Mark 12: Motive Means Everything

So, this morning's passage, despite what it looks like on the surface, it's not really about money.

It's actually a passage about motive.

And Jesus uses this scenario that has to do with money to get us into motive.

So let's think about it this way.

Imagine next June 5th, when it's our 15th anniversary, Christian Mark's 15th anniversary.

Imagine I arrive home and I arrive home and I have a bouquet of flowers.

I get home with this bouquet of flowers and I give them to her and she says, Oh, you remembered.

That's so amazing.

You're such an amazing husband.

I love you so much.

Thank you so much.

Oh, they're my favorite flowers.

They're so amazing.

Thank you so much.

And now imagine I turn and say, Oh, honey, but you know, I have to bring you flowers on anniversary.

I have to get you these flowers.

In fact, if I didn't give you these flowers, you would never let me hear the end of it.

Now, would she feel loved?

And I don't recommend, by the way, saying this.

It's not like an example.

But would she feel loved?

No.

Would she feel adored?

No, of course not, right?

Right?

Because that sort of obligatory motive all of a sudden just ruins everything.

Like you can you can take the flowers away.

You can burn the flowers at this point.

They don't mean anything.

Now, but maybe I say in response to her, maybe I say something like, I know I didn't have to.

I wanted to.

Because I love you, I love everything you are, everything you've been, I love who you are for me and for our children.

I would marry you all over again.

Now imagine I said that.

Now all of a sudden these flowers mean even more.

Right?

Because motive.

Motive actually means everything.

And motive is always there.

It's behind the scenes, it's under the action, but it's all it's always there.

And motive reveals your heart.

Your real reason for the thing you do.

It could be a gift to a loved one.

It could be a gift to a friend.

It could be the money you give away, like in this story.

It could be the time you give away.

It could be why you dress the way you dress, or why you refuse to dress the way that maybe you should dress.

It could be why you have your child in Japanese language classes at age two, right?

It can be anything.

It could be why you do anything.

It's just the why behind the what.

It's always there, and there's really good motive, and then there's really bad motive.

But it's always there.

So we're in Mark 12, and we see the author Mark continuing to strategically lay out for us Jesus' teaching that God is concerned about the heart.

And he's using these religious experts and religious people to expose this in them, but also expose it in us as readers.

And he's forcing us over and over and over again, like all the scriptures do, he's forcing us to look inside of ourselves to our hearts.

And ask the question why do you do the things you do?

Not what do you do, but why do you do them?

Why do you do the things you do?

Let's reread the passage just to think about it a little bit.

Mark 12, 38 through 40.

And in his teaching he said, Beware of the scribes, those are those religious experts, beware of them, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers.

They will receive the greater condemnation.

So point number one is this you can be rich and you can be poor, right?

You can be poor while you're rich.

This is a point I've made before.

It sort of just keeps showing up over and over again.

It'll never go away.

Here's this guy who's rich in monetary means, even rich in position and status in society.

And yet, he so badly wants that.

He so badly wants that seat, that inner seat, that position to be seen, that inner circle.

He so badly wants it, he's actually poor.

Recently, Christy and I we were out to eat.

We finish our meal, we walk over to another table.

There's a lady eating there, and we walked over there, and Christy knows her really well, and so we walked over there, and so we start talking to her, and at the end of the conversation, she says, Uh, are you going to the party on Saturday?

And I'm just nodding along.

I have no idea what's going on, right?

So, yeah, whatever.

Okay, I'm nodding along.

And Christy says, Oh, we're not gonna be able to make it, and they keep talking, and you know, the lady says, Oh, well, you can't make it to everything, and I'm just nodding along, you know, kind of, and Chris says, Yeah, okay.

And we finish the conversation, we walk out to the car, I go, What are we not going to?

And Christy says, Oh, it's a party, we weren't invited.

Right?

Worst two words in the human language.

Do you know what they are?

Do you know what they are?

What party?

Right?

If you've ever said it, you're not in a good spot.

Even if you don't want to go, right?

You don't even have to want to go, you just want to be invited.

Right?

And then you can choose not to go.

Right?

It just always stings just a little bit.

Even if you don't want to go, it stings just a little bit because you you want the invite.

Don't it don't we all just want to be in?

Like we all want to be in, and if you're in that thing, then you hear about something else, you're like, oh, why didn't I get into that?

Why didn't I get in that?

Like, why wasn't I invited to that?

In the 1940s, C.

S.

Lewis wrote this about the inner circle.

He called it the inner ring.

The inner ring is not printed anywhere, nor is it even a formally organized secret society with officers and rules, which you would be told after you had been admitted.

