Bible Study with Danelle

Jesus is not afraid to call out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of that time as we have already seen. As we continue through Mark’s account of passion week, Jesus continues to teach in the temple, and the leaders continue to test Him and build their case for blasphemy.

Jesus asks who the Messiah is. He explains to them, using David’s own writing, that David knew the Messiah would not just be from his lineage, his son. David knew that this person would be Lord. Would be God in human form.

As He continues to teach, Jesus warns again to watch out for false teachers that make a “big show” regarding their belief in God. They make everyone think what they are doing is for the kingdom, but in reality, they are just guided by their own desires and not by the Holy Spirit.

There are several famous “pastors” that come to mind when I think about this passage. I won’t name any names, but I am sure we all know a few that lack in humbleness and walk only for their pocketbook and notoriety. It is a shame that so many are fooled because of their showmanship.

I have found the best pastors, who I have learned so much from, are the humblest men that it is obvious God is using them as a vessel to spread His Word. Our pastor in Bakersfield helped lead us to building a relationship with God that I will always be grateful for. Our current pastors live to serve others and have helped us continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus through their teaching of the Word. I pray you find a church home that has a pastor who is humble and you can easily see God using him/her as a vessel for His Word. When you have listened to that kind of pastor, you will never be the same.

As we continue in the reading, we come to the story of the Widow’s Offering. I know that this is used a lot in sermons when pastors are discussing tithing, but I think that this goes so much deeper than just what you put in the offering plate.

The widow gave everything she had to God. The last two coins that she owned. One way to look at this is that she trusted God would continue to provide for her. The amount of love, trust, devotion, dedication, and most importantly, faith the widow had was on full display.

Another way to look at this is in the context of what Jesus says next. He is about to bring judgment on the religious establishment and foretell the destruction of the temple. As pastor Jeff Stott says in this post “Jesus is not judging the widow and He is not judging the wealthy for what they gave. He is judging the religious system for abusing their authority and abusing their power in order to gain great wealth camouflaged as pure religion and worship.”

I had never heard this story from this perspective, but it makes sense.

As you go through this reading, I pray that God will speak to you and what He wants to show you in this passage.