Fake vs. Real Worship

Introduction

Did any of you see any of these video’s from TikTok last week…the ones with Tom Cruise? Many Tom Cruise fans were happy to see their favorite actor join TikTok…the social media platform. Finally, here was Tom getting with the program and sharing some of his life with adoring fans!

But was it really Tom Cruise?

It turns out that it wasn’t but a Tom Cruise “deep fake.” That’s when they use Artificial Intelligence technology to paste Tom Cruise’s face to someone else’s body. But for almost everyone… you can’t tell that it isn’t Tom Cruise! The voice...the mannerisms...the facial expressions...it all looks SO REAL!

Of course, that raises all sorts of national security concerns. What if someone does a “deep fake” not with Tom Cruise but with some a major world leader. What “Putin” declares or “Kim Jong-um” declares war on some country…but it’s only a deep fake? That could have some really disastrous results!

Now while the technology is new, the dangers of “deep fakes” is as old as the hills. Jesus even battled “deep fakes” in his own day. Not with Artificial Intelligence but when public acts of worship to God were not true worship but acts done for the eyes of people rather than God. That’s what our passage addresses today!

Remember the context… Jesus has been under assault by the religious authorities. There were three rounds of hostile questions and Jesus answered all of them to perfection. Now Jesus turns the tables on them to ask them a question about the Messiah from Psalm 110. It’s a question that they don’t even attempt to answer!

That’s where we pick up the story today. [Read Mark 12:35-44 & Pray]

TS: So what’s going on with this “the Lord said to my Lord” stuff?

Jesus’ Authority to Rebuke (vv. 35-37)

The religious leaders have been opposing Jesus and yet they really don’t realize just who it is that they have been opposing. They’ve been opposing God’s annointed Messiah…even God himself!

Now Jesus makes that case by quoting an interesting passage: Psalm 110. This is a psalm written by David and about David’s decendent—the Messiah. Many religious leader of Jesus’ day probably already agreed that this Psalm was about the Messiah. But Jesus shows that they’ve failed to understand just who this Psalm reveals the Messiah to be!

Psalm 110:1 ESV

1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

You don’t see this in Mark but it is clearer in most English translations of the OT. The LORD (small caps) said to “my Lord.” Or YAHWEH (the divine name of God) says to my Lord (Adonai). The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—YAHWEH himself—calls David’s decendent “my Lord.”

And the question is, “How can Jesus rightly do that?”

Sons were never considered greater than their fathers…even if they accomplished greater things. So if the Messiah is merely the physical “son” of David, how could David call his own descendent “my Lord.”

And here is Jesus’ implied point… unless, the Messiah is more than just a physical descendent of David! Unless, in some sense he is even greater than David himself!

Jesus is schooling the religious leaders with Psalm 110. He is telling them that the Messiah—by their very own scriptures—is clearly more than just another Davidic King. Or even the greatest Davidic king. The Messiah is Davidic King of an even greater kind! There must even be a sense in which he is God himself!

And if Jesus is that even greater King in the line of David—which we know he is—then the religions leaders have been opposing none other than God’s Messiah...and even God himself!

TS: That’s why Jesus then turns around and rebukes the religious leaders’ fake worship so authoratatively. He has the authority to do so!

Fake Worship vs. Real Worship (vv. 38-44)

Notice that in both vv. 38 and 43 Jesus invites his disciples to see what he sees. The word “beware” in v. 38 in Greek can also mean “see” or “look.” He also invites them to look at the widow in v. 41. Though they think they know what they are looking at, Jesus wants them to see things more clearly.

Particularly, Jesus wants them to see the fake worship of the Scribes and the real worship of the poor widow. Yet this would have been very difficult for the disciples to see because they lived with such high views of the Scribes within their lives. Jesus is in essence saying that their worship is fake—not real.

And there is a BIG warning there for us as well!

Here’s how I would like you to think about it… our lives are to be a window to God’s glorious work of redemption within us. In sense we want to be unseeable...like a good clean and clear window…so that only God’s work can be seen when people look at our lives.

But the problem is that sin so infects our hearts that often we rather enjoy being a little bit opaque…or even a lot opaque. And we are clever about it! We can spin things in such a way that we still look impressively pious to most if not all people while making our religious actions all about us. We use religious activities to impress people.