You were never formally and explicitly admitted by anyone.

You discover gradually, in almost indefinable ways, that it exists and that you are outside it.

And then later, perhaps, that you are inside it.

Kind of enlightening is kind of how society works, sometimes, sadly, how churches work.

And it reveals a poverty in us that we so badly want in constantly.

It reveals poverty that we would form it and close it off.

But that we would want access so bad, right?

Like access into some circle or some perceived like elite circle, right?

That you want access maybe into some money or some, so oh, if I had access to a famous, you ever met a famous person, you just like kept mentioning it afterward?

Like, like, because we just want access so badly.

And it sort of actually reveals our poverty inside of us.

Or some exclusive place.

Like, say there was a room in the building, and I told you, I said, hey, um that room's just for platinum parishioners.

You walk by this random door in the building and you see this small little gold plate and it says platinum parishioners only, and everything in you, even if you thought it was obnoxious, maybe you even go, maybe you even go to another church, probably rightfully so.

Uh, you still want behind that door, don't you?

You still want, or you at least want the invite behind the door to see what's behind the door.

There's something in us, as soon as it's exclusive.

Oh, you oh, you can't play golf at Augusta National.

No, no, no, no.

You can't even go visit.

No, you can't go visit.

Maybe you can work your way into getting a ticket once a year.

Oh, yeah, those buildings, you can't go in those buildings.

Let me tell you, you know what those buildings are?

Buildings.

Okay, furniture inside.

But as soon as they're closed off, it's like, what's in there?

What is that?

We so badly want in.

We so badly want to be seen in some way.

And all the poverty that just rises up.

That's our hearts being revealed.

So, in a way, we can be rich and some monetary means or friendships or status.

I mean, you can even you can have all that going for you, and even then you can be poor.

But maybe you don't want in that circle.

Maybe you find all that obnoxious, it's very possible.

Good for you.

But maybe you still want to be seen a certain way.

Right?

Like you just want people's approval.

Or there's a secret pride about the fact that you don't want in the platinum parishioner's room.

Or there's just lust.

Or greed.

Or anger.

Or fear.

Right?

Heart.

And in this passage, this guy, he wants to be seen.

He's the guy who wants in the platinum parishioner's room.

He wants to be a member at Augusta National.

He'll do anything to get it.

How can I position myself is his question.

And he figures I'll get the best seat, I'll get in the right place, because if I can be seen, if I can be seen.

And it's ironic because he's on the path of condemnation.

Because that's what he'll feel like.

He'll feel condemned the entire time because he'll never have enough.

And God does not look at his position and his status and behaviors to go, oh, you're a great guy.

Look at everything you're doing.

God's looking past all that into his heart.

Paul Tripp, an author, former pastor, counselor, he asks a series of questions.

Do you, in self-focus, think what's in it for me?

Or do you freely sacrifice for the good of another without expecting a return?

Are you more concerned with and on the lookout for the sin and weakness and moral failure of others than your own?

Do you feel regularly discontent, always looking for something new to satisfy you instead of being satisfied with a God-honoring life?

Do you avoid living in intrusive and intentional relationships where others admit their need for grace and seek the help of biblical community?

Which law gets the most attention and the quickest response in your life and relationships, the word of God or your own desires?

Now that's a devastating list of questions.

I read those as we're like, whoa, okay, let's just put those to the side, let's deal with those later.

They're devastating.

But before we mope around in depression too long, let's keep reading.

Verse 41, Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box.

Many rich people put in large sums, and a poor widow came.

So here's where the contrast begins.

The teaching begins.

A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.

He called his disciples over.

So he sees a teaching moment.

He calls his disciples over and said 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 all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

So point number two is this you don't have to be seen because you're already seen.

You don't have to be seen because you're already seen.

This frees you.

This woman is free in her poverty because she knows she's already seen by God, which is actually the very thing that we're all desiring to begin with.

She's poor, but she's trusting in a God that has wealth for her.

For her righteousness, her goodness, her identity, her value, her worth.

Her house isn't perfect.

Her life isn't perfect.

She is unknown.

And yet there's this ruthless trust in a God who sees her, knows her, and loves her.

And she just gives.

Point number three, we are poor.

This is what this passage reveals.

We are poor, yet we are seen, which makes us rich.

We are poor, yet we are seen, which makes us rich.

On Tuesday, I had my monthly mentoring session with my mentor, a former pastor.

And the first thing he he asked, he said, are you okay?

Are you doing okay?

And it was sort of like a really compassionate, are you doing okay?

