Ten Minutes of Fame (Luke 20)

It seems that everyone is looking for their ten minutes of fame. In America, we have an absolute cult of celebrity. Many people would love their moment of media glory, where they can bask in the light of public adoration and adulation. It might seem that this desire for fame and celebrity is a new phenomena, spurred on by our relentless love of television and the Internet. But the desire for fame and public adulation is much older than modern technology. At the end of Luke 20, Jesus makes it very clear that a longing for fame was also a part of first-century life.

The scribes were in essence the lawyers of their society. They were the ones who copiously reproduced the Scriptures and knew the Word of God inside out. Their work of copying and memorization was tedious. It was not the type of job that most of us would enjoy. One would think it would take a great love of God to do the work that these men (and they were all men) were doing. But it wasn't God that the scribes loved. It was themselves. Scribes undertook the burden of their work because they wanted to be revered. They wanted the best seats at church. They wanted the fancy uniform that came with being a scribe. Scribes put up with the tedious nature of their work not for God's glory but their own.

Copying the Scriptures is no longer an act of manual labor. But we still have scribes today. There are still people who take on religious duty- even onerous religious duty- for the sake of their own glory. There are still people who make the church the arena where they can be worshipped rather than God. The example of the Scribes reminds us that we must always examine our motivations even for our most pious acts. Even when it comes to our Christian duties and service, we have to ask whose glory are we seeking? Do we want to make God look good? Or, do we want to make ourselves look good?