Selfish Leaders

Bryan Schneider

November 18, 2023

Mark 12:38-44

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One of the big dangers that the Church faces today is bad pastors and selfish leaders. We must beware of those who want respect because of the clothes they…

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Jesus warns against religious leaders who use clothing, titles, public honor, prominent seats, and impressive prayers to magnify themselves rather than God.
The scribes' pride becomes predatory when they exploit widows whose property they were entrusted to protect; religious appearance cannot conceal this abuse from Christ.
Modern prosperity preaching and manipulative fundraising repeat the same sin when leaders pressure vulnerable people in order to enlarge their own wealth or ministry kingdom.
The poor widow's two small coins display quiet faith: Christ values the heart that trusts God, not the public size of a gift.
The passage must not be turned into another guilt-driven demand to give until destitute; Christian giving is freely decided before God, not extracted by compulsion.
Jesus is the opposite of a selfish shepherd: he humbles himself, serves his people, and gives his own blood for their redemption.

Mark 12:38-44 contrasts self-exalting scribes with a poor widow. The scribes seek honor and use religion to cover exploitation, while Jesus sees a gift almost everyone else would overlook. The widow's offering is praised as faith, not supplied as a tool for coercive fundraising. Christian giving is voluntary and cheerful. Above both scenes stands Jesus, the Good Shepherd who does not devour his people but humbles himself and gives his blood to redeem them.

Biblical Themes

God's judgment of corrupt shepherds
Humility in spiritual leadership
Protection of widows and vulnerable people
God's knowledge of hidden motives
Faith expressed through free giving
Christ's self-giving shepherdhood

Scripture Connections

Ezekiel 34:1-16 — God condemns shepherds who feed themselves rather than the flock and promises to shepherd his people himself.
Matthew 6:1-6 — Jesus warns against giving and praying for human praise rather than the Father's approval.
2 Corinthians 9:7 — Each believer gives as decided in the heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.
Philippians 2:5-8 — Christ refuses self-exaltation, takes a servant's form, and humbles himself to death.
Mark 10:42-45 — Christian greatness is service, following the Son of Man who gives his life as a ransom for many.
1 Peter 5:1-4 — Elders shepherd willingly and eagerly without greed or domination under the Chief Shepherd.

Practical Applications

Evaluate teachers by doctrine, character, accountability, and care for people rather than charisma, clothes, titles, or audience size.
Report and confront financial manipulation by church leaders instead of excusing it as ministry technique.
Check on elderly and vulnerable people who may be targeted by religious or commercial scams.
Decide gifts prayerfully and freely without promises of material return or pressure to impoverish yourself.
When exercising authority, imitate Jesus by serving, protecting, and giving rather than demanding recognition.

Historical Context

Scribes possessed rare literacy and legal expertise and could be entrusted with estates, including those of widows. Public conventions gave them visible honor in marketplaces, synagogues, and feasts. In the temple's Court of the Women, trumpet-shaped receptacles received required and freewill gifts. The widow's tiny copper coins represented only minutes of a laborer's wage, yet Jesus measures her gift by faith and sacrifice rather than public amount.

Westminster Standards

Westminster Confession of Faith 16.2
These good works, done in obedience to Gods Commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith: and, by them, Beleevers manifest their thankfulnesse, strengthen their assurance, edifie their Brethren, adorn the profession of the Gospel, stop the mouthes of the adversaries, and glorifie God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto; that, having their fruit unto holinesse, they may have the end, eternall life.
Connection to the sermon: The widow's gift is valuable as fruit of living faith and thankfulness, not as a payment extracted by a leader or a work that purchases favor.
Westminster Larger Catechism 135
The duties required in the sixth Commandement, are, all carefull studies, and lawfull endeavours to preserve the life of our selves and others; by resisting all thoughts, and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practises, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any; by just defense thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietnesse of minde, chearfullnesse of spirit, a sober use of meat, drink, physick, sleep, labour, and recreations; by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meeknesse, gentlenesse, kindnesse, peaceable, milde, and courteous speeches and behaviour, forbearance, readinesse to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and succouring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent.
Connection to the sermon: Rather than devour widows' resources, leaders and members owe compassionate help, protection, and support to the distressed and vulnerable.
Westminster Shorter Catechism 64
The fifth Commandement requireth the preserving the honour, and performing the duties, belonging to every one in their severall places and relations, as Superiours, Inferiours, or Equals.
Connection to the sermon: Spiritual office brings duties of care rather than entitlement to honor; this exposes the scribes' misuse of their place and directs Christian leaders toward faithful service.

