True Greatness
Mark 12:35-44
The Disney movie The Lion King tells the story of a king’s ascent. From the moment the movie begins, Simba is branded as the heir to the throne. He is designated to the office at the start of the movie by Rafiki, who lifts up Simba before the animals of the kingdom as they bow before him. He is the future king.
The rest of the story describes Simba’s exile and his homecoming to Pride Rock. When Simba returns to Pride Rock, he has to fight for the throne, which has been seized by his uncle Scar. Spoiler alert, if you haven’t seen The Lion King (and why haven’t you seen The Lion King?) Simba conquers Scar and his hyenas, but even though he has been designated, appointed, and even conquered, the forces of darkness, his work remains incomplete.
At the end of the movie, immediately after the battle, an important scene occurs that is sometimes overlooked. The camera suddenly shifts to Rafiki, bringing the story full circle. Rafiki takes his staff and points Simba to Pride Rock. An old era has ended; a new one is about to begin. In order for Simba to claim his kingdom and be installed as the king, he must ascend Pride Rock, the rightful place of the ruler, to ritually demonstrate he has conquered.
Simba dramatically ascends the rock and roars. When he does, the other lions acknowledge his victory, dominion, and authority. Though Simba has been designated as the king from the start of the movie, though he has conquered in battle, he still is not installed as king until he ascends Pride Rock.
In a better way, Jesus is designated as king and Lord, clearly from the beginning of the Gospels and prophetically from the beginning of creation really. But Jesus had to be installed as king; he had to be enthroned; he had to be recognized as king; he had to ascend to the right hand of the father, sit on the throne, and receive from God the Father all dominion and authority. The Ascension is about the triumph of Jesus the king.[i]
At the end of his public ministry, Jesus traveled to Jerusalem, this time not just to celebrate the Passover or offer a sacrifice at the temple, but to lay down his life for the sinful nature of every human being who has ever, and would ever, walk this earth. After his triumphal entry, he taught the crowds and was challenged by the religious leaders for a couple of days, before he turned his attention solely to his disciples, ending his time of public ministry before going to the cross.
But before he did that, he offered one final teaching to anyone who would listen. It almost takes the form of a riddle. And it’s a critical teaching, because it has to do with who he really is as God’s messiah. Turn in your Bibles to Mark 12:35-44. We’re going to start just with Vv. 35-37.
According to Old Testament prophecy, and God’s promise to Israel’s King David, God’s messiah would be a descendant of David. That kind of naturally led the people to assume, then, that the messiah would be a king LIKE David too. That just like David led Israel’s armies and fought and defeated Israel’s enemies – mostly the Philistines but others too – so the messiah, a son of David and a king like David, would be born who would again lead Israel to victory over her enemies and a newfound freedom from now centuries of oppression, exile, and foreign rule. And just as David defeated the mighty warrior Goliath, so one of his descendants would defeat this Goliath hovering over them, oppressing them, ruling over them – not a Philistine this time but Caesar and the mighty armies of Rome.
Jesus has consistently trying to overcome that false picture of the messiah within his own disciples. Now, right before his God-ordained battle with the powers of darkness on the cross, he offers the same paradigm-shifting, perspective-changing teaching to the crowds around him too. He doesn’t teach using a parable here, as was often his style, but he does offer a kind of a riddle to get people thinking.
He starts by stating the old narrative in question form. “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?” He isn’t questioning that premise. God’s promise to David holds. Jesus IS in fact a son of David. Matthew in particular went to great pains to establish that. He’s setting them up to question the wrong assumptions they’ve made because of the truth that the Christ would be a son of David.
He then goes on to quote David himself from Psalm 110:1, emphasizing that David was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit here. This is scripture. “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” David is calling the Christ, who would be his descendant, his Lord. He then asks the question: How can the Christ be BOTH a descendant of David (and thus his son) AND ALSO David’s Lord. Jesus is challenging his hearers, and us, to wrestle with our preconceived notions of what the Christ is really all about.