And sin is so rooted within us...and we so desperately need God’s grace to change us from the inside-out...that we can even turn religious practices into opaque windows that steal the focus from God and pull it onto ourselves!

And to help us see it more clearly, Jesus clearly points out the religious hypocrisy of many of the scribes as an illustration of “deep fake” worship that we must earnestly avoid!

A. An Illustration of a Worship “Deep Fake” (vv. 38-40)

1.) Deep fake worship seeks people’s praise.

Mark 12:38–39 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,

It’s pretty obvious as to what makes these guys tick—the praise of other people! They love to have people talk well of them...either to their face or even by people’s whispers about them as they pass by them.

We don’t know much about the robes that they wore. They seemed to have been worn by the well-learned. Perhaps a it was a white robe with tasstles—something indicate their status as “expert in religion.” We can’t be sure and ultimatley it doesn’t matter. Whether it is a special robe or even a special collar, the purpose of it in a very religious society was to show that they were someone exceptional.

The greetings in the markplaces were customary. "Greetings, Rabbi!” Some would probably even stand in their presence as a sign of their respect. Having that kind of status in society is always a tremendous danger for pride!

The religious leaders also got special seats in the synagogues and banquets. The special seats in the synaogues were the chairs up front that faced the congregation (much like in some churches today where the entire pastoral staff sits facing the congregation). They also always got the seats closests to the hosts where they were more accessible for conversation.

Have you ever been at a wedding with assigned seating and wondered why they stuck you in the corner? You think to yourself, “Well, I see what they think of me!” You are half-tempted to go back to the gift table and discreetly take your gift back!

But oh…the subtle or not-so-subtle ways in which we live for people’s praise at times! If we aren’t extremely honest with yourself and extraordinarily careful, that sort of recognition and honor can become the drug of a religious addict. It can feed something within our desire to get self-glory that drives us to live for the praise of people.

When I was in Bible college, I was a Teacher’s Assistant for some of that time. With that job came some status among other students…not much mind you! You are introduced by the professor to the class of younger peers as the one who would be grading much of their work. Sometimes you would even teach part of a class. You would be greeted by more people on campus. That easily can become an intoxicating kind of “one-up-manship” that must be fought against! (After you grade their first round of quizzes, any status is usually gone!)

2.) Deep fake worship uses people for personal gain.

Mark 12:40 ESV

40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Again…we don’t know exactly how they did this. Widows along with orphans were the most vulverable class of people in that day. God warns his people often in the Old Testament about the need to to help the widow and orphan. And above all don’t treat them poorly or God will discipline you severely!

Perhaps it was the good nature of a widow that the scribes could prey upon. Or perhaps they practiced shady financial practices that made unsavy widows their financial targets. (Kind of like today how many seniors become the targets of telemarketing or email scams of people who want to cheat them of their money!)

It is amazing how easy it is to guilt tender-hearted people—who love God, people, and their church—into giving to a ministry. I’ve heard a few stories of pastors guilting poor widows into giving to the ministry fund while forsaking their own needs. Television preachers who promise God’s blessing if they will give to their ministry!

While the practices change, the principle is the same. People often use other people for their personal gain while selling them the line that they are doing an eternally valuable thing for God’s kingdom! Sometimes it’s hard to spot that until many years down the road.

1 Timothy 5:24 CSB

24 Some people’s sins are obvious, preceding them to judgment, but the sins of others surface later.

3.) Deep fake worship dabbles in pretentious spirituality.

Mark 12:40 ESV

40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Does the length of a prayer really matter? On one level...NO. God doesn’t hear your prayer “better” if you pray for 4 hours than he does with a 10 minute prayer before the Lord. We don’t have a God that we have to wake up and get his attention through a lot of noise. Or… for those of you who are familiar with the story…God is NOT like the unjust judge in Jesus’ parable that needs to be nagged!

But if you are praying to the Lord for a long time out of worship and love for God…GREAT! There’s nothing inherently wrong with that!

Yet on another level...how long we pray may matter if our motive is to put on a good spiritual show for others! Whether you are praying in a group (as we did last Wednesday) or you are praying alone, pray to God. Choose words to the best of your ability for God’s ears, not people’s ears. Do it for the Lord not for man!

And we can also help each other to become that kind of real praying church by not judging other people’s prayers. Ultimately, that prayer was from their lips to God’s ears and how it struck us is really irrelevant!

