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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
“The crime of the 21st century” is said to be financial scams targeting the elderly, and some of those scams take advantage of the fact that many of the elderly own their own homes (NCOA). For example, in Massachusetts, a 68‑year‑old woman allegedly was scammed by a 27‑year‑old man, who sold her quarter‑million‑dollar home, at a price about half of its value, and he sold it to a straw buyer, who immediately sold it again at a price closer to its value, funneling more than 100‑thousand dollars back to the 27-year-old man, who by that time had left the 68-old-year woman without money to buy a different home and dropped her off at a homeless shelter (boston.com). In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus warns about a crime of the first century—Jewish leaders of His day who, among other things, might scam widows out of their homes—but Jesus’s warning is no ordinary “consumer alert”, which we will realize, as we reflect on the Gospel Reading under the theme “The Scribes, the Widow, Jesus, and Us”.
For today’s Gospel Reading, we have returned from an All‑Saints’ holy‑day Reading in St. Matthew’s Gospel account to our largely‑continuous reading of St. Mark’s Gospel account, and we have moved forward in time in the account, from Jesus’s healing blind Bartimaeus on His way from Jericho to Jerusalem (Mark 10:46-52), which we heard two weeks ago, to the Tuesday of Holy Week, when the Jewish leaders were challenging Jesus, and Jesus, in turn, was challenging them.
Our theme is “The Scribes, the Widow, Jesus, and Us”, and so we begin with the Scribes. Today’s Gospel Reading is said to give us the only example of Jesus’s criticizing the practice of the Scribes (Mann ad loc Mk 12:38-40, 488), and that criticism of their practice certainly relates to His immediately preceding remarks about the teaching of the Scribes (Mark 12:35-37). But, perhaps more notably for us today, Jesus’s own teaching includes teaching about money—money the Scribes swindled from widows and money a poor Widow (perhaps even a widow some Scribes had impoverished) voluntarily gave to the church of her day. The Gospel Reading does not tell us precisely how the Scribes “devoured” widows’ houses, but the general idea is that the Scribes appropriated the widows’ homes or property illegally (BAGD, 422). Apparently the Scribes were not paid a regular salary, and so their livelihood depended on getting money in other ways (CSSB, 1528; cf. TLSB, 1685). Perhaps the Scribes charged so much for their services protecting the widows’ rights that the widows lost their homes or property to them, or perhaps the Scribes suggested the widows give so generously, to them or perhaps to the Temple, that the widows were left begging (Stählin, TDNT 9:448-449). Regardless, Jesus said the Scribes will receive “the greater”—we might say “abundant”—condemnation.
Having talked a little about the Scribes, let us consider the Widow, who “stands in sharp contrast to” the Scribes (Roehrs-Franzmann, 52). The Widow came after Jesus had sat down opposite the treasury in the Temple’s Court of the Women and was watching—we might say “reviewing” or “inspecting” how—the people put money into the treasury, payments for the service of the Temple, support of the poor, and other voluntary contributions. Many rich people put in large sums, but the poor Widow put in only two small copper coins, which, despite the English Standard Version’s translation, together made less than one cent. Yet, Jesus said the Widow put in more than everyone else, for they had contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had, all she had to live on. Apparently at least to some extent, the Widow feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things—trusting that, especially as a widow, God would provide for her material needs (Stählin, TDNT 9:448‑449), certainly better than those two coins could (Lenski, 558), but probably also trusting that, as a sinner, God would provide for her spiritual needs, even if she did not yet personally know Jesus.
Having talked a little about the Scribes and the Widow, let us consider Jesus. Similar to but greater than the Widow, Jesus on the cross “put in” or “offered” everything He had, including His very life. To the Corinthians St. Paul writes, “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Likewise, today’s Epistle Reading reminds us that Jesus appeared “once for all … to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”; He was “offered once to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:24-28). People cannot save themselves or in any way “buy” their own salvation; Jesus’s offering of Himself is all that all sinners need. Later we will sing to Jesus in the first Distribution Hymn:
Paschal Lamb, Your offering finished, / Once for all when You were slain,
In its fullness undiminished / Shall forevermore remain …
Cleansing souls from ev’ry stain … (Lutheran Service Book, 534)
Consideration of the Scribes, the Widow, and Jesus leaves us now with “Us”.
We may not swindle money from widows, but we no doubt are like the Scribes in other ways—ways such as sinful pride, showiness, desire for possessions, and hypocrisy. We may not like walking around in long robes or being greeted first in the marketplaces, the best seats in the Synagogue or the places of honor at feasts, but we may like other forms of human “glory” (John 5:44)—maybe such “glory” as followers, likes, and “pins” on such things as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, Pintarest, and Instagram. (My younger niece Jaclyn helped me out with those contemporary social-media references.) The abundant condemnation the Scribes would receive we also deserve, on account of both our sinful nature and our actual sins. Yet, when we are sorry for our sinful nature and our actual sins, and when we trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, then, instead of condemnation, we graciously receive from Christ as a gift the forgiveness of sins and so also the crown of life (Delling, TDNT 4:7).
In fact, we receive as a gift all that we have (1 Corinthians 4:7). God meets our material needs, and God meets our spiritual needs, and sometimes God meets both needs at the same time. As God in today’s Old Testament Reading miraculously provided for the widow of Zarephath, her son, and Elijah by His Word spoken through Elijah (1 Kings 17:8-16), so God also provides for us by His Word spoken through His representatives. God’s Word combines with water in Holy Baptism, God’s Word is spoken by the pastor in individual Holy Absolution, and God’s Word brings Christ’s Body and Blood to be present in bread and wine on this Altar in Holy Communion, that we might be strengthened and nourished in body and soul with the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Jesus’s sacrifice and its benefits given to us in these ways in turn move us to offer our whole lives to Him as our daily offering of thanksgiving (TLSB, 1685). Our offering our whole lives to Him is in a sense represented by our voluntary monetary gifts to the church of our day, proportionate to God’s blessings to us, and set aside on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2). From women and men of all ages and marital status, these offerings support the work of God’s Kingdom here and elsewhere, and ultimately the offerings and those who offer them receive God’s glory and recognition. We cannot know and do not judge between offerings, but we praise and honor equally all those who offer them (Luther, AE 75:131).
In Massachusetts, the 27‑year‑old man accused of scamming the 68‑year‑old woman was arraigned Thursday in Boston Municipal Court and awaits trial, though some of the money he scammed has been recovered. Here today we have considered “The Scribes, the Widow, Jesus, and Us”. Though we deserve to receive the same condemnation as the Scribes, Jesus instead gives us the crown of life, and we are moved to give as the Widow gave. With our offerings of our whole lives, as we sang in the Introit (Psalm 107:1-2 41-42; antiphon: Psalm 107:8), we “thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of men!” And, we pray now, as we will again in the Closing Hymn (Lutheran Service Book, 787):
Lord, help us all, with You, to yield / Whatever love demands
And freely give, as You have giv’n / With open hearts and hands.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +