Bible Study series: Mark 12:38-40. They deserved it. In today’s Big Church Corporations, they need to hear the same thing.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
If you would like to see the original Greek, please click here:
At that link, I also offer more commentary and a Summary and Conclusion, geared towards discipleship. Scroll down to the bottom and check it out!
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Mark 12:38-40
38 In the course of his teaching, he said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law who desire to walk around in long robes and desire greetings in the marketplaces 39 and the preeminent seats in the synagogues and first seats at dinners. 40 They devour widows’ houses and pretentiously pray a long time. They shall receive a severer punishment.” (Mark 12:38-40)
Comments:
Some scholars say this one is the sixth and final controversy story.
Let’s take these three verses as a whole.
See this link for more about the teachers of the law, who are also called “scribes” in some translations:
Brief Overview of Divorce and Remarriage in New Testament
Matt. 23:1-36 expands on this denunciation, including the Pharisees. Jesus was also in Jerusalem.
He just praised one teacher of the law, but now he assesses them as a class. Widows were considered vulnerable in Israelite society: Exod. 22:22; Deut. 10:18; 24:17; 27:19; Ps. 68:5; Is. 1:23; 10:2; Jer. 22:3; Ezek. 22:7; Zech. 7:10; Mal. 3:5. How did these scribes take advantage of the widows? In their comments on v. 40, Wessel and Strauss say: (1) Since the Mishnah (collection of oral traditions finally written down in A.D. 200) forbids teachers from payment for teaching the law, they must have sponged off hospitality of people. Some of the teachers were poor; (2) the teachers of the law were using their legal knowledge to cheat widows out of their houses; (3) they took money from widows (and others) to pray long intercessory prayers.
“teaching”: It makes me wonder whether the church in the U.S. and the world get adequate teaching. In America many of the TV guys do a lot of yelling and shouting and displays of personality and shrieking and freaking and dancing and prancing. I wonder whether Jesus did any of that. I don’t think so. Yet he amazed the people with his teaching.
Let’s explore this Greek noun more thoroughly.
Renewalists need much more instruction and doctrine than they are getting. Inspirational preaching about God fulfilling their hopes and dreams is insufficient. We need to discern the signs of the times or seasons (Matt. 16:3). We live in the time or season of the worldwide web. The people are getting bombarded with strange doctrines, on youtube (and other such platforms). These youtube “teachers” know how to edit things and put in clever colors and special effects, but they have not been appointed by God. They do not know how to do even basic research. They run roughshod over basic hermeneutical (interpretational) principles. These “teachers” do not seem to realize that they will be judged more severely (Jas. 3:1) and will have to render an account of their (self-appointed) “leadership” (Heb. 13:17). If they destroy God’s temple, God will (eventually) destroy them (1 Cor. 3:17).
Further, my impression is that the main platform speakers on TV whose budgets are big enough to put them on TV every day don’t even know the basics about doctrine. They are too busy being corporate managers and even Chief Executive Officers over large churches. They are not turning over the practical side of church leadership to their elders and deacons. They do not spend hours a day—all day, every day—studying nothing but Scriptures, with good ol’ commentaries. (Maybe this one can help.) They do not spend hours a day reading up on theology and doctrine. (Maybe my website can help, a little.)
An alternative and probably better translation of Eph. 4:11 reads: “Apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teaching pastors” or “pastoral teachers,” not “pastors and teachers,” as if they are two different categories. Do we have teaching pastors or management or corporate pastors who specialize in organizational leadership? Or do we have psychology pastors? These areas should be turned over to a team. The teaching pastors should do nothing but study Scripture and should have the bulk of the teaching time on Sunday morning and in other services.
We need to change our ways and follow Scripture, or else much of the church will spiritually diminish and be swept away by strange teachings. Yes, good ol’ fashioned theology and even a little apologetics about difficult passages is what the global Church needs. They need the basics—even on Sunday morning, delivered by teaching pastors, not corporate, inspirational pastors.
“long robes”: “In the NT the term is used of angel garments (Mark 16:5), the father’s robe as patriarch in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:22), and robes of glorified saints in heaven (6:11; 7:9, 13-14; 22:14). In the LXX [Septuagint] it is commonly used of royal robes (Gen. 41:42; 49:11; 2 Chr. 15:27; 18:9) and especially priestly garments (Exod. 28:3, 4; 29:29)” (Strauss).
“first seats” and “first place”: this is an honor-and-shame society, and the teachers of the law insisted on the highest seats of honors both in the synagogues and the banquets. So many translations have “seats of honor” at synagogues and “places of honor” at banquets.
But then thud! They fall flat on their faces, when God is finished with them. They devour widows’ houses and pray long prayers. They are awful.
To apply this hypocrisy to the church world today, the hyper-prosperity teachers ruin it for everyone else. I believe in prosperity in the sense that families need an income to run the household business. Yes, households are like small businesses. They take money to operate. To get this money, a parent or parents need good jobs, to pay the bills and give some to the kingdom of God. However, the hyper-prosperity preachers take things way out of balance. It is always disheartening when I hear about preachers of the gospel who live in gigantic houses and brag about their jets. They take money from Joe Factoryworker and Jane Shopkeeper, who never live in gigantic houses or fly around in private jets. “But they will still be blessed if they give to my ministry!” God loves generosity whether they give to the hyper-prosperity ministry or not. If there was a necessary connection between giving to the hyper-prosperity ministry and accumulating wealth, then it seems that Joe Factoryworker and Jane Shopkeeper would soon be hundred-millionaires.
These out-of-balance preachers are receiving their reward down here on earth and will get very little, if any, in the eternal kingdom.
Matt. 6:19-24 connects light and darkness in the soul with accumulating and loving money.
19 Don’t store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust disfigure and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust disfigure and where thieves don’t break through nor steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
22 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is sound, your whole body shall be light. 23 If your eye is bad, your whole body is darkness. If therefore “the light” in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 No one is able to serve two masters, for either he shall hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You are unable to serve God and Mammon. (Matt. 6:19-24)
The teachers of the law had lost their way about religious duties and taking money from widows. They could do this by interpreting laws favorably for them.
One last comment in this pericope: the teachers of the law who sin publicly and socially, all the way to devouring widows’ houses, shall receive a severer judgment. Their judgment or condemnation or punishment shall be stronger or harsher than those who do not commit such sins. This indicates that there will be degrees of judgment and punishment on people who commit more egregious sins than someone who does not. Not all sins are equal on a social or horizontal level. Sins that harm people are worse than sins that do not harm anyone else.
Does this mean that private sin is not sin? Of course not! Any sin will keep everyone out of heaven. But down here on earth, sins having repercussions in society are worse than sins that do not. Isaiah was a holy man, but when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, he concluded that he was ruined (Is. 6:1-6). That’s the heavenly realm. Now let’s come back down to earth.
Hitler’s crimes were infinitely worse than a German grandmother who lived at that time and did something wrong but it was petty and private, like cussing and muttering bad things under her breath. Degrees of sin and punishment exist in biblical theology.
I like what Lane writes in his comment on v. 40: “The stern denunciation of scribal practices concludes the Marcan account of Jesus’ public ministry. The incident which follows, like the Olivet discourse, centers in teaching directed to the disciples. By terminating the public ministry with this account the evangelist [Mark] points to the sharp opposition between Jesus and the Jewish authorities which led inevitably to events recalled in the passion narrative.”
GrowApp for Mark 12:38-40
1. Have you ever been a hypocrite? How did God set you free from this sin?
2. Or if you were a victim of a hypocrite, how has God led you to forgive and move on?
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SOURCES
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