Luke 20:45 - 47
45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “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, 47 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/11/mark-1238-43-38-as-he-taught-jesus-said.html says:
ReplyDeleteHe didn’t warn them about thieves and prostitutes and drunkards and murderers and racists and grasping capitalists. They’d have nodded gravely at such warnings. He didn’t warn them about Gentile dogs and Roman soldiers. They’d have appreciated being reminded how wicked such people were. No doubt friendship with such men brought its own snares, but Jesus never singled out such people. He raised no warning voice against them. He confined his warning to one group alone, the religious men of the nation; “Watch out for the teachers of the law.” Who were these men? They were the scribes, the lawyers and teachers of religion. They were formalistic, worshippers of the fathers in Israel, self-righteous men. They attached such weight to the traditions of the rabbis that they practically regarded them as having more importance than the inspired writings of the Old Testament. They followed with an exacting strictness hundreds of rules and regulations which they considered to be the essence of true religion.
Why does Christ warn his disciples about them? Because all the nation considered them to be the models of religion, and Christ could see the subtle influence they might have over the Twelve apostles once fame and power became theirs in the church. The teachers of the law were impressive figures with their flowing robes and prominent seats in the synagogues and in the feasts. They could pray publicly for ages. How religious they seemed, but it was concerning these men that Jesus warned his disciples.
Jesus knew the diseases to which human nature is always liable. He knew that there would always be teachers of the law in spirit among professing Christians. Don’t I have a teacher of the law firmly ensconced here? We look at the warning of the Lord and we see that there are three areas of our lives which we need to watch:
i] Watch out for ambition.
ii] Watch out for pride.
iii] Watch out for greed.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/11/mark-1238-43-38-as-he-taught-jesus-said.html continued:
ReplyDelete3. Jealousy
The scribes could not stand to watch Jesus rise in power and influence. “The chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching” (Mark 11:18). They feared what his message might cost them — in authority, in prestige, probably even in money — not knowing that rejecting him would cost them everything. They lacked John the Baptist’s joy-filled humility to say, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
When so-called theology increases our personal drive to be known, appreciated, and promoted, rather than feeding humility, something has gone wrong. Clearly the theology that killed Jesus had someone other than Jesus at the center. The person most likely to take that place in my heart is me. We should, instead, love to see Jesus lifted up over us, whatever the cost to us (Philippians 1:12–13).
4. Dishonesty
The scribes traded away the truth to get what they really wanted. They lied to preserve their status and comfort in this life, and in doing so, betrayed the one way, truth, and life (John 14:6).
They didn’t care about the truth as much as they cared about getting their own way. If theology is going to be used to oppose Jesus, it must lie. It simply cannot last without lying — about God, about sin, about judgment, about Scripture, about salvation, about Jesus, about ourselves.
5. Greed
The scribes were driven not by godly desires for more of God, but by greedy desires for power, notoriety, and money. Beware of people who know more than anyone about God, but seem to clearly live for themselves. Maybe we don’t dress loudly, or sound a trumpet when we enter the sanctuary on Sundays, or take advantage of widows, but do the rhythms of our life suggest we’re living humbly, selflessly, and sacrificially for others? Or does it look like we’re spending most of our time, energy, and money taking care of our own needs and desires?
Truly knowing more of God makes us more concerned for others, and less concerned with ourselves.
6. Pride
The sin of all theological sins (and the sin underneath the rest) is pride — the stubborn heart that elevates me, my understanding, and my will above God.
The scribes were skeptical toward Jesus, refusing to acknowledge their own Messiah, while crowds of lesser-educated, Bible-illiterate people were rallying to him (Mark 2:2, 6). Scholars soaked in Scripture mocked the sinless centerpiece of Scripture (Mark 15:31). They refused to embrace Jesus as the Christ, and instead accused him of being the devil (Mark 3:22), doubling down in their mutiny with blasphemy. In and under every rejection of the Truth was a heart of pride.
What attitude do you bring to the word of God? Does your theological system control how you read? Have your definitions and categories become so rigid that not even the plain words of God himself can alter them? Every encounter with the Word of God in the word of God should be another humble, open-handed prayer for truth, not a pride-filled effort to prove our own perspective. Any proud theology proves itself false in some way. Truly Christian theology produces and promotes awestruck, joyful humility.
That marriage of knowledge and love produced humility in pride’s place, joy where jealousy once lived, honesty instead of hypocrisy, and faith stronger than any promise lust or greed might make. That kind of theology did not kill the Christ, but instead dies with him into everlasting life. It will not blind us to God, but unwrap and highlight more and more of his worth.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/11/mark-1238-43-38-as-he-taught-jesus-said.html continued:
ReplyDeleteMy 2 cents: Questions and findings:
1. How did the teachers of the law get this way? How do leaders avoid this?
When we see the scribes here, we see them at the end of the road they walked down. The truth is that most of us are on this same road. This happens in churches and our lives as soon as we stop emphasizing the glorification of God and start adding the glorification of what we are doing. When the church becomes the thing we do, we start to de-emphasize God. The beginning of the path starts with glorifying programs and ministries in the church and ends with becoming Pharisees / scribes. We start with good intentions. We want to glorify God through programs and volunteering (both of which are good things). But, we leave the conscious glorification of God out, and stop responding to God and what He has done for us. Small sins start creeping in, judgement starts happening, hiding and self-defense start occurring, and at this point, we are well on our way to becoming the scribes.