This transcript is provided to make the message easier to revisit. Minor transcription errors may remain.

Scripture Reading

Will you open in your Bibles with me to the book of Mark? Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12, and we'll read verse 38 through the end of the chapter. Mark chapter 12, beginning at verse 38. If you're using the New King James Pew Bible, you'll find that on page 897. Mark chapter 12. Beginning at verse 38.

Brothers and sisters, once again, this is God's perfect and holy word. Then He said to them in His teaching, Beware of the scribes. who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.

Now, Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury, and many who are rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make quandrins. So he called his disciples to himself and said, Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury. For they all put in out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Lord, we thank You so much for the teaching of Jesus Christ and the preservation of Your Word. We thank You that it is accurate and historically objectively true. I pray now, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts in such a way that it would become alive in us. Lord, please give us hearts to understand it and believe it. We need your Spirit to do this work, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to be honest with you.

Sermon

This is a passage that I have been somewhat scared to preach. As I translated this passage and thought about some of the implications of this passage, it is a passage that can be scary for a pastor, if they're honest with themselves, to have to preach. Because the closest thing we have to a scribe in the church today is a person who knows Greek or Hebrew and has to stand up here and give you the sense of the text. The passage we have here is a woe is a condemnation to the scribes who would come and test Jesus, who handle God's Word, who know God's Word, and yet have no love for God's people, but instead have a love for themselves.

And so the title of the sermon might be, you know, I don't even know what I titled it a few months ago when I put it down, something like selfish leaders or something like that. You might as well just title it, bad pastors. You can label it health, wealth, and prosperity. Preachers, I don't know what you want to label it, but we're going to get into some stuff today that might be controversial. But Jesus says it, and it's enough for us to lean in and pay attention to it. So what does Jesus say? He says to them in verse 38, Beware of the scribes. Watch out. Look out for these guys. These are the type of guys who you need to be careful of.

The scribes are those who knew the languages. They actually knew how to read and write. This was not a skill that everybody shared in the ancient world. In the ancient world, there were many even Caesars who knew how to read, but couldn't actually write themselves. There were plenty of people who knew how to speak languages. They might even know how to speak multiple languages, but they couldn't read them, nonetheless write them.

But a scribe was someone who knew the Hebrew, and could actually read it, and write it, and speak it, and hear it. And so they were the ones who were entrusted. They were the highly educated ones. And so they were given in that society a great deal of respect, but people were a little bit concerned.

And so the Jewish custom was that a scribe, who didn't just serve religious functions, right? They sometimes operated like your family's lawyer as well. If you needed a document written up, you might go find a scribe. If you needed a will notarized, you can get a scribe to write out your will and sign it with their name, that this is truly who it's for.

These were important people in the society, but the custom of the society was you don't pay them money for their services, because that could be considered irreligious. And so often these men, though they were highly esteemed, were often very poor. unless they had become, in some instances, the caretaker of a widow's estate. So the guy knows how to work the books, the guy knows how to write the letters, the guy knows laws, and so people would entrust certain scribes with a great deal of wealth that wasn't meant for them, but they were meant to be caretakers of it.

And Jesus has something to say for these scribes, He says to them, beware of scribes who desire to go around in long robes. These are not just ordinary clothes that everybody else would wear, but this would be like if you saw somebody walking around town in a tuxedo. You would go, what is wrong with that dude? He must be going to an important event. But there are many scribes today who will still walk around with all sorts of clothes to make themselves seem important.

Rabbis at the time, if they really wanted to make it known how pious they were, at the bottom of their robes they would make their tassels long. So everyone could see just how religious they were. You want to know whether that scribe follows the law or not, just look at the bottom of his robes. Not only is his robe long, but the tassels on the bottom of his robes are long too.

It must mean he makes a lot of prayers. He says, watch out for those types of guys who will show their pride in their garments. Now again, I've got to say, this is a tough one for me. I was just talking with somebody outside. This is tough. How do I stand here in a suit and tie and tell you, watch out for the guy in fancy clothes? It's custom.

My pastor before this at Eastville used to say, if I didn't think that people would hang me for not wearing a tie, I'd take my tie off. And sometimes I think there's a great deal that we look at other people, even in evangelical traditions, and we see their pastors dressed down and we might think, oh, they don't take this seriously enough. Us Reform guys have to wear suits and ties. Sometimes even Reform preachers, I need to warn you, wear suits and ties because they want to bring attention to themselves.

