November 11, 2012
© 2012
I.
The pilgrimage I took to Rome in 2004 with Pittsburgh Seminary centered
around the spiritual leadership of Benedict and Francis. I believe God showed
me that though I was more comfortable with a laid back style like Francis, I
needed to grow in being more assertive like Benedict. As valuable as that was,
I also experienced uneasy ambivalence in Rome.
A.
During one afternoon’s free time a few of us wandered through Chiesa del Gesù, the home church of
the Jesuits in Rome. The altar was an open table with a glass case under it.
Inside the glass case were three skulls and an assortment of bones. These were
the relics of Jesuit martyrs who had been killed by Protestants.
B.
I was used to the stories of
Roman Catholic church authorities martyring Protestants, and seeing the stories
portrayed the other way was unsettling. The Vatican Museum has a gallery devoted
to the “religious wars.” One large painting shows Dutch Protestant farmers
lynching Franciscan monks from the rafters of a barn. The farmers were
portrayed as clownish charactures and the monks as devoutly praying while they
awaited their fate.
C.
The residence where we stayed
was just a few minute walk from St. Peter’s Bascillica where I did some
leisurely exploring. The art is magnificent. The biblical and historical
symbolism is profound. As a “Temple,” it can both draw to and distract from the
glory of God. As much as I appreciated the grandeur St. Peter’s, I couldn’t avoid the realization that its construction was
funded in the sixteenth century by the selling of indulgences that prompted Martin
Luther to start the Protestant Reformation. Church leaders at the time piled on
the guilt to induce people to give so they could build what often poor donors
would never see.
II.
In Mark’s Gospel, we are
looking at Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple during Holy Week, through the lens of
the Epistle to the Hebrews. As our great heavenly high priest in the earthly
Temple, Jesus exposes our cover-ups and affirms our vulnerabilities.
A.
Mark 12:37b-44 is
the culmination of Jesus’ confrontations with the leadership of the Jerusalem
Temple. His triumphal entry on Palm Sunday set the stage for driving the
merchants out of the Temple. The Temple leaders challenged his authority to do
this. In response, Jesus told the parable of the vineyard tenants who kill the
son of the owner, and the Temple leaders knew he told it against them. The Pharisees
challenged Jesus on paying taxes, and he silenced them. The Sadducees
challenged him on marriage and the resurrection, and he silenced them. Jesus
turned the lawyer’s question about the greatest commandment back on him, and
after that no one dared ask him any question. So Jesus went on the offensive
with a question about Messiah as David’s son. As Jesus embarrassed the Temple
leaders …
The
large crowd was listening to him with delight.
As he
taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes,
and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces,39and to
have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40They
devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They
will receive the greater condemnation.”
41He sat
down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the
treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42A poor
widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43Then he
called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has
put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.44For all
of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has
put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
B.
Jesus’ warned
that the Scribes were using their appearances of piety to cover up that they
devour widows’ houses. By strict tradition the Scribes who taught the Law were
not supposed to receive a salary, but many of them lived quite well off of the
voluntary contributions of their students. The teaching of many Scribes
manipulated people with guilt to make contributions that enabled them to live
with a level of luxury their students could never know. Jesus accused them, not
just of greed and false piety, but of using the appearance of piety to cover up
that they were feeding off the misfortune of even poor widows, whom the Law
said deserved extra care.
C.
We often hear the
story of the widow’s mite told by itself as a stewardship sermon. Mark
purposely wrote them together. She was the personification of the widows whose
houses were devoured by Scribes. Andy and I were talking about this passage the
other day, and he observed – I think correctly – that when Jesus sat opposite
the treasury, it was not just on the other side of the room but he sat in
opposition to the treasury. Thirteen large metal funnels received money for
specific Temple funds. None of which were prescribed in the Law of Moses. In
those days all money was metal coins – no paper bills, no checks, no debit
cards. So when wealthy people poured in large sums, it made a large noise. The
widow’s two small copper coins made at best a faint pink, pink.