Being less enamored by the wording of other people’s prayer can also create a church that is less inclined to the perils of “religious showmanship.” Just as nothing squelches the "look-at-me” spirit like refusing to give that person a platform and be their audience. In the same way, nothing squelches “religious showmanship” by loving people well and refusing to be enamored by their well-crafted religious words.

And Jesus gives a stern warning about deep fake worship doesn’t he? It is so obnoxious to God that he even says a special judgment is reserved for those who do it. They will receive a greater condemnation!

B. An Illustration of Real Worship (vv. 41-44).

But then Jesus lays off the scribes and takes a break in the temple to people-watch for a while. (You’ve done that, haven’t you? Sat there in the mall waiting for your spouse?) Jesus is probably in the “court of women” where the offering boxes were. These offering boxes were called “shofar-boxes.” “Shofar” is the Hebrew word for trumpet and these offering boxes had trumpet-funnel shaped intake. You would put the offering in at the wide top end and it would funnel it down into the box.

In a world that most used coin-money, you can imagine how noisy that might have been.

I’m thinking of like when you take that old-cider jar of coins to the bank to exchange it for paper-dollars. You pour into that machine and it’s a racket! But it all funnels down into the machine and amazingly, it can count all of that an come out with a receipt that tells you how much it came to.

If you were a big giver at the temple, it could be a bit noisy! “Did you hear the clanging and crashing of that guy’s offering? Wow! What a generous giver!” But Jesus isn’t too impressed!

Finally, there is a break in the noise and a poor widow comes to give her offering. Jesus watches…and listens: “CLINK…CLINK.” Two little bitty clinks. You can tell by the sound those were two small copper coins. They together were worth 1/64 of a day’s wage. In our currency…perhaps $2-$3.

Not an impressive gift by most standards. That won’t get you commeorative plaque in the temple for that level of giving. Neither do you become a bronze or silver member.

But...boy, does it make Jesus excited! What a perfect illustration of someone who really worships! So he calls his idsciples over there (v. 43). He Invites them to look at this perfect illustration of real worship. And he boldly declares, “She put more into the offering box than did all the wealthy people!”

Jesus is not, of course, saying that she actually put in more money. She didn’t. The money from the rich donors will pay for more stuff in the temple. But Jesus is more concerned about the heart of the worshippers than he is in the savings account of the temple.

She could have given one coin. Certainly half of all her current assets would be impressive to anyone. But she didn’t give only one. Both coins went right in the offering box. This doesn’t mean that she didn’t have enough food for the day or that her bills that went unpaid.

But this was all the money she had left. So why not entrust herself and her future completely to God. It was a sacrifice...and a scary one at that! But she just chose to trust God with herself!

So Jesus holds up this widow as an example of real worship. There is nothing fake about her devotion or her sacrifice. There is nothing impure about her motives for giving what she did. It was her way of showing her love for God. A love that was with all her heart. That was with all her soul. That was with all her mind. And that was with all her strength.

There were countless ways she could have justified not giving. “God cares about the poor and especially about widows.” Or “God wouldn’t ask me to make this level of a sacrifice—my last three bucks!” But she didn’t do that! She loved God with her entire being so she trusted God with her very life!

That’s real worship: Real worship is loving God with our entire being so that we trust God with our entire life.

Do you have that kind of love for God? That kind of worship for God The kind that says, “I’ll trust you, Lord, no matter what I face? Whether poverty or riches? Whether married or single forever? Whether cancer-free or cancer-plagued? Whether successful or unsuccessful?”

This poor widow perfectly illustrated Jesus’ call to love the Lord your God with your entire being. She was the perfect contrast to the scribes and religious leaders—a great many of which were into deep fake worship!

Conclusion

When Christ came, he didn’t come to start another religion. As a matter of fact, he came to set us free from the sort of deep fake worship that dominates the field of much that we call “religion.”

Jesus wants to redeem you deep fake forms of worship. Don’t let a fear of people’s disapproval or the love of people’s praise pull you into deep fake worship. Instead, love God with your entire being.

So ask yourself, “I am giving into a fake or false form or worship?” Or in the words of the apostle Paul, “Are you offering your body as a living sacrifice—holy and acceptable to God?” Real worship calls us to love God with our entire being!