NOTES for Mar 12:35-44

The Savior's words about the teachers of the Torah ("scribes"), who love honor and attention while remaining, in essence, useless idlers, are often understood in a concrete historical sense, applying them precisely and only to the people to whom they were addressed. That approach is, of course, correct: if Jesus rebuked someone, He always did it quite specifically, addressing the people around Him. On the other hand, when Jesus rebuked someone, He usually had in mind a definite spiritual problem, one that is always larger than its historical context. In this case the problem was that, alongside genuine teachers, who as always were few, in the Synagogue of that time, as indeed in every other time, there were many who merely considered themselves teachers, or even were such in people's eyes, but not in God's. The main problem here came down to the eternal dilemma of spiritual life, and of life in general: to be, or to seem?

At the same time, "to seem" does not necessarily mean open hypocrisy or cynicism. Everything here is far more subtle, so subtle that even a person initially set on seeking and finding authentic spiritual life can sometimes be deceived. One of the main problems for such a person becomes the inability to be his true self, most often arising from fear. This is not ordinary fright, when a person is scared by something new, unusual, or unacceptable in someone's eyes, but that deep fear in which a person begins to fear for the self he wants to see himself as, fearing so much that for the sake of his own image he is ready even to sacrifice his real self.

Here, of course, man's fallen nature plays an enormous role. Seeing it as it really is is, at the very least, truly unpleasant, and the picture of himself that a person draws for himself becomes both the project he hopes to realize and his justification in his own eyes. Fallen man can hide behind this attractive picture of himself even from God: at the time of the fall in the Garden of Eden, man explained to God his wish to hide from Him by his nakedness, as if hinting that he only needed to put himself in order so as to appear before God in all his beauty.

Such a position is spiritually dangerous in any situation, but especially in the situation of a spiritual teacher or mentor: here it is especially important to be, not to seem. To be, however, is very difficult and by no means always advantageous, while seeming is simpler and more convenient. And one can always justify oneself by saying that, after all, we are all human, and therefore all imperfect, while I, supposedly, am doing what I can and trying for the sake of those whom God has entrusted to my care.

A person usually carefully hides from himself the fact that, in essence, there is no real care here, the care God wants, but only a profanation that destroys the spiritual life of those whom He has entrusted to the care of such a "teacher." Jesus, on the contrary, points to the main problem and danger of such "teaching," which may even please the students, but which spiritually destroys them. After all, He came to save people, not to watch them perish.