Mark 12:35-44. It’s interesting that yesterday’s reading ended with the statement that no one asked Jesus questions any more but today’s reading starts out with Jesus “answering”.  It may be that he was continuing his discussion with the particular scribe that had asked him the question about the greatest commandment.  Verse 35 says that his “answer” consisted of a question about something that the scribes had been teaching.  You might have picked up that the Jewish people of Jesus time were expecting “The One”; the Christ or Messiah.  But they were looking for him to be a political leader who would force the Roman occupiers out of their lives and resore Israel as an independent nation.  Of course that is “part” of what the  Old Testament says about the Messiah.  But it is not all.  Also they expected the Messiah to be a physical descendant of David, the second king (or third if you count God as their original king) of Israel.

By his question Jesus does not dispute the idea of the Messiah being a descendant of David but he is trying to get them to see the total picture.  Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1.  That Psalm  is about a coming day in the future of Israel when the Messiah will indeed vanquish kings who are oppressing the people of Israel.  In Psalm 110:1 we see “the LORD” talking to David’s Lord.  Notice that the first word “LORD’ is in all capitals.  In the book of Exodus Moses met God who asked him to lead the people out of Egypt.  Moses knew that the people would not want to follow him so he asked God what name to tell them when they asked who sent him.  God’s answer was, “Tell them I AM sent you”.  Again notice the all capital letters.  In ancient times Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament) was written with just consonants; no vowels, God’s response to Moses was four consonants YHWH.  They were a form of the verb “to be” and translate as “I AM”.  But God used the verb as his personal name.  In the Bible names often have meaning related to the person they name (See “What’s in a Name “).  In this case it probably points out God’s self existence.  Anyway the Jewish people were very respectful of this name and when ever they came to it in a writing they would not speak it but rather would say the word for lord or master.  Translators of the Bible into English have often followed that same pattern and use the English word “LORD” in all capitals so we can know that it is actually the word “YHWH”.  Since the Jewish people do not speak this word we aren’t really sure what vowels to put in and how to say it.  Early scholars translated it as Jehovah but more modern experts think it would be pronounced Yahweh.  Some translations of the Bible use these two translations.  In the Psalm David says that Yahweh said to his [David’s] Lord (the actual Hebrew word for lord or master, “adoni”) that he [Yahweh] would make that persons enemies a footstool for his feet.  This same Psalm is quoted more fully in the Letter to the Hebrews and that author identifies the “Lord” as Jesus (Hebrews 1:13, 2:9, 5:6).

In today’s reading Jesus doesn’t go down that path because he is trying to get the scribe, he people, and the other leaders to take the first step and see that the Messiah is more than just some descendant of David who is a political leader, an idea which was certainly contained in the Old Testament but which they were missing (Isaiah 52-53 for instance make it clear that the coming one would suffer and die for the people).  So his question is, “Why did David refer to one of his descendants as his lord?”  It would be almost unheard of for an man in ancient Israel to identify a descendant that way and probably never one who was a distant descendant; many generations down the road.  Of course the answer is in the person of Jesus.  He is a physical descendant of David (Matthew 1:1-17) but he is also the Son of God; not a son of God but the son of God.  In John 10:30 Jesus told the religious leaders that he and God were “one”.  The leaders immediately took up stones because they understood that he was claiming equality with God (John 10:31).

Jesus response was to ask them for which of his “good works” they were going to kill him and they affirmed that they were going to kill him for claiming to be God.  Certain scholars who do not personally believe that Jeus was God in human flesh point out that Jesus didn’t push the issue in his response but really he did.  By bringing up the works that he was doing he was pointing to the evidence.  The things that Jesus had been doing clearly were from God; they were beyond any human capability.  Jesus was clearly saying, “If God is behind my actions you can believe he is behind my words too.”  In the book of John the actions of Jesus, his miracles, are usually called “signs” because that is John’s goal, to point to who Jesus is and to get people to move toward him.  So here in Mark Jesus is pointing out that the Messiah was in some way superior to David.

In John 8:58 Jesus used the Greek verb for “to be” in a form similar to the form of the Hebrew verb “to be” that God used with Moses.  Jesus told the leaders that before Abraham was born “I AM”.  It was in a discussion in which Jesus told the leaders that Abraham was looking forward to the time when Jesus would fulfill his destiny.  They challenged that he knew anything about Abraham’s feelings and Jesus informed them that he actually had met Abraham (who lived about 1800 years before Jesus).  When the Jesus leaders pointed out that Jesus was too young for that he made the statement that “before Abraham was born “I AM””.  Not I was but “I AM”.

That is how the chosen one is superior to David, because he is Yahweh.  Although Jesus clearly identifies someone that he calls “the Father” as God (The God of the Jews or Yahweh, John 8:54) he is claiming to be Yahweh himself.  This is part of the Christian idea of the trinity (or tri-unity as some bible scholars like to call it) where one God (Yahweh) exists as three distinct persons at the same time.  It is a mysterious concept to many but it is what the Bible teaches about God.  The people loved the teaching, the next part of the reading probably gives a hint as to why.

In verses 38-40 Jesus warns the people to look out for the scribes who like to make a big deal out of their position as religious leaders.  But it is all show because the rest of their actions show that they are just using people for their own advantage.  With his answer to the scribe about the greatest commandment Jesus had linked loving god with how we treat others, now here we learn that the scribes who made a big show of “loving” God were abusing people.  I’m sure the people knew this about the leaders and so it would have been cool to see Jesus baffling them with his teaching; they weren’t so smart after all.

Jesus didn’t just point out bad behavior though he also gave constructive input.   The next thing Mark has Jesus do is sit down and watch people putting money in the pot or plate or whatever at the Temple.  Many rich people were putting in large amounts of money we are told.  Clearly they were not being quiet about it  (See Matthew 6 where others were praying loudly to get attention too).  Jesus then saw a woman put in one penny and he told his students that she had contributed more that all the others combined.  Why?  Because they had pt in extra money that they had and she had put in “all she had to live on” (Luke 20:4).  The contrast here is that if we love God we need to love people.  Rather than taking advantage of other for our own comfort and honor we need to serve other with all that we have, or as Jesus put it we need to love others as we love ourselves.  Now some people think that some people don’t really love themselves very much, they have “low self esteem”.  Years ago there was a radio station, KYMS, and they had little commercials for God, mini-sermons less than a minute.  One was about suicide and the point that they made was that people didn’t commit suicide because they hated themselves but because they actually loved themselves so much that they were above living a  life of trouble and pain. In Ephesians 5:29 Paul tells us that “no one ever hated his own flesh but feeds it.”   We need to give as much attention to taking care of others as we do to taking care of ourselves, that is the second greatest commandment and it shows that we really do love God.  God loves people and we need to do the same (see James 1:27).

Thank you for giving your life for me.  Help me give my life for others.  Let me “visit widows and orphans in their distress”.  Let me use the things you have given me for the benefit of others.  Help me love others as much as I love myself.  Help me feed others as much as I feed myself.  Help me be giving.  Do I love Jesus?  Yes I do, help it show in my life.