Because Jesus didn’t come to establish an earthly kingdom and he didn’t come to defeat an earthly foe. He came to establish the Kingdom of God, not physically on earth yet, although that seed has been planted and will sprout when he returns, but in the hearts of his people through faith. He came inviting people to become citizens of the eternal Kingdom of God while still living on this earth as resident aliens, and then he made that citizenship transfer possible through his death on the cross and the forgiveness that he purchased for us there.
The Christ would not further the work of any human ruler, even David himself, which is what everyone around him expected. But he is the fulfillment of God’s promise to David. The battle he was about to fight would not be fought against any political power or ideology, even the pagan, Caesar-worshipping, oppressive power and ideology of Rome. He didn’t come to unseat Caesar, he came to unseat Satan.
St. Paul, in Ephesians 6:12 writes, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” His battle was not against any flesh and blood person, not even the ones who sought his death, or the one who sentenced him to death, or the ones who carried out his execution on the cross. Neither is ours, no matter how much ill will someone may carry toward us. According to Jesus, that person is your neighbor, and therefore is to be loved. His battle was against Satan and his demonic army, and so is ours.
When I wake up and realize that my citizenship is in the Kingdom of God, when I realize that I live under the authority and protection of King Jesus, I am free to engage in whatever political processes my nation’s constitution allows for WITHOUT reacting out of fear or responding in hatred. I can vote and speak out for what I think is right without descending into despair when things go a different way than I wanted. Because our battle is NOT against any politician or leader or ruler or any other human being. Our battle is against a now defeated foe who is trying to convince us that he hasn’t been defeated. But he is a lion with no teeth. He can make a lot of noise. But he has been defeated, and his final destiny is assured.
When I accept the Lordship of Christ, and begin to live in this world as a citizen of his kingdom, I reject any notion of Jesus coming to build an earthly kingdom. Nations and human governments exist to restrain evil. They do not exist to build or become the kingdom of God. This week a large and influential church in our area held a “Kingdom over Empire” prayer meeting on election night. It was a way of reminding all of us that no matter what happened, whether it was what you wanted or not, we do not place our faith in the government of any nation or empire. The Kingdom of God to which we belong will carry on and march forward regardless. Because we do not force others to join in. We invite, and we offer an alternative way of being and living in the midst of the turmoil.
And that way of living and being doesn’t look anything like the normal way of living and being in this world. Look at Vv. 38-40. Jesus has been going toe-to-toe with scribes all week to this point. One, it was pointed out, was very close to the kingdom of God. Most were not. They were trying to get Jesus to say something to incriminate himself. A scribe was someone who made copies of the Jewish scriptures, what we know as the Old Testament. They were highly educated and because they were intimately familiar with the scriptures, they also instructed people in them.
In Jewish culture, they were revered, almost venerated. They commanded unbound respect and awe. Because they knew and taught Scripture, their words were viewed as possessing a kind of sovereign authority. When a scribe walked by, people rose respectfully. Only tradesmen who were actively working at the moment were exempt from this. People wanted them, and their pupils, at their feasts and dinner banquets, and reserved the seats of highest honor for them. And, to set themselves apart, the wore long flowing white robes with a long fringe. It was a mark of distinction.
Hence Jesus’ own disciples arguing over who would have the seats of highest honor at his table when his kingdom was established. Jesus spent most of his time with them trying to help them overcome preconceived notions of what the Christ would do and what honor and prestige looked like in God’s kingdom.
Jesus tells us to beware of spiritual leaders who seek only greatness and notoriety. Those who claim to speak for God while seeking power and the applause of people are not to be trusted. Many come claiming to speak for God. In the New Testament, discernment as to whether God is actually speaking through someone is always done in community. Luke, in Acts 17, tells us that when St. Paul himself went to Berea to tell the people there about Jesus, “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (V. 11). They listened to what he said, and then they went back to the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was the truth. No one was ever permitted to claim to speak for God without being examined and having their words tested by Scripture. Legitimate teachers humbly allow themselves to be tested. They do not insist on being accepted and revered in an unquestioning way.
