For most of the month of October, we read through Mark 10. Throughout chapter 10, Jesus is regularly questioned by those he encounters -- the legal experts, his disciples, and even strangers he meets along the way. All of this was taking place as Jesus began his journey toward Jerusalem and all that would happen there.
Last week, we jumped ahead to Mark 12. We skipped over chapter 11 because it sees the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding on the back of a colt (a story we normally reserve for Palm Sunday), the cleansing of the Temple, and other encounters with the priests and scribes (normally read during Holy Week). But this time of year, we are focused instead on the kingdom of God and what it looks like, so we continue to look at the ways in which Jesus is questioned. Last week saw Mark’s version of the Great Commandment story, with Jesus being questioned by one of legal experts about which commandment is the most important or the greatest.
We are of course familiar with this story. It is the grounding of our lives as Christians and as members of this local congregation. Love God with all that we are, and love your neighbor as yourself. According to Jesus, and even the lawyer who is questioning him, nothing in the Hebrew scriptures is more important. Even more tellingly, the legal expert notes that no religious practice or ritual is as important as these two points. Following this, Jesus makes a somewhat cryptic pronouncement about the identity of the Messiah before we come to today’s reading (Mark 12:38-44).
Now, one of the most obvious things you may have noticed about this reading that is different from all of the others over the last month is the fact that Jesus is not explicitly asked a question by anyone. No one comes up to him to ask what he thinks about the scribes. No one questions him on giving to the Temple, at least not here in our reading.
Instead, this passage is in some ways the culmination of everything else that has happened in this chapter of Mark. After entering Jerusalem in chapter 11, Jesus has his famous altercation in the Temple, curses the fig tree, and gets into numerous arguments with the religious leaders. As we enter chapter 12, he is regularly teaching in the Temple. It is unclear from the way the chapter is organized if these vignettes are all occurring on the same day or on different days in the Temple.
The chapter opens with a parable about a vineyard that closes with the famous quote, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The religious leaders took this as a personal attack against them. They sent additional Pharisees and other legal experts to try to trap him so they would have an excuse to seize him. These Pharisees and Herodians question Jesus about whether it is lawful, according to Jewish Law, to pay taxes to the emperor. This ends with another well known saying, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
This is then followed by a challenge related to the resurrection. In the kingdom to come, to whom is the widow who remarries married to -- her first husband or one of her other husbands? Again, Jesus argues that the reason they ask this question is because they have failed to understand the teachings about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not simply a continuation of the world as we understand it. Rather life in the resurrection is one devoted entirely to God.
This gets us to last week’s discussion about the most important commandments and ultimately to our reading this week. With all of this in mind, perhaps today’s story makes a little more sense. Rather than some disconnected story with Jesus trash talking the scribes and staring at folks making their offerings, we see this as a culmination of what has come before. The scribes have been challenging Jesus, testing him, trying to trap him into saying something that they can use as justification for apprehending him. They have shown themselves to be more concerned with the letter of the law and keeping up appearances than with actually living into the kingdom of God. As we have seen before, Jesus points out that they are concerned with who is in and who is out. Their challenges name both money and widows. Is it any wonder then that Jesus turns this around on them and points out the hypocrisy of their numerous challenges?
Today’s reading comes in two parts that at first seem disconnected, but there are similarities. Both parts compare widows and those who seek to be honored. In the first part, Jesus makes note that the scribes move through life in a way that makes their position obvious. They want to make sure that people know who they are when they see them so that they may be greeted with the respect they think they deserve. Jesus notes that their devotion to the Law leads them to steal the livelihood of the widows.
In their time, the widows are among the most marginalized of all people. Being women, they are primarily reliant on their oldest male relative for their well-being. If their husband dies, who is left to care for them? They have little way of making a living for themselves in a way that the scribes and others might see as honest. They are left to rely on the generosity of their dead husband’s family or possibly their children. Perhaps they have a home to live in. But their religious practices include certain expected minimum offerings. By failing to take into account the limited means the widows have available to them, the scribes are in effect stealing their ability to live.
This is the other connection to what comes after. Jesus’ observance of the temple treasury is meant to highlight what he has just said about the scribes, to give the proof to his pronouncement. They observe many people coming in and giving various amounts. Some offered more and some offered less. But Jesus doesn’t really place any value judgement on the amounts given beyond noting that most people have given out of their spare change. In other words, regardless of the amounts they have given, Jesus notes that it is not an amount that they will necessarily miss. They give out of their abundance, but Jesus does not say this is a bad thing. For their offering supports the needs of the Temple and the charitable giving that goes back out just as surely as any other amount does.
