The Show Is Over
Text: Mark 12:38-44
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
The
word hypocrite comes from an ancient Greek word that means, “play-acting.” It was a word that was used of stage actors,
those who performed on stage in front of others.
Now,
as you already know, stage actors are one way in real life, but on stage are
completely different. That is how it
goes with hypocrites as well: acting in front of others, while being a
different person in real life.
In
today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus has some pretty harsh words for hypocrites. He actually reserves His hardest condemnation
for them because hypocrites should know better.
That is to say, in order to be a hypocrite, you need to know how to play
the part. To be a hypocrite involves
knowing how to fool others so that one can successfully cover up the real
person with polished and respectful acting.
This means that no one becomes a hypocrite by accident, but is something
done deliberately.
The
sad reality is that hypocrisy demands that a person lives two lives. For example: a life in the church and a life
at work; or a life at work and a life at home; or a life on social media and a
life offline. Basically hypocrisy
happens when there is a double life: one before the public eye and another in
private.
Now,
if the two lives of a hypocrite are left unchecked, hypocrites can wear down
their consciences to nothing and the dividing line between acting and real life
can erode away to nothing.
“As
a chameleon changes colors with the seasons, so the Christian who wants to be
well thought of by everyone [by playing the part of a hypocrite], attunes and
adapts to each new personality and situation.
Without a stable and enduring self-image, a woman may offer radically
different aspects of herself to different men; she may be pious with her pastor
and seductive with the office manager.
Depending upon company and circumstances, a man may be either a
sweet-talking servant of God or a foulmouthed, bottom-pinching boor.”[1]
There
is no doubt about it that the world is full of hypocrites. More specifically and a bit closer to home, “As
Christians, individuals and whole congregations, we are often accused of
hypocrisy, of failing to live up to what we believe. It’s painful, to be accused of hypocrisy [as
Christians], to be accused of not walking the walk, of being a sham. It’s painful, especially because it’s too
often true. The people in the pews and
the man behind the pulpit are all in some respect hypocrites, every last man,
woman, and child”[2]
This
ongoing battle with hypocrisy leads all of us to fluctuating between our real
self and the person we pretend to be. If
not careful, we can become deluded and develop a sense of security from our
hypocritical self; the part of us that is putting on a good show, or at least
trying to put on a good show. Our halo
can get too tight, as our carefully disguised pious and polished attitudes of
superiority come forth and take center stage.
When
our hypocritical acting becomes front and center, something else tragically happens. What happens is that in public life and in
front of others, we appear respectful, good, and true, while underneath the
play-acting - the façade - wickedness runs rampant. These tactics conceal sin, destroy reality,
hurt others, and damn us while we are attempting to say, “Everything will be
alright!”
This
is exactly what Jesus condemns in our Gospel Reading from this morning. The religious leaders were responsible to
teach the people but they “used their knowledge of the legal system to obtain
the property of widows. They used their
positions of trust and authority to prey on the helpless.
Their status and prestige were false fronts for predatory behavior
behind the scenes. They lived their
whole life for themselves and no one else.”[3] They were crooked crooks who liked to walk
around with their long robs and to be greeted and adored in the market place,
while they were rotting with evil underneath their stage-acting.
In
our Gospel reading we also read that Jesus, apparently exhausted by his own frustrated
passion, sits down across from the treasury and looks at the scene over which He
has just pronounced judgment. He sees many rich people putting in large sums,
but his eye fastens only on a poor widow who puts in two copper coins. It is
possible that this woman was one of the victims of the hypocrites that Jesus
condemned. Regardless though, Jesus
calls his disciples and says to them,
Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.
In
contrast to the hypocrites, Jesus focuses on this one woman and her actions. The woman placing two cooper coins into the
treasury – giving all that she had – stands in stark contrast to the religious
leaders, thus her actions condemn the religious leaders and all of us here
today.
You see, “the poor widow who cast two small copper coins into the temple treasury may have just as well cast two large stone tablets onto our heads. Given the choice between her nonverbal sermon and a tongue-lashing from Moses’ [Ten Commandments], I’m not sure which I’d choose. Neither one of them leaves me unscathed, nor you either. The effect is the same. Both brand the word guilty on the skin that thinly veils our self-seeking, self-preserving, attention-loving hearts.”[4]
Indeed,
the poor woman who gave everything she had exposes my hypocrisy and yours
too. Her actions condemn those who stand
idly by and do not assist her and her actions.
Furthermore, her actions are not hypocritical; it isn’t like she is
parading around with flashy show and only giving a small portion. No, she offers her whole life at that
offering box and we stand in awe, condemned.
