over to teach them about demonstrating their devotion. What this poor widow offered was “more than all those who contributed the large sums” in verse 41!
She gave “everything she had, all she had to live on.”
How many coins did she have? 2. That means that should could have given one to God and kept one for herself, but she demonstrated her total devotion and dependence on God and let both of them slip right through her fingers.
She gave everything she had, and that is precisely what Jesus was about to give to her as He was headed to the cross.
He was heading to the cross to give all that He had to those who were truly devoted to Him. He carried the cross to credit our accounts with all of His earned righteousness.
What a fantastic exchange rate! He gives all that He has to us as the Lord of all creation and we give Him our all as His dependent, devoted disciples.
She demonstrated her devotion by what she gave…everything.
Does Jesus consistently see us being cheerfully charitable with our money? Does He ever see us, out of either our poverty or our abundance give according to our means or even beyond them?
If she was the widow referenced from verse 41, she had already lost her husband, been cheated out of her home and now is seen giving the last two lepta’s from her tattered pocket of a long, loose fitting garment.
She gave it all and she brought delight to the One who would in a few days time sit at the right hand of God Almighty ruling and reigning over all!
Jesus is Lord. Let’s not pretend to be pious. Let’s demonstrate our devotion by giving all we have to Him!
Benediction
All she had to live on. Estate planning this person literally gave all that they had. They gave all that they had previously lived on; and I am sure it brought a smile to King Jesus face. I know we all in that meeting were overcome with amazement!
Discussion Questions
Disciples is on the job training for all of life. Where do we need some more training? What lesson is Jesus trying to teach you these days?
In what areas of life are you tempted to pretend to be pious?
If Jesus was using you as an object lesson to teach other disciples how to be devoted, what areas of your life do you think He would showcase?
Does Jesus consistently see you being cheerfully charitable with your money? Does He ever see you, out of either your poverty or your abundance giving according to your means or even beyond them?
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