To prevent that, we need to stop doing all our stuff, focus on God, and then start responding to who God is and what He has done (and is doing) for us. When we become aware and our hearts swell with gratitude, we can start living as a response to Him. Doing this means that we will live in humiliation (as we consider Him), dependence, and honesty with Him and others. We will start to be looked down upon by the modern-day scribes and Pharisees and, like Jesus, we will naturally stop being impressive to others.
2. Should we give all we have to live on? Were the rich people doing anything wrong?
My opinion is that I agree with the perspective in a couple of the articles above. Jesus was not praising the widow so much as He was further condemning the system that would rob poor widows.
So, no, we should not give all we have to live on to an institution. We should definitely give all of what we are to God and be good stewards of what He has given us. That includes doing our part to support a local body and being generous in general. The rich people were not doing anything wrong, except if they were relishing the praise of the onlookers. It was a poor system because it brought worldly praise to those that could give more.
I believe the system that God designed is one that encourages us to give proportionally - to give back a portion as a thanks offering in recognition that God is the source of our life both in heaven and here.
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In the above, I said that we need to stop doing what we are doing and start responding to who God is and what He has done. That's true. However, many of the things we have been doing we will continue to do with a different motivation.
For example, let's say we are volunteering in the church's child care. If we are doing it only out of obligation to the church, we should take pause, seek God and start living in response to Him. I think in most cases, our response to God is to continue volunteering in the church's child care - but now we will be seeking the glorification of God by making God known to kids.
Making God known is a main way on how to glorify God. Losing that perspective and purpose makes all of our actions in the name of God useless, and in many cases, makes us represent God as the scribes did. The Pharisees were all about fulfilling obligations to God. If we are about fulfilling obligations to God, we become like them and lose our way. Worse, we lead others to lose their way too.
Every action coming from us should result in the glorification of God. But, this has to be a conscience state we are in, or it doesn't work. We can't just do good works with the result of God being glorified. That's what the Pharisees tried to do. We need to glorify God with the result that good works happen that glorify God. That was the mistake of the Pharisees - they put the cart before the horse and it led them to the path of hell. Do we recognize it in ourselves?
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/20-45.htm says:
ReplyDeleteThe scribes would receive the severest judgement for defrauding the poor widows, and for their abuse of religion, particularly of prayer, which they used as a pretence for carrying on worldly and wicked plans. Dissembled piety is double sin. Then let us beg of God to keep us from pride, ambition, covetousness, and every evil thing; and to teach us to seek that honour which comes from him alone.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/20-46.htm says:
According to this rule, the garments of the doctors were to be so long as to cover the whole body, even down to their heels, but were not to be any longer; and by this it appears their garments were very long; but they did not always go by this rule; some had their garments so long as to have a train after them;
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/20-47.htm says:
Josephus expressly tells us that the Pharisees had large female followings, and an absolute sway in the Gynaekonitis or women’s apartments.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-20-commentary says:
ReplyDeleteThey were the treasurers of the Law of God. They were the ones given the trust. They were experts. They were the lawyers of Israel. They handled all legal matters: Property, estates, contracts, resolutions....And every adjudication that they rendered, and every position that they took was, in fact, supposed to be a representation of God and what God willed; a stewardship, if you will, from God. Because they then were the agents of God, they carried with them tremendous weight and trust. People had nowhere else to turn because there were no others than the scribes to handle all their matters.
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J C Ryle - No sin seems to be regarded by Christ as more sinful than hypocrisy. None certainly drew forth from His lips such frequent, strong, and withering condemnation, during the whole course of His ministry. He was ever full of mercy and compassion for the chief of sinners. “Fury was not in Him” when He saw Zacchæus, the penitent thief, Matthew the Publican, Saul the persecutor, and the woman in Simon’s house. But when He saw Scribes and Pharisees wearing a mere cloak of religion, and pretending to great outward sanctity, while their hearts were full of wickedness, His righteous soul seems to have been full of indignation.
MacArthur - If you were called “rabbi,” you were so exalted that in the Talmud, Sanhedrin 88 says that “It is more punishable to act against the words of a scribe than the words of Scripture.”
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-20-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteThere is an interesting study on the kind of behavior that was going on. First, the lawyers would take money for themselves from widows although it was forbidden. Knowledge without price. That was the code of a true rabbi, certainly with regard to widows. They would disobey that and whatever wisdom they would give to widows, they would charge exorbitantly. What could a widow do? Secondly, they would cheat widows of their estate by getting into the legal machinations under the guise that they would provide legal protection, and would literally begin to "eat away" the estate. Thirdly, they would leach on them and abuse their hospitality, taking advantage of room, board, food. There are some stories about gluttony and excessive drinking, taking that from poor widows. Another way, by mismanaging the property of widows, so that out of complete carelessness a widow was absolutely made destitute. One of the popular ones was to take money from older widows with deficient mental powers, taking advantage of those who were unable to defend themselves mentally. And maybe the worst, they would accumulate debts the widow would owe them, and be unable to pay and would take the widow’s home as pledge for the debt, and thus "devour" the house. When the widow could not pay, they threw her out.