PRETENTIOUS SCRIBES AND POOR WIDOWS
Mark 12:38-44
Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 32), Year B
Analysis by Bruce K Modahl
38As taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” 41He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44For 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.”
“By our baptismal faith, God clothes us with Jesus’ righteousness. He has us covered.”
DIAGNOSIS: Destruction
Step 1-Initial Diagnosis (External Problem): Pretense
Jesus warned his disciples about the scribes parading around the temple precincts. It’s all pretense: Wearing the long robes, praying the flowery and lengthy prayers, taking the seats of honor, rolling the big coins into the temple treasury. Beware of them. You can’t count on their motives.
Step 2-Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem): : Seeing through the pretense
Thirteen, trumpet-shaped contribution receptables were positioned in the temple precincts. The big coins rolled in by the scribes made loud and satisfying sounds. The widow’s small coins made barely a clink. Yet these wealthy and pious ones enriched themselves at whatever legal gambit they found to displace widows like her from their homes. Jesus said, “They devour widows’ houses.” They are pious on the outside and rotten at the core.
Step 3-Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem): Judgment
The temple itself is a pretense of God’s presence and guarantee. That pretense will be ripped away. Jesus tells his disciples the temple will be destroyed. The old widow-eating order is coming to an end. All pretense and all pretenders will end up in the rubble.
PROGNOSIS: Reconstruction
Step 4-Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution): Jesus gave everything he had
Jesus noted, “The widow has put in more than all those contributing to the treasury. She out of her poverty has put in everything she had.”
Like the widow, Jesus was a poor man. But he came to offer his rich benefits for our sake. He contributed his life’s blood for the sake of what God treasures. God treasures poor widows and predator scribes. God treasures us. For our sakes, God in Christ Jesus gives his all. He bears our pretentious sins and the oppressive old order on the cross and to the grave. He rises from the dead, the first born of a new creation.
Step 5-Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution): Putting on Christ
We have no need to put on long robes or don any other sort of pretense. We have put on Christ. By our baptismal faith, God clothes us with Jesus’ righteousness. He has us covered.
Our faith is nurtured when we put ourselves in hearing range of the gospel, by returning to the baptismal font every time we confess our sins and hear the words of absolution, and when we answer the altar call to receive in our mangered hands the body of Christ and taste the cup of salvation.
Step 6-Final Prognosis (External Solution): Living by God’s promise
Faith “frees us from death, brings forth a new life in our hearts, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit” (Apol. IV:64). Furthermore, this same faith “brings forth good works.”
These good works begin with the humility of faith that casts off all pretense. In terms of this day’s gospel reading, good works would include advocating for and seeking ways to provide fair housing for those living on the margins. We can provide a wider list of good works with Luther’s Small and Large catechisms. In his explanation of the ten commandments, he gives us a fair summary of those good works God commands for the sake of our lives together in the communities we inhabit.
