Mark 12:38-44
As a person who walks around wearing long robes and prays long prayers in public on a regular basis, I find myself thinking often of this teaching of Jesus. I do like my long robes most of the time, and I appreciate being greeted with respect, and I do think I have one of the best seats in the church on Sundays. I often find myself moving around a little too much to warrant a place of honor at coffee hour or Thankful Thursday meals, but I think the shoe still fits. Jesus tells his disciples to beware of people who fit this description, and I do think that includes modern day ministers like me. Jesus does not mince words when it comes to behavior he understands to be unjust, and I think we do well to heed his warning.
Jesus is of course describing religious professionals of the Jewish Temple in Ancient Jerusalem, not modern Christian priests and pastors. He is pointing out specific people that might very well be within earshot when he describes them. He is talking about people he knows, people who have listened to his sermons and criticized his interpretations of scripture and the Law, people who hold higher status than he does in the eyes of society. The people Jesus tells his followers to be wary of are people who hold power and know how to use it to their own best advantage. In particular, Jesus cautious strongly against imitating those who use religion as a smokescreen to cover abuses and complicity in oppressive systems. His words were spoken in and for his time and place, but they resound across history to our present moment.
Beware the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. We might replace scribes with priests, or pastors, or preachers, or vestry members, or CEOs, or politicians, or celebrities. Beware those with authority who like to display a certain image, who like to be known and treated as very important people, those who expect special treatment and deference from those around them. Beware them because they consume the resources of the vulnerable and practice their religion for the sake of appearance. Beware them because their prayer is inauthentic and their actions speak louder than their words, no matter how loudly and publicly they shout. They will receive the greater condemnation.
For weeks, Jesus has been pointing to the margins. The little children, the least and the last, the blind and the begging, the poor and the oppressed. If we seek the kingdom of God, Jesus tells us exactly where to look. The particular scribes Jesus warns us to avoid are themselves avoiding the margins and those who dwell there. They seek privilege, and honor, and respect, so they have no interest in those who have nothing to offer them. They value their reputation, their public image, and so they have no time to waste on the dishonored and the untouchable. They prioritize the perception of their piety over the authenticity of their prayer, so encountering those in need of intercession is not a priority for these people. If Jesus keeps moving toward the margins, then the people he criticizes keep moving toward the middle, centering themselves and ignoring anyone they don’t deem worthy of sharing their spotlight. We must always be wary of who is at the center of power, decision-making, and attention in our systems. They’re rarely the least and the last, the ones Jesus tells us will be first in the kingdom.
Jesus sits across from the treasury of the Temple, the ancient offering plate, and watches a crowd of people give their gifts. He sees many wealthy people give large amounts of money, and he says nothing. He probably sees plenty of regular people put in modest sums, and says nothing about them either. But a poor widow, a woman with no power or protection whatsoever in her society, makes her contribution to the ministry of the Temple and Jesus immediately points her out to his disciples. Once again, a person marginalized and forgotten by society, failed by the social safety nets that were meant to protect her, has something to teach the followers of Jesus.
Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on. Much like the story of the rich man who struggled with Jesus’s admonishing to sell all his possessions, this woman’s story flies in the face of all our modern capitalist assumptions. She has two coins, worth one cent, which Jesus tells us is all she has to live on. It is not a wise investment strategy, especially considering all the widow-devouring Jesus just suggested is happening within the system. She has no way to earn more money, and no options for producing her own food because as a widow she cannot own property. If she were of childbearing age, that small amount might have been all she had for a dowry, her last chance at remarrying and securing her future. But she gave it away. Based on the information Jesus gives us, some scholars believe that this woman is quite literally giving up her life, donating the last of her earthly wealth as she awaits death.
It is a foolish thing to do, by any earthly standard. It is giving in, surrendering to her fate, succumbing to an unjust system in which all safeguards have been ignored or forgotten. But Jesus points to her and says she has done more than any other person who walked up to that offering plate that day, even though it might now be her last. Why, after all this time, are we still telling the story of a poor widow and her last penny?
Because her poverty is the consequence of someone’s greed. Because her position is the outcome of neglect on the part of those religious leaders who were meant to protect her. Because if everyone lived righteously, there would be no poor widows at all. Because someone devoured her house, and what remained was not enough for her to survive. There are men walking around in long robes, being greeted with respect and deference while they shop, being seated in places of honor at banquet tables while women die in poverty. Jesus does not look away, and he does not let his followers forget. He shows them, he shows us, the brokenness in the system. He calls us to pay attention, so that there might come a day when there is no such thing as a poor person alone in the world. If we were all living as Jesus taught us, that day might have already come.
Beware those who present themselves as one thing and behave in another. Beware those who practice their religion out loud for all to hear but toss it aside when no one is looking. Beware those who care more about the opinions of strangers than they do about the vulnerable people whose safety depends on them. Beware those who pray for God’s will to be done, but act as if their own will matters more. Beware the hypocrites at the center, and pay attention to the faithfulness being lived out in the margins. There you will find the kingdom of God.
Mother A Writes 