Instead, Jesus highlights the amount given by a poor widow who gives two solitary copper coins. It is noted that this is a pittance, but that is not the important part of the story. What is important is that Jesus notes that this is all the woman has to live off of. She has dedicated the last money that she has to the work of the Temple. Jesus highlights that percentage-wise, she has given far more than any of the other offerings.
Now it is important to note here that Jesus is talking about money, but his judgement in these verses is not about how much or how little someone is giving. I am sure we have all heard sermons about how we are meant to give everything for the sake of the kingdom, just as this widow has given everything that she has to live on to the Temple offering. Perhaps if we had the few verses here about the offering without the other verses leading up to it, maybe we could take that meaning from it and go on our way.
But we can’t very well disconnect this story from all that has come before. This chapter of Mark sees Jesus teaching how those who are rejected and forced to the margins are actually the centerpiece of God’s kingdom. This chapter sees a concern for what we are giving and to whom. What belongs to God and how are we offering that back to God? And this chapter sees multiple discussions touching on the well-being of widows -- a widow who is successively married to each of seven brothers, a practice that would not have been uncommon in their time; a widow that sees all that she has taken from her by the work of the scribes; a widow that puts the last of her money she has to live on into the Temple treasury. Jesus is not questioning or judging the amounts that people give. He is questioning the religious practices that require this widow to give all that she has because that is the amount the Temple requires of her.
In reality, the amount she gave would not even meet the minimum expectation for the worship offering. A single pigeon would likely have cost close to ten times as much. Out of her devotion, this widow gave all that she had even knowing it would not be the proper amount, knowing that she would be judged for not meeting the minimum requirement. This is what Jesus meant by accusing the scribes of cheating widows out of their homes. They make it appear that the only way to be right with God is to give the minimum amounts. In other words, in the eyes of the scribes, to be poor is to be unable to meet the expectations for living in community; to be poor is to be outside of God’s grace.
Given what we know about Jesus, is it any wonder that he would judge the scribes for this? Is it any wonder that he would judge a system that places a minimum requirement on the poor that is difficult if not impossible for them to meet?
Jesus wants us to recognize that God’s kingdom is open to all people, both the people we assume are included as well as those we want to place obstacles in front of. Our reading today is not one about giving, though chances are that is how you have always heard it interpreted before. Jesus covers giving earlier in the chapter when he is asked about paying taxes. Instead, today’s reading is about the ways that we both judge and value people in relation to the kingdom of God. It is a continuation of the conversation about who is in and who is out. The scribes value those who meet the letter of the Law and those who show them honor. Their practices and interpretations of scripture show that they do not value those who are unable to fulfill the expectations of membership in the Temple. And if the Temple is the only place you can truly worship God, that becomes a stumbling block for those seeking a relationship with God.
The widow had no choice but to give everything she had in order to meet the expectations that the scribes had of her. Even then, she fell short.
Thinking about the world in which we live, what are the ways that we judge others in the same way? What are the ways that expectations and a blind adherence to rules leaves other people feeling left out of a relationship with God and left out of community?
What does the kingdom of God look like?
In some ways, the answer to this question fits neatly within the sermons we have all heard on this text before. Living in the kingdom means no less than giving our whole selves over to God and trusting that all will be well. At the same time, God does not exclude us if we are poor.
God does not exclude us if we are sick.
God does not exclude us if we have been pushed to the margins.
God does not exclude us if we are judged "less than" by the standards of our world.
God reaches out and welcomes us all, inviting all of us into the kingdom, a kingdom built on love.
Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. These are the qualities of the kingdom.
How do our actions point to that kingdom? That is the question that Jesus judges us on. That is the question that Jesus belittles the scribes over.
Jesus comes showing us a way to be in a loving relationship with God by having loving relationships with our neighbors. This is what the law is meant to show us. This is what our religious practices are all about. When we come to the table, we celebrate our connection to Jesus in community with others. When we come to the table, we see how we are united to one another in Jesus and how we all are welcomed at the table. Jesus is reminding us not to let the things we do to show devotion to God get in the way of showing love to others.
In the end, maybe there is something to be said for genuine devotion to God, a devotion predicated on giving all that we have in service to others, a devotion based on doing all that Jesus has shown us. It is giving not in the sense we traditionally talk bout with this text, but it is about giving on behalf of the kingdom to show our love for God and one another.