III. To understand why Jesus commended the poor widow for
her foolish offering to support the Temple establishment that he had been confronting
and opposing, we recognize that as the heavenly great high priest in the
earthly Temple, Jesus exposes our cover-ups and affirms our vulnerabilities.
A.
We read in
Hebrews that the earthly Tabernacle was intended to be a reflection of the
heavenly Temple. We got a feel for that back in August when we listened to
Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the first Jerusalem Temple. But Hebrews is
clear that even at its best, it is a reflection; it is not the real thing. When
we start thinking something we have made to help us worship God is itself the
worship of God, we are in great spiritual danger. Jesus was always reminding us
not to see the outward appearances but to look for the spiritual realities in
the far reaches of the infinite God and in the deep recesses of our hearts. Jesus’
confrontations with the Temple leaders exposed the corruption beneath the
appearance of piety.
B.
Hebrews also says
that Jesus is both the priest bringing the offering into the heavenly Temple,
and he himself is also the offering. We need to be careful not to be so
literalistic that we miss the point. Several times Hebrews says that this is a
unique, unrepeatable offering. Unlike the sacrifices in the earthly Temple that
must be repeated day after day, year after year, Jesus had dealt with sin once
for all. No longer can guilt and shame be used to extract offerings. Like the
widow who gave all she had to live on, our gifts express the giving of our
total selves in joy and gratitude.
C.
Hebrews says that
when the great high priest Jesus brought himself as the final offering for sin,
he appeared in the presence of God on our behalf. The is that antithesis of hasatan in Job. Jesus is not the
prosecuting attorney, Jesus is our defense attorney. Whatever accusation we
bring against ourselves or anyone might bring against us, Jesus declares it inadmissible
because his unrepeatable sacrifice of himself has dealt with it once for all.
IV. As the heavenly great high priest in the earthly
Temple, Jesus exposes our cover-ups and affirms our vulnerabilities. Jesus does
not expose our cover-ups to embarrass or disqualify us, but to liberate us from
their tyranny. And he affirms our vulnerabilities because that opens us to receive
grace with gratitude.
A.
Most if not all
of us find that we are shedding the same cover-ups and facing the same
vulnerabilities over and over again. I know I am. That is exactly why Jesus’
sacrifice once for all is so important.
Thomas
Keating describes it in his book Intimacy
with God (Crossroad, New York, 1995,
pp. 88-89)
What is most disconcerting for souls who have been on the
journey for 20 or 30 years is that each time we make the transition from one
level to the next, we are likely to encounter the same temptations we had
before we started the journey, and we think, “I’m not getting anywhere; I’m
just the same old stick.” … In actual fact, it is not the same temptation at
all. … We are now dealing with it at a more mature level. Hence, we are capable
of making a more complete surrender of that attachment or that aversion. If the
Spirit asked us in the beginning to make a total surrender of every difficult
person or situation, nobody could do it. By leading us gradually (the way human
things work), through growth in trust and humility, we are able to make an even
deeper surrender of ourselves to God.
B.
The crowd in the
Temple listened to Jesus with delight because he openly confronted the ways the
Temple leaders oppressed them. While the Temple leaders heard Jesus as a
threat, the people heard freedom.
C.
One of my heroes
is Hudson Taylor who was a pioneer missionary to China in the 19th century. Much
to the consternation of his British counterparts, he adopted the dress and
approach of a Confucian teacher and left the British costal colonies to bring
the Gospel of Jesus inland to the people of China. He burned out rather quickly
and returned to England a broken man. As he recovered his health, he discovered
the principle he called the exchanged life. His grandson wrote about it in his
book Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret.
The writing is quaint, and I’m sure Hudson Taylor would be embarrassed to
receive such adulation, but it is powerful. The exchanged life is to give up
trying to live the Christian life and allow Jesus to live his life in me by the
Holy Spirit. When he recovered, Hudson Taylor returned to China. He worked
hard, got tired, but never again burned out. The results and path of his life
were now in Jesus’ hands. The great high priest had exposed the futility of
performance and affirmed that spiritual greatness arose from acknowledged
weakness.
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