Not because their desire is to bring God glory. If a man brings to you the right doctrine, brings to you the teaching of God's Word, and he loves your soul, who cares what tie or shirt he wears? Beware of the guy who wants to get your respect because of the clothes he wears.

Beware of the type of scribe who would come to you and loves greeting in the marketplaces. There's actually a Jewish custom, again, that if a scribe walked into the marketplace, people would stand up for him. I remember watching the different movies that would portray what it's like in the 1700s and the 1800s, and when a woman walked into the room, everybody would stand up. When I was in the Navy, if the captain of the ship walked into the room, everybody stood up. When the captain walked into the room, it was a sign of respect and honor. But there are scribes walking around Jesus' day who love and crave that honor.

I gotta tell you, one of the things I can't stand is mail that comes into our mailbox that has the word reverend on it. Because people use that word, even for pastors, as reverend, and they'll try to hold up a pastor in a high estate and not recognize that a pastor is nothing more than another redeemed rebel. Somebody who the Lord has gifted with teaching or public speaking, but they are not, in and of themselves, supposed to be that standard of respectableness. but the person who is pointing you toward the one who is to be revered, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Beware of any pastor who demands that you call him pastor or reverend. Beware of pastors who are filled with their pride and self-importance That they want to be known.

Actually, this is a big thing that scares me. We walk around in an evangelical, especially radio culture and online, that different people, their ministries aren't ever associated with their church. You might have to dig hard to find out what church they're even a part of because everything is such and such person's name ministry. Why? Because if their church collapses, if it folds, the guys still will go on and keep teaching somewhere. About bringing name recognition to themselves. Be careful of those who love the greetings in the marketplaces. What else does Jesus say? In verse 39, they want the best seats in the synagogues.

Again, Jewish custom for the time, right? If we wouldn't be sitting like this in a Jewish synagogue, there would be a square. And as everybody was sitting in the square, there would be a box. And in that box would contain the Torah scrolls. And the scribe sat in front of the Torah box. And so everybody, if they were going to look at the reading, what did they have to see first? The scribe sitting in front.

The best seats in the synagogues. These are the scribes who want all the attention. Not focusing the attention on God's Word, not focusing the attention on the King of Kings himself, but they want the limelight. They want the attention. They want the people to know that they are the scribe.

Our Lord Jesus Christ says, beware of those types of people. Beware of those who in their religious functions always want the congregation to look on them. Watch out for those types of pastors. Verse 39, Jesus goes on again and He says, they want not just the best places in the synagogues, but they want the best places at the feasts.

It was really normal that if you had a wedding or you had Thanksgiving meal, you didn't have Thanksgiving then, right? But whatever type of celebration meal you had, it was kind of in vogue, the thing you would do is you would invite a scribe and his family to come. And then if you really wanted to show how religious you were and how dedicated to God you were, you would give the scribe the best seat in the house. And some scribes thrived on this. They wanted those places of honor. They wanted the place of first importance. They, again, wanted all the eyes on them, whether it was a secular function or a religious function.

Jesus says, watch out for those types of religious leaders. I'm begging you, if you see that in me, I am begging you, this is why I'm saying it's so hard to preach this, right? I'm begging you, if you see that type of thing in me, come and confront me to my face. Or go tell one of the elders. We must be the type of congregation that isn't afraid to say, Pastor, I think you're becoming like this scribe. But then the worst thing happens. It's not just about them. It's not just about the limelight. It's not just about their attitude and their desire to fill their ego with self-importance. Look at what happens in verse 40.

"...who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers." They'll go and be entrusted with a widow's things and skim off the top. take more than they're supposed to. This is the same idea of what our legislature deals with on a regular basis. Financial advisors who will not try to give you the best return for your retirement, but will try to put you into funds that will pay them the most commission. There's a fiduciary trust, and one of these things that happens is the scribes would be given estates to manage for widows, and instead of benefiting the widow and prolonging her benefit, They would sponge off of that and live good lives. And they would all do it under the pretense of religion.

With their long prayers. Notice what Jesus says here. It's not that the long prayers themselves are sinful. Jesus himself, if you think, oh well this means all long prayers are sinful, just don't go read John 17 because Jesus has got a long prayer for you. It's not that the long prayers are sinful, but notice the motivation of the long prayer. who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers.

This idea of pretenses, it's just a cover-up. It's just a sham. It's not because they love the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. It's not because they want to serve God Almighty. All of that is just for outward show. Because what they really want is themselves. You know, this became a problem even in the Western world.

