Saturday, February 23, 2019

Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury


 Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?  For David himself said by the Holy Spirit:
'The LORD said to my Lord,
"Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'
"Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son?"  And the common people heard Him gladly.

Then He said to them in His teaching, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."

Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how many people put money into the treasury.  And many who were rich put in much.  Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans.  So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."

- Mark 12:35-44

Yesterday we read that one of the scribes came, and having heard Jesus and members of the religious leadership reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"  Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is:  'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.  And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'  This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."  So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher.  You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.  And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."  Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  But after that no one dared question Him.

Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?  For David himself said by the Holy Spirit:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'  Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son?"  And the common people heard Him gladly.   Jesus quotes from the first verse of Psalm 110, in order to, in turn, question those who question Him.  Perhaps we could say He's responding to the scribe to whom He has just said, "You are not far from the kingdom of God"  (see yesterday's reading, above).   But the question is a challenge to all, for He asks this question to lead His listeners, as He taught in the temple, to the only logical conclusion:  that He is God incarnate.  The expectation is that the Messiah will be purely human and possess no divinity.  Therefore the Christ is called the Son of David, indicating the Messiah's lineage is of the house of David.  But in the Psalm, as Jesus points out, David calls the Christ my Lord.  As king of Israel, David could not and would not address anyone as Lord except God.  Therefore, the Messiah is God.  The only possible conclusion, my study bible says, is that the Messiah is a descendant of David only according to the flesh, yet is also truly divine, sharing His Lordship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The first reference to the LORD is to God the Father.  Here in Mark's Gospel we are told that the common people heard Him gladly, teaching us about His appeal to the people and their delight in His challenges to the religious leaders, in the face of the general hostility to Jesus among the leadership.  No doubt the people also enjoy hearing the debate.

 Then He said to them in His teaching, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  Even as one scribe seemed to have understood Him and praised His teaching (the one in yesterday's reading, whom He said was "not far from the kingdom of God"), Jesus -- both here and in the question just raised concerning Psalm 110 -- challenges the scribes as a group.  Here He is scathing in remarking on their hypocrisy, linked to their love of social honor.

 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how many people put money into the treasury.  And many who were rich put in much.  Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans.  So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."  This story is linked to Jesus' condemnation of the hypocrisy of the scribes, just above, in which He claimed they devour widows' houses, even as for a pretense they make long prayers.  It goes straight back to all of His teachings to the disciples about how they must treat the "littlest ones," the meek and humble.   A widow, being less likely to be protected within the society would not only be vulnerable to those who can prey on her trust, but also financially dependent only upon what might belong to her, and therefore easily poor.  Even with the protections modern society generally seeks to build into care for the poor, and for all kinds of reasons, this sadly remains a scenario we are all too likely to encounter.  Jesus puts things into correct spiritual perspective by pointing out the generosity of the widows' great gift.  My study bible says that according to patristic teaching, the Lord accounts the value of a gift not by how much is given, but by how much is kept back.  Therefore, here the poor widow is counted to have given a great gift, because she has kept nothing for herself.   The Lord reads the heart when accounting for a gift.  My study bible points to the story of the conversion of Cornelius, in which we learn that God takes note of our giving (Acts 10:4).   See also Christ's encounter with the rich young man, for whom a greater detachment from possessions was a spiritual necessity.

Throughout Mark's Gospel, we receive the repeated teaching about consideration for the humble in the society and especially within the Church.  Here, Jesus goes out of His way to single out the poor widow and her great contribution for all who listen to Him in the temple.  Two mites, according to Wikipedia, would have amounted to the equivalent value of less than 15 minutes of the average daily wage, a very small sum indeed.  Yet it is very large for this woman and her capacity to purchase things for her own needs.  It is just one more occasion on which He takes great pains to point out to His disciples, and to all those who would hear Him teach, that it is their mission not to use power and authority as they see it used around them -- including by the hypocrites in the religious leadership -- but to care for the humblest among the faithful, for whom God has great regard.  Jesus' condemnation of those in leadership who do not care for the poor and powerless, but rather prey on their vulnerability, is repetition of His constant admonition to His own disciples about how they are to conduct themselves in the care of His Church and in particular the most vulnerable and meek.  His notice of the widow's donation makes it clear that this is not just a question of redistribution of wealth.  It is not a merely consideration of money that is His point here.  Jesus' point is about something more profound, and reflects His response to the scribe in yesterday's reading about the two greatest commandments.  Jesus' perspective calls us to understand first and foremost the relationship to God.  This widow isn't commended simply because she gave generously to the treasury of the temple.  She is commended because of her tremendous love of God; it is this which creates her generosity.  Her gift is an expression of the great love and generosity of her heart.  That gift is also a reflection not only of her capacity to honor the greatest and first commandment of the love of God "with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength," but also of the second, to love neighbor as oneself; for her generous gift is all about an expression of love for neighbor through giving to the community embodied in the temple.  In effect, Jesus is singling out the poor widow not simply for an act of large donation, but for the goodness of her whole being, as an example to all, but who is overlooked in the grand scheme of things.    Let us understand that if He does so in the middle of the temple while teaching all who listen, during the Passover Week, in which pilgrims come from everywhere among the Jews (including the diaspora), then this example clearly was meant never to be forgotten by His disciples and all who would follow Him.  In effect, through this public teaching in the temple, and by contrast to the hypocritical practices He condemns of the scribes, Jesus is once again hammering home His teaching about greatness in the Church, and who would be great among them (see this reading, and all those from last week).  What He risks in publicly condemning the scribes as hypocrites, even as He teaches in the temple, He does so knowing those in leadership are plotting to kill Him, but as a gift of love to the Church -- as another unforgettable teaching about the kind of leadership He wants from His disciples.  Today in our Churches, 2,000 years later, we all know of plenty of examples of failure to follow these teachings.  I would venture to say that it really doesn't matter which church or denomination we might be talking about.  Human weakness and failure is still with us, and it is human beings upon whom the Church relies.  But the Holy Spirit still calls us; we still need the Church to remind us of who we truly are and where we need to go to be the ones Christ calls, and to be true to that calling.  His teachings are still as compelling to all those in leadership, and to every single one of us who would be His disciples.  We need to remember this widow, to see Christ in all those who are like her whom we may encounter in our churches, and to remember the One whom we receive.  Jesus' teachings are not about changing the social order, nor redistribution of wealth, nor about accounting and economics.  They are not abstract social theories nor simply intellectual concepts for a public policy paper.  As in the story of the rich young man, Jesus is not teaching us that we all need to give all we own to a treasury or fund.  We are reminded that all that we have belongs to God to begin with, and that the commandments Jesus gives teach us to seek the way God would direct us in all our transactions.  These are teachings about the heart and about compassion; about how we see and especially about our capacity for the practice of His commands in our every day personal encounters with others.  His teachings are calls to our own hearts and how we stretch ourselves, where we are called to make an effort in our own awareness and conduct and practice.  He calls us to a kind of accountability and responsibility, to a place where we can continue to become the persons He asks us to be, with His help, even sacrificing our deepest impulses and ingrained habits of character if necessary in order to do so.  Let us consider the love and compassion to which He calls us, and the way He teaches that God sees all of us.





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