Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is Your Faith an Act? | The Gospels | Mark 12:35–43

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

What does Jesus see when he looks at you? Are you living for God’s approval or the crowd’s applause? Have you learned how to look righteous without being transformed? In today’s episode, Patrick walks through Mark 12:35–43 to show how Jesus confronts religious performance and celebrates the quiet, costly faith of a widow who was fully known by God. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Mark 12:35–43

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. As a young man, Jesus was a construction worker. From what we know about the region, he was probably a stone mason, not a carpenter. That's because there were very few trees in the region of Nazareth, and most of the furniture and buildings in that area were cut from stone. But that's not all that we know from history.

A major earthquake happened in a city close to Nazareth called Sephora. Now, it was much larger than Nazareth and much more important than Nazareth, but what really set it apart from Nazareth was that it was a Greek-style city. That meant that many Gentiles lived there. They spoke Greek way more than they spoke Aramaic, which would have been Jesus' first language. They had a gymnasium there, like most Greek cities for exercise and learning, and they also had a Greek-style theater to watch Greek plays. Now, after this earthquake, Sephora was destroyed, and so that meant that many Jewish men in the region with Jewish. Jesus's skills, they were construction workers, stone masons, they actually went to Sephora's to help with the rebuilding. And that was probably a reliable source of work for many years for Jesus.

So it's quite likely that Jesus actually learned Greek and became familiar with Greek culture during his time as a construction worker in Sephora. The reason we know, almost for certain that Jesus was familiar with Greek theater, actually comes from the Gospel of Matthew. In the sermon on the Mount, he warns people against being hypocrites. Now that word, hypocrite, has a straightforward meaning in our culture, people who say one thing but do another, or maybe those who pretend to be one kind of person but in reality or something else altogether. What you probably don't realize is that hypocrite is actually a Greek word, and it's the Greek word for actor. And in Greek plays, actors would wear elaborate masks to

represent their characters. So here's what's super interesting. Jesus was the first person in recorded history to use the Greek word hypocrite, not to refer to actors on stage, but actors in real life, people who put on masks and act like they're one thing, but in reality, there's something else. So where did Jesus hear about hypocrites or actors? Where did Jesus see them and begin to think, huh, isn't that how many people behave in real life? Don't so many of us wear masks? Don't so many of us fake? Well, all of that probably happened in Sephora. But, but But Sephora wouldn't be the last place that Jesus saw people acting and performing, being hypocrites. And Jesus' view the tragic reality was that the best fakers in the world were to be found not in the Greek theaters, but in Jerusalem itself.

We'll pick up in Mark 1238. As he taught, Jesus said, watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. and they have the most important seats in the synagogue and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely. Everyone saw the teachers of the law, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They saw their flowing robes of many colors, their golden rings and golden chains,

their elaborate hats and ornamented sleeves. In that culture, someone's wealth was a symbol of God's faith. So clearly these men with their long prayers and profound teaching and fancy clothes, well, they've earned God's special favor. This is why people treated them with deference. They gave them, as Jesus said, the most important seats in the house, the places of honor. Who are they to challenge the Lord's anointed ones? But Jesus doesn't see what most people see. He doesn't see the Pharisees or the Sadducees as great teachers favored by God.

He sees them as actors. he sees hypocrites. He sees people who give the appearance of righteousness, not to please God, but to please people, to make themselves wealthy, influential, or powerful. What does Jesus see when he sees you? When he sees me?

I can promise you that it's not what you're projecting to the world. He sees through it all. The truth is that we all have a version of ourselves that we show in public, a version that we want people to believe, is real and that version of ourselves is almost always more upright more righteous more good more likable more positive more moral more trustworthy than we really are and why do we do that well so that people will think highly of us so that people will like us so that we can experience more success in the future

or grow our influence or expand our wealth but it's all an act jesus looks at our false self-projections And he speaks a hard truth. Stop the acting. Stop the hypocrisy. Stop pretending to be something you aren't. If you don't, then you may receive the reward that you want, favor and influence with men and women. But you'll miss out on the thing that you need

to be truly seen and known and loved by your heavenly father. To be known for who you really are and to truly experience his favor, him looking upon you and saying, in Christ, you are my beloved son, my beloved daughter, with whom I'm well pleased. This is precisely what happens next in Mark's story. Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, Jesus said,

Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything all she had to live on. The poor widow is not projecting. She's not acting. Anyone who looks on her knows what she is, who she is. There's no bluster, there's no faking,

there's no self-presentation. She's just a poor, humble woman with nothing to live on. She wasn't impressive. She wasn't influential. Not any of the things the teachers of the law or even we want. And yet, despite having nothing, she turns out to have everything. Because when she puts her life savings into the temple offering and it's just a few cents, her creator looks on her with, delight. She left that temple known and seen by God in a way that the teachers of the law did not. In a sense, Jesus is inviting us to return to Eden, where Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed. He wants us to set aside our masks. He wants us to set aside our desires to be praised by people or seen a certain way. He wants us to set aside the act and come before him as we really are, humble, poor, needy, and wanting nothing more than to know him.

So which life will you choose? The life of the wealthy teacher who had all the respect in the world but knew not God? Or the life of the poor widow who was overlooked in this world but known by God? Choose wisely because one path is the path to death and the other to eternal life.