Saint Francis of Assisi came, and he came in the Middle Ages, and he made it a rule that he would, he came from a wealthy family, he got rid of all of his wealth, and he took a vow of poverty, and so the Franciscans would also take vows of poverty. And so, nobody was allowed to have money. Actually, there's a story one time of a Franciscan monk who was found out to have some money in his pocket, and Francis made him take that money, put it in his mouth, crawl on his hands and knees to a dung pile, and put it in the dung pile without using his hands. Well, that's fine and dandy for as long as Francis was alive, but you fast forward 50 years, and the monks aren't allowed to have money, but the abbeys allowed to have money. And if you go to Europe today and you'll find all sorts of Franciscan monasteries where bishops live high on the hog as people think they're donating to care for God's people, and what actually happens is the bishop of the abbey is getting rich and living in a marble palace. Because he didn't have to take that vow.

During the Reformation, this was one of the big things that was fought against. Be careful of those who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. But I need to warn you that that happens today. It's not just a problem that happened during Jesus' time. It's not just a problem that happened in the Middle Ages. It happens today where there's radio preachers or TV evangelists who are dressed well, they're eloquent, they have nice suits, they have big smirly, pearly white smiles. They're really, really kind of gregarious people who draw people in with their personalities.

And they will say heinous and evil things to you, like if you just sow a seed of faith. If you just give the Lord a thousand dollars, He'll bless your life. He does not want to bless you, brothers and sisters. He wants your thousand dollars. He does not want to see the kingdom of heaven expanded. He wants to see His own kingdom lifted up, and His own ego filled.

There are plenty of health, wealth, and prosperity preachers who will say all sorts of lies to you, and they will pray long prayers with all sorts of pretension, because what they really want is to devour widows' homes. And sadly, sadly, it's often the widows who are stuck at home, and that's the only preaching that they hear. And they'll send in their fortunes, bankrupt their families to their harm. The Lord has a great deal of judgment to say for those type of men.

But it's not just on the radio, it's not just on television. There are manipulative preachers who will not just say, you know, you need to sow a seed of faith, but there are pastors who will, like these are live stories, right? Guys who will be praying for the offering. The offering will come up. And there are legitimate stories of those pastors who will say, you didn't give enough.

We'll pray more and sing another song and pass the plate again. What do you think a person like that is after? Are they after the kingdom? Or are they after their own kingdom? Jesus says, these will receive greater condemnation than this. It doesn't matter what type of emotional music they might play during the offering, or the long prayers that they might make to make it seem religious. They're devouring widows' houses, and it's evil.

I remember going to my grandma's house. She was pretty frail at this age, and most of the time, her and her little studio apartment And when I got out of the Navy, I would just go visit Grandma, you know, take her grocery shopping, go eat lunch with her, you know, just go spend time with Grandma. I hadn't seen her for four years, so I just wanted to go spend time with Grandma. And I remember she'd do this weird thing where every once in a while she'd try to slip me money. And I'd think, Grandma, what are you doing? Right? And I didn't understand what she was trying to do until one day, like, I looked at her and I was like, Grandma, you know that I'm just here because I love you, right?

I just want to spend time with you and help you." And she started weeping. Because every phone call that she received was somebody who was trying to get money from her. And the people who would come and knock on her door and want to spend time with her were not the people who were wanting to just spend time with her. They saw her as a bank account that they could try to cheat and swindle. We live in a community where this happens all the time. They'll have more condemnation upon their heads because the Lord knows the cause of the widow and of the oppressed.

That's what Jesus is saying here. I don't care if that pastor stands in front of the pulpit. I don't care if they handle God's Word. I don't care if they know Hebrew. I don't care if they know Aramaic. I don't care if they know any of this. If they're the type of pastor that's all about their own aggrandizement and fleecing the widows, that is not God's shepherd. That's an Ezekiel 34 shepherd, and I won't have it.

That's what Jesus is saying here, under no certain conditions. And then, this is almost like chance. Or maybe the Lord set this up. What happens in the next verse? Now, Jesus sat opposite the treasury. Verse 41. And saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much.

Then, who comes along? Oh, it just happens to be the poor widow. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which makes a quadrant." And he calls them together, right? He gives them that lesson that we know, right? Truly, truly, I say unto you, right? All these other people gave of their riches, but she gave of her poverty.

What's a mite? I don't know. I don't have a coin that says a mite on it. So in some translations, your translation might say something like a penny. But it's actually not even very helpful. But the reality is, this is a tiny little copper coin about the size of one centimeter. And it's worth about a grown man's four to ten minutes worth of work. If somebody came in and they were going to work for four to ten minutes, you would give them one of these tiny copper coins. That's all she has.

