St. Mark 12:38-44
Dearly beloved,
The Pentecost season is winding down. It is the season of
the life of the church. The Pentecost season focuses on the work of the
Holy Spirit in the church and in the lives of her saints. The gospels are
the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Lord of the church. In the gospels,
Jesus is found as the one Who acts on our behalf through His miracles and
through His suffering, death, and then the resurrection.
Sometimes Jesus is the teacher, our Rabbi, Who instructs us
into all righteousness. This gives occasion for the gospel today. The
disciple of Jesus is reminded to beware of the Scribes. They look the part.
They look like holiness, according to worldly standards. But, the Scribes
were notorious for binding the consciences of people. They were the
standard to follow. One was to listen to their teachings and observe their
ways. But they lacked the most important thing: love.
Certainly, the Old Testament had rules and regulations. It
had laws to follow. But there was more to the Jewish system than just the
laws. Jesus points it out to the Scribes and Pharisees in St. Matthew
23:23, “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint
and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:
justice and mercy and faithfulness.” This is an important verse giving us
insight into the gospel appointed for today.
Notice that Jesus says the “weightier matter” is justice,
mercy, and faithfulness. The prophet Micah speaks similarly when he points
out in Micah 6:8 that “God has told you, O man, what is good; and what does
the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with your God?” The Lord is reminding His disciples that the Scribes
are so focused on their own gain and their religion’s gain that they devour
widow’s houses. This leads us to the widow and her offering.
This is often a misunderstood example. Most pastors preach
this account in such a way that we should all be like the widow. Now, some
may say that the example that the widow shows is her heart, her faith. People
may say that Jesus is saying that we should emulate this in our hearts. But
let us not lose sight of the fact that not only is her heart of a certain
disposition, but she carries it out by giving all that she has. If this is
the point of the gospel, then you have failed. This widow is held up for
all to see and she is law. She shows us our failures, both, of heart and
action. Is this what Jesus means to say?
One must look at the big picture of the gospels in order to
rightly understand this gospel lection. The question you have to ask
yourself in looking at the widow and her offering is this: Do the gospels
exist to continue to tell us what we are to do for holiness? Or are the
gospels given to the church to point us to what Jesus Christ has done? One
must consider that Jesus has come down hard on the abuses of the Jewish
system. Repeatedly, Jesus condemns the Pharisees and the Scribes for
abusing the system to fill their own pockets and to stroke their own egos.
This poor widow gave all she had and now has nothing to live
off of. Is this what Jesus wants? Remember that this woman was in the
temple and gave all that she had to the temple treasury. This was for the
upkeep of the temple. This temple treasury is also what the Pharisees and
Scribes used to line their pockets. Is Jesus telling His disciples that
this is how we should be…we should give to the temple treasury? Or is Jesus
showing the disciples what a shame it is that the temple treasury does to
the poor, the widows, and the down-trodden?
If we weren’t sure, it would be good to continue into St.
Mark 13, where we find Jesus walking with His disciples as they exit the
temple after having witnessed the widow giving the rest of her money. One
of the disciples did not understand the point Jesus was trying to make. The
disciple thought that Jesus was trying to teach on how they should emulate
the widow. The disciple says to Jesus, “Look, Rabbi, what wonderful stones
and what wonderful buildings.” The disciple thought they had it all. The
disciple did not understand the reason for Jesus’ coming into the flesh
through the womb of the virgin. The disciple was looking at Jesus and His
teachings as a continuation of the Jewish law demonstrating how one should
live.
Jesus responds, “Do you see these great buildings? There
will not be one left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown
down.” So much for the widow’s giving of all she had. My friends, this is
precisely what you need to realize about yourselves and the purpose of the
Holy Scriptures. The Bible is about Jesus and His suffering and death—His
righteousness for your sins. To return to what Jesus tells the Scribes and
Pharisees in St. Matthew 23:23, “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the
weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.”
In other words, they would have been better off if the
Scribes had been reading the Old Testament in a Christological way, seeking
the love of God. It would have been better had they rested in God’s
love. Jesus
puts it another way in His Sermon on the Mount: “Seek first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The
Scribes stopped seeking the kingdom of God and began seeking all the other
things of the world. As Jesus points out in St. Mark 13, these earthly
things shall pass away.
The gospel exists in the church’s life for the proclamation
of the day of salvation that comes by way of God. Jesus Christ is your
salvation. He is your source of comfort. Jesus is your justice, mercy, and
faithfulness. Jesus sets you free from the tether ropes of sin that have
bound you up. You are holy through the blood of Jesus. This is the purpose
of the church. This is the reason our little parish is in existence. Trinity
church is the place where God’s eternal home is built up. God’s eternal
home is built up by the preaching of the gospel in your hearing. It is
built up in the receiving of the Lord's body and blood in the sacrament. These
are the things belonging to Jesus that bring forth His love, justice, mercy,
and faithfulness into your lives.
As the church beholds Jesus crucified, dead and resurrected,
then it beholds all that is needed. It is the kingdom of God which is
found, and it is in the the gospel that you find your rest. Then, by the
work of the Holy Spirit, everything else follows. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
www.frchadius.blogspot.com
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
www.trinitylowell.org
