Mark 12:35-44, CEB - While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, “Why do the legal experts say that the Christ is David’s son? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said, The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right side until I turn your enemies into your footstool.’ David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ so how can he be David’s son?” The large crowd listened to him with delight.
As he was teaching, he said, “Watch out for the legal
experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They want to be greeted with
honor in the markets. They long for places of honor in the synagogues and at
banquets. They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show
off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly.”
Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple
treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were
throwing in lots of money. One poor
widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I
assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been
putting money in the treasury. All of
them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty
has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.”
Jesus’s final teaching in the Temple
targets the legal experts and leaders with which he has been sparring. He does so by first pointing out a
discontinuity in the legal experts position concerning the Messiah. Two centuries later, the point is a bit
confusing to us where it probably was not to Jesus’s audience that day. The experts position was that the Messiah
would be a descendant of David. Jesus
seems to cast aspersion of this notion by quoting David himself in Psalm 110
where David refers to the Messiah as my Lord.
Jesus asks the rhetorical question, “David himself calls him ‘Lord,’
so how can he be David’s son?” The confusion for us is that Matthew and
Luke Gospel take great pains to point out that Jesus, the Messiah, is indeed a descendent
of David. Furthermore, this contention
is crucial because it fulfills multiple prophecies. It seems that Jesus, in this story recalled
in Mark, contradicts this notion.
I’m not convinced that Jesus is actually
contradicting this. I think (and I do
stress that this is only my opinion) that what Jesus was trying to point out is
that you can use scripture to support or refute any notion you want. I believe the language used elsewhere in Mark
supports the notion that Jesus does see Himself as both as David’s son and
David’s Lord/Messiah. He is taking something
his students believe as true and proof-texting scripture to improperly “contradict”
it as an example of something foolish anyone can do. I see support for this opinion in the fact
that, from this illustration, Jesus launches His attack on the religious
leaders for their hypocrisy when it comes to the scriptures.
Specifically, he mentions the fact
that they have used their influence and authority to take advantage of widows
who trusted them to steward property on the widows’ behalf. Jesus is calling out the fact that they have
used a scriptural responsibility to take care of widows as the very basis for
exploiting those widows for their own gain.
They do so all the while parading around in their expensive robes and
elite “sacred” jewelry. This criticism
reaches a climax with Jesus noticing a widow putting all she has into the
Temple treasury. The irony of her giving
all she has in support of and trust in the institution that is exploiting people
like her is almost too much to take. Jesus
identifies the religious leaders as the principle perpetrators of this gross
injustice.
Lest we too quickly distance
ourselves from the abuses and hypocrisy of the leaders Jesus is condemning, it behooves
us to remember that almost every long-established religious institution has
fallen into such abuses including the Christian church itself. The reason this teaching is in the gospel of
Mark is that Mark’s audience, the early Christian church, needed to hear
it. The twenty-first century church
needs to hear it as well.
Scripture is not to be manipulated
to suit the ends of those trusted to represent it. It is neither to justify our own opinions or
behavior. Twisting the words of
scripture to serve self-centered outcomes is gross injustice and worthy of the
strongest condemnation. The aim is to
have the heart of the generous widow, who exceeded to “prescribed-by-law” amount
to be contributed to God. She follows scriptural teaching and then
exceeds it.
The last point to be made here is
that the widow’s sacrifice of all directly foreshadows the sacrifice of all
that Jesus will make just days from this event.
He will give his very life for greater good of humanity. Every story in Mark from this point on will
highlight this sacrifice as the basis for Jesus’s Messiahship.
Question: Have you
ever seen scripture “used” to support something you knew was wrong?
Prayer: Lord Jesus,
illumine your teachings for us in a way that keeps us from using them for self-serving
reasons. May we see spiritual abuses
where they are present and call it out whenever we have the opportunity to do
so. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for Bishop Tom Berlin, our new United Methodist Bishop in Florida as of January
1.
Song: Have Thine Own
Way – Adelaide Pollard