In other words, her actions do not really urge us to give more, but
reveals to us that the best of our works are not worth two pennies.
Thinking
about today’s Gospel story, we learn that we like to act like the polished
religious leaders, obtaining respect and adoration from others, but we do not
like actually doing what the widow did.
The Lord gives us everything – everything that we have is a gift – and
we abuse these gifts and talents putting them to use for our shameful gain,
while trying to play the part of a good ol’ Christian and an upright citizen of
Gwinner. As they say, we have the cake
and we eat it too.
May
God through His word today expose each of our hypocritical tactics, for we are
all hypocrites. “We can be considered
hypocrites because we are sinners. We
say one thing and do another. We say we
want to love our enemies, but we fail to do so.
We say we want to follow the Ten Commandments, but our thoughts, words
and deeds fall short. We are called by
Christ to love our neighbors, but we struggle with anger, evil thoughts, and
jealousy.”[5]
And
so, the Lord is constantly trying to remove our masks, to rip us off of the
stage of performance, and to destroy this hypocritical self that we create for
ourselves.
Hypocrisy
- whether we know it or not - is actually prison and we have grown accustom to
prison. Regardless, hypocrisy needs to
be destroyed and crucified.
All
of this is frightful to us, because we struggle being honest with
ourselves. We struggle confessing that
we are poor miserable sinners, and actually meaning it. However, this is exactly what the Lord does
to us when we are confronted by the Law and when we come to the Divine Service. My friends, do you realize that when you come
through the doors of this Church, the first thing that happens is that we
confess our sins before God and man?
Through our confession and absolution, we are admitting our hypocrisy,
and the hypocrisy is being crucified.
With
that said and as it was previously stated, it is terrifying to be stripped of
hypocrisy, for we are laid bare in our nothingness before God. However, do not fear, for when we accept ownership of our
powerlessness and helplessness, when we realize that we are poor widows with
nothing in our hands, when we realize that our halos are tilted, something
beautiful happens. What happens? Freedom!
To
be stripped of all our stage-acting and to stand broken and in need of grace is
a beautiful transparency. To be honest
that we are poor miserable sinners and to not pretend to be anything else, is
truly a gift. It is a gift for the
Gospel proclaims to us that we are forgiven, baptized, claimed, loved,
redeemed, and captured people unto the Lord!
Dear friends, hear this! The Lord does not despise a broken heart. He does not recoil in horror of our broken
spirit. He did not come to die for the
hypocritical you, the stage-performing you, but He came to die for the real
you, the you underneath the mask of hypocrisy.
Being
in Christ - your good, the bad, and the ugly – means that you are free. Free from peer pressure, free from
people-pleasing, and free from the bondage of human respect.
“The
tyranny of public opinion can manipulate our lives. What will the neighbors think? What will my friends think? The expectations of others can exert a subtle
but controlling pressure on our behavior.”[6] However, this is not so of you, for you are
baptized into Christ!
Blessed
Baptized Saints, you are in Christ. What
you are is who you are in the sight of the Lord. Nothing else matters.
And
who is Christ? Christ is like that widow
who offered her whole life at that offering box. He is the Holly One who offered His whole
life on the cross – for you. He is the
one who never played the role of the hypocrite, but died for hypocrites and
considered it well-worthwhile. Like the widow who gave all her wealth, the
Savior gave all of His life, for you.
Baptized
Saints, you need not pretend. You need
not cover yourself with stage-acting for the Savior did much more than merely
act. He died to forgive you and clothe
you.
You
are hidden in Christ. Who you are is what you are in your Baptism. And what you are given in your baptism is forgiveness,
life, and salvation.
You
are baptized in the name of Christ who entered the center stage of earth to
bleed, die, and resurrect – all for you!
The
peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Brennan Manning, The
Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up and Burnt Out (Multnomah Books, 2005), page unknown.
[2] David Warner, “They’re All A Bunch of Hypocrites,”
www.pastormattrichard.com/2011/12/theyre-all-bunch-of-hypocrites.html (Accessed
7 November 2015).
[3] James Batchelor, “Sermon for Third-Last Sunday in the
Church Year,” http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=434 (Accessed 6 November 2015).
[4] Chad Bird, Christ
Alone: Meditations and Sermons (Chad Bird, Copyright 2014), 110.
[5] David Warner, “They’re All A Bunch of Hypocrites.”
[6] Brennan Manning, The
Ragamuffin Gospel. Page unknown.
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