Mark 12:38-44 Commentary

We go from a scribe who is “not far from the kingdom of God” to those who are living as though they have no interest in God’s kingdom at all. And that’s saying something for a group of people whose role is to guide others in understanding God’s intent.

Jesus says, “Beware of the scribes…” Before we go all #NotAllScribes, let’s just remind ourselves that the temptations that these particular scribes have fallen to are evergreen to anyone with some semblance or level of authority—if not all of us in some way or another. For most of us, being recognized feels like a basic human need. And yet, there is the added layer of hypocrisy and corruption that Jesus sees in these particular scribes, because scribes are meant to be God’s servants among the people.

Instead, what these scribes are clearly more concerned about is their own recognition and being served respect. They wear their temple vestments while they go to get their groceries because they want people to see them as important. Their robes indicate their societal rank and anyone below them in rank would then be obligated to greet them in a certain respectful manner. Likewise, they expected to be treated with posh seats at parties and religious events reserved for VIPs. You picture them waiting about as they pray to make sure there’s someone else who witnesses their piety. These scribes want other people to be impressed.

As Jesus describes it, it feels like a caricature—all style, no substance—a joke in comparison to their true calling and purpose. It’s worse than that, actually. Jesus slips the reason for the greatest condemnation among the scribes’ more showy attributes in among the rest: they devour widows’ houses. The last time this passage came up in the lectionary, I outlined some of the ways the scribes might have been going about such abuse. Needless to say, in every way it’s not a good look for the people tasked with teaching others what God made clear about caring for orphans and widows.

The scribes abused their position, warped their vocational callings, and lifted themselves up above others. Jesus warns them that this is as good as it will get for them. The “high and mighty” will be brought down, and their ways are condemned because of the way it takes advantage of others—no matter how much spin the scribes try to use to justify what they’re doing. If only they could let go of what they are using to define their own self-worth and discover the blessing of God’s love!

As though to prove his point to the disciples, Jesus moves from teaching the crowd in the temple to the area where the monetary offerings were made, the treasury. There, he sat and watched as people came and dropped coins into trumpet shaped collectors—rattling their donations for all to hear.

Given what Jesus has just said about the scribes cheating widows out of their homes, it’s becoming harder and harder for me to read this story as a positive object lesson. Like many exegetes, I’m reading Jesus’s words here as sadness and anger. Jesus is not praising the widow for sacrificing so much; he is condemning the scribes and the system that has left her with so little. This is not to belittle the widow’s offering or sincerity. She is very likely a woman of great faith. But God’s way for their community was designed to keep her from being so destitute. And when the abundance that others are offering from is taken from her and other widows like her, it is not an offering pleasing to the Lord now is it?

What Jesus and the scribe last week made clear to us is that love for God and one another is our new motivation for making offerings, so perhaps the widow’s offering is a sort of positive example after all. Perhaps we are meant to see her as a foil to the scribes and other show-offs. She is giving what she has in order to support God’s temple (church) and all of the people whose faith is shaped by it. If that’s the case, then she is acting out of love for God and neighbour even when she is not treated with the same dignity and respect.

Textual Point

The scribes are not the only people group Jesus warns his disciple to be wary of; in chapter 4 and 8 Jesus tells them in one way or another to beware the Pharisees, and in chapter 13 he tells them to be wary of those who would mislead them.

Illustration Ideas

I imagine that the slot machines in Las Vegas are designed to be loud when you win because (a) it celebrates the winner and (b) it draws attention and possibly envy from others. When you win and the coins start dropping into the receptacle, you literally hear your “success.” I wonder if that’s how the scribes felt when they were greeted in the marketplace or walked to the best seat in the house at the worship service.

Clerical collars are nothing new, and many of us wouldn’t blink too much of an eye at seeing one in public. For those of us in non-vestment traditions like my own, the choice to wear them can be rooted in any number of reasons: they want to mark themselves as a person of service so that anyone can call upon them while in the public square; they serve as chaplains and the symbol allows people to immediately identify their role in an emergency; they do it to remind themselves that they are yoked to Christ as they serve, etc. The flip side to wearing any religious garb or symbol of authority is thinking that it garners you some level of respect or level of treatment. I’ve read enough of the backlash on social media platforms to know that if people don’t trust you (or your “kind”) then no level of vestment is going to help; in fact, it will likely make them trust you even less. Of course, I don’t need a clerical collar to feel entitled—that’s an easy enough rut to fall into by human nature.