In the case of these scribes, it was their words and their actions. They wanted the recognition. They wanted the acclaim. They wanted the status. As followers of Christ, we don’t pursue status or acclaim. We pursue Jesus.
And as citizens of the Kingdom of God, we pursue a different kind of significance. Look at Vv. 41-44. Jesus is now with just his disciples, and he’s sitting across from the offering boxes at the temple. Many wealthy people came by and made a show of putting large sums of money in. And then along came a poor widow. She was just about as low as you could get in the social structure without being a leper. Her husband, who in that culture was her means of support, was gone, and clearly she either had no children to take care of her or they weren’t doing their job.
And she shuffled up and dropped two small coins in. They were the two smallest Greek coins, the two smallest copper coins in circulation in Palestine, and together they added up to what we would consider a Roman penny. It was nothing. Nothing at all compared to the sizeable gifts the wealthy people were dropping in. But Jesus uses her to hammer home his point – true greatness, greatness in the Kingdom of God, is measured differently.
Pastor and author Eugene Peterson said this: “The culture conditions us to approach people and situations as journalists do: see the big, exploit the crisis, edit and abridge the commonplace, interview the glamorous. The Scriptures and our best pastoral traditions train us in a different approach: notice the small, persevere in the commonplace, appreciate the obscure.”[ii]
I want you to notice that Jesus DOES NOT criticize the gifts of the wealthy. He honors the gift of the poor woman. Why? Because they gave out of abundance. They gave a lot, because they had a lot, and that was fine. Maybe do it without drawing attention to it, but otherwise, it was fine. But this poor widow, who had nothing, gave everything she had to live on. She sat out begging. And the two coins she managed to get that day, she dropped gave as an offering to God. True greatness is seen not in the size of the gift you can give but in the size and depth of your devotion. Her devotion was wholehearted. The others gave, and likely wouldn’t feel it. She gave all that she had.
The Salvation Army receives some strange items in its red kettles during the Christmas season. Lieutenant Michael Harper, commander of the Cambridge Salvation Army in Boston said, “In addition to money, I’ve seen watch batteries, paper clips, safety pins, all sorts of strange things, but this one takes the cake.” The gift was a diamond engagement ring given by a widow in honor of her late husband. The charity says the anonymous benefactor placed the diamond ring – valued at $1,850 – and her wedding band in one of the kettles placed outside Boston’s North Station.
The rings were donated along with a note honoring the benefactor’s late husband: “I’ve dropped my wedding ring in your Red Kettle knowing that the money from its sale will buy toys for needy children,” the woman wrote. “In all seasons, my husband was a giver. I especially remember his joy in giving at Christmastime, especially to those in need. To honor his memory, I donate this ring.” The rings sold a few days later for an astonishing $21,000, eleven times their appraised value.
The anonymous donor did give some clue to part of her motivation, writing a short proverb at the bottom of her note: “To find out what a man is worth, take away his money and his possessions.”[iii]
As followers of Christ, we are citizens of the kingdom of God. As such, we refuse to put our ultimate trust in kings and presidents and empires and put our faith in Christ, accepting his lordship, and his alone. We reject the pursuit of status and accept humility. And we embrace wholehearted devotion to Christ, because it is in that wholehearted devotion, giving him every part of everything that we have and are, that true greatness is found. Let us pray.
[i] Patrick Schreiner, The Ascension of Christ (Lexham Press, 2020), p 74-75
[ii] Eugene H. Peterson in Leadership Journal (Winter 1986). Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 11.
[iii] Kiera Blessing, “Widow drops wedding rings, note in Salvation Army kettle,” Boston Globe (12-8-14)