And I was like, I'm doing great.

I was having a great day.

I was like, I'm fine, I'm having a great day.

And he said, Oh, well, you sent me that text.

And it took me a second to like recall, like two days earlier, I sent him like the house is burning down type of text, like, oh, you know, my life is I'm questioning everything.

Like, you do this, right?

We're just so volatile.

And actually, in this little conversation, I was like, I'm to go back, I don't even remember, right?

It had only been two days.

I didn't even remember what I texted him, that was so horrible.

And so I scrolled back and I read it, and I was like, oh my gosh.

I was like, I'm so volatile.

I'm so emotionally volatile at the age of 39.

Sometimes we feel like we have everything under control.

And everything's fine.

And then all of a sudden we feel like we don't, and the world's falling apart, and we're anxious and we're fearful.

Or maybe one moment we feel incredibly loved, and then the next moment we feel incredibly lonely.

Or we feel approved and then we feel condemned.

Or we act on good motive, right?

We act on good motive, and then two hours later, you look back and you go, I don't, that email I sent, man, I thought I was doing it because of this tree's.

Man, I'm starting to.

Or two years later, you're going, oh, like, man, that whole season of my life, I see that very differently now.

Like, I thought I was being like godly.

I was actually being prideful.

Like you can start to see all sorts of things in time very differently.

We are a cocktail of motives, just a mix.

And Jesus is constantly trying to get us, prideful as we are, either it shows up in arrogance or in pity, either way, prideful as we are, to see our poverty that already exists in us.

That these motives, they're a mix, and then even sometimes when we think they're so godly, a few years later we look back and you go, ah, I don't know about that one.

But the good thing about this passage is it helps us see our motive, but then it helps us see our need of Jesus.

Because then we can see, then we can see how good and wonderfully righteous He is for us.

So at some point you've got to go, well, how do I get good motives?

Okay, like God's looking at the heart, he wants good motives.

Like, how do I get good motives?

Well, I think number one would be realize you don't have perfect motive, and you won't have perfect motive.

Let's just go ahead and live in that confession.

So, point number one, we don't and we won't have perfect motive.

And then we can't stop there.

Right away, we gotta go to number two, which is so live in confession of your sin, an astonishment of God's grace to you and his spirit in you.

And then, third, you turn your heart toward Jesus, who deems you, who sees you, and deems you as beloved.

And so, what this means is there has to be some part of your life that has some measure of contemplation.

It's a little bit what we do on Sunday morning right now.

You're contemplating, you're contemplating these things.

I'm trying to get you to contemplate these things.

But this sort of has to exist on some level on a day-to-day basis because you're getting so many messages, I'm getting so many messages through my eyes and my ears about what I should be, what I'm not.

And at some point, you have to hear and remember you've already been seen.

You've already been approved, you've already been accepted, you've already been validated on the cross.

Your sin, all the behaviors and the motives, all of it has been put upon Jesus.

All of it.

And his righteousness and his righteous motive has been given over to you.

There's some part of your life you've got to contemplate this ongoing, not just Sundays, you've got to contemplate this so you will live in it and rest in it and be freed by it.

It's just so easy to live by the voice of condemnation constantly.

Then others of us just constantly think we always need something else.

And what I'm so happy to tell you this morning is you are imperfect, broken sinners.

I am a sinner with motives that are messed up, and sometimes it's really clear how messed up they are, and sometimes they're really great, and you know what?

They stay great.

And I'm like, you know what, that's a great motive.

Then there's other times I thought it was a great motive, and years later I can realize that like that wasn't so good of a motive, right?

It's a cocktail of motives for all of us.

And yet, God fully loves you, and in Jesus you are fully righteous and approved.

You have already been seen.

And what God gives to us is his spirit, the power in us.

As this heart is changed, as it knows this scene, and being beloved by him, by gift, this causes heart transformation.

My brothers and sisters, may the beginning of your transformation of your heart be the belovedness you've already been given in Jesus.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you that our transformation is not by our work, but it is by your spirit in us that we are already the beloved.

God, we confess over to you that we know we have behaviors that are wrong, but we also have motives that are wrong.

And some of us are incredibly aware of these motives, and we confess them before you this morning.

Help us to live in a confession of every motive that is wrong when we become aware of it, and at the same time, help us to live in a confession that we are not perfect, we are sinners constantly in need of your grace, simultaneously sinners and saints.

Help us to live in the great truth, that the power of transformation comes from your righteousness upon us and our belovedness as safe and secure children of God.

We thank you for the gift of Jesus.

In his name we pray.

Amen.