But where Jesus is, he's in the temple. And as he's in the temple, there's the holy of holies, there's the holy places, the court of the men, and then the court of the women. Jesus is in the outer court, he's in the court of the women. And as he's there, around him, there's 13 different boxes.

They're kind of shaped like horns. They're called sofarim. And in these horns, people would cast their money. Every once in a while, once a year, if you were a guy, you needed to go to the temple, and you would pay half a shekel. That was your temple tax. You would go and pay half a shekel. And so the majority of those sofars were for the temple tax. But six of them, in the court of the women, were for free will offerings. They were for anybody, man or woman, who would come through the court of the women and would throw in whatever free will offering they had. And Jesus sees this poor widow come, And she throws in her two tiny copper coins. And Jesus says, she's given more than everybody else. The scribes see only what everybody else is able to give to them. Jesus sees the faith that she has in her gift.

Scribes today, I need to warn you, I don't know why I listen to either, you know, preachers on the radio or NPR. They both get me mad. But when I was listening to the radio with the kids on our way somewhere this week, I literally heard some of the things I'm going to tell you right now that I heard this guy say on the radio. And I'm not going to say his name because I don't even remember.

But the guy is sitting there saying, you need to tithe and go beyond your tithe until it hurts. That's a scribe, like Jesus is warning about. The type of guy who says to you, you need to keep on giving because you can't out give the Lord. Brothers and sisters, that's a pretense. where he's not looking at the two mites of the widow, but he's looking at however he can get it. And there are pastors who will read this passage, almost every commentary just takes this passage, and you can read the homiletical suggestions, the sermon suggestions, and almost every single one of them is, see, this is where you can tell your people to tithe better, to give more.

I don't think that that's what this is getting at at all. I think that's the exact opposite of what this is getting at. It's not about giving until it hurts. It's not about giving more. It's not about giving until you're absolutely destitute in all your poverty. That's not what Jesus wants. This is not meant to be turned into a tithing story or a guilt trip.

Jesus is pointing out the faith of this woman. That she has that much trust and joy in the Lord. That she comes to the Lord and she knows her daily bread comes from the King of Kings. And she's willing to put in her two mites out of a free will thank offering. It's not because she's giving it in a way that's somehow going to destitute herself.

That's not what Jesus is getting at here. He's trying to point out to them the scribes want all the money, they want all the ego, they want all the attention. But the Lord wants a faithful heart. This is exactly why some people get real squirmy with this, right? But this is exactly why when somebody asks, well, should we still tithe today? What are we supposed to do today, pastor? How much do we give today? What do we do for the offering today?

I had to point people back to 2 Corinthians 9, 7. Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. You need to decide in your own heart like this woman did. what you do. And I don't want to be a part of that conversation because it's between you and the Lord.

So Jesus points out to her, points out to his disciples as he's called them back around, this poor widow has put more than all those who have given to the treasury. Jesus sees more in her than he saw in all the scribes and all the rich people. And Jesus exalts her.

Because you see, that's how the kingdom works. The first will become last, and the last will become first. Because the Lord sees. The Lord knows. The Lord Jesus Christ loves this widow. And we remember her still today because of that. And so we look here at this story, and I need to end with this last point.

It is Jesus who does not act like these scribes. It is Jesus who did not come as a selfish leader, trying to line his own pockets or feed his own ego, but the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords humbled himself and took on human flesh, even becoming in the likeness of a man. He was born to a no-name family in a no-good place with a no-good reputation, the son of a carpenter, where people would say, can anything good come out of Nazareth? He came not to be served, but to serve so that He might be the Savior of us all.

That is the leader we follow. You don't follow some scribe. You follow Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. You follow the one who humbled Himself and gave not just the two copper coins of His poverty, but gave even every drop of His own blood so you might have eternal life. And so we worship that King of Kings. We have the faith of that widow woman because we know that our God is that good. And we serve Him and we love Him. So ignore those selfish preachers. Ignore those sinful scribes of today. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. Worship Him.

Closing Prayer

For He has loved you and will love you for eternity. He is our Good Shepherd. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that princes and kings will disappoint us, but our King of Kings, our Chief Shepherd, the Great Physician Jesus Christ will never, will never disappoint us. Lord, we pray that you would please let our hearts be filled with joy. We pray that we might fix our eyes upon our Redeemer who paid the price of our redemption with more than gold or silver, but with the cost of his precious own blood, and that we would worship you forever with joy. We pray these things in Jesus's name.

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