The Heart of the Matter

I have heard the story of the Widow’s Mite for as long as I can remember. But, for the life of me I don’t remember ever having a Sunday School lesson as a child on the scribes’ behavior. It’s the harder lesson here for us to tell and to hear. It’s pretty easy to lift up this poor widow, all in black, hunched from years of toil and hardship, faithfully giving her last two coins. It makes for a good guilt/stewardship sermon. Most of us are no where near our last two coins. So, we get to admire her and shake our heads and think, “I hope I would be like her” without any real concern that we might be.

What about these scribes though? Over the centuries we have translated these people Jesus saw into a group. The Gospel of Mark was written around 70, 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, as the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. The translation of Jesus’ description of the scribes all depends on the translation of . The Greek reads, “Beware of the scribes, THOSE desiring in robes to walk about and greetings in the marketplace, and first seats in the synagogues and first places at the feasts, who are devouring the houses of the widows and as a pretext at great length praying.”

It isn’t all the scribes who are doing these things. It’s easier if we consider them as a group to be vilified, but that isn’t what Jesus was saying. The scribes were the legal authorities, entrusted with ensuring justice and some have taken advantage of their position. Pride has gripped some of their hearts. These scribes Jesus is calling our attention to don’t just wear the robes when they are engaged in official matters, they wear them everywhere and appreciate being recognized. A discount at the market? Why! Thank you! All the way to the front, a seat of honor, the head table? Ah, yes. Devouring the widows’ houses? Wait, what?

Jesus starts with the easy to see and call out pompous attitudes of some of the scribes, and then he gets to the heart of the matter. Some of the scribes act pious with long prayers, but their practices are predatory.

So what is going on? Scribes were experts in the law. And when a woman’s husband died, she needed legal help. Susan Hylen, Professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology, explains that the rights of women in the 1st Century varied depending on a number of factors. “Some were wealthy and even powerful. Some were poor, and many were in the middle. Some experienced a drop in economic position when their husbands died, and others did not.” She points out that the way Jesus describes what the scribes are doing to the widows “suggests that the widows own houses, and that the scribes are criticized for their abusive behavior.”

Throughout Scripture, justice requires defending the vulnerable – children, widows, immigrants, and the poor.

The prophet Isaiah issues God’s call to “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

God told the prophet Jeremiah to stand at the gate of the Temple and proclaim to all as they came to worship, “Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.”

The prophet Zechariah speaks God’s warning, “‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’11 But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.”

Jesus, sitting in the Temple people-watching sees these scribes proudly dropping their offering into the trumpet-shaped offering boxes. Money gained from preying on widows, taking advantage of them. A scribe might mismanage a widow’s estate, or not be transparent and honest in handling it. There are known cases where, when a widow wasn’t able to pay a scribe for his services, he would take the widow’s home as payment for services rendered. And it is that money – money that has been collected at the expense of the vulnerable – that clangs as it drops into the offering boxes. The very sound of each coin a testament to their corruption.

Jesus, sitting in the Temple people watching sees these people entrusted with caring for widows, profiting off of them and doing quite well for themselves, respected leaders, “generous” givers…everything on the outside looks like they are men of God…lives full of blessing. And then he sees her, quietly coming with two copper coins…she might as well give them, they’re worthless. She can’t buy anything with them…and she drops them into the box, so light they barely make a sound, and she shuffles on.

And Jesus speaks God’s warning not just to a particular group of lawyers in 1st Century Jerusalem, but to all “Those who prey on and those who fail to protect the vulnerable will be punished most severely.”

I have seen it; you have seen it. People who are vulnerable can’t afford boundaries, they don’t have the option of not trusting. They are afraid to say “No” because they are desperate. They are tired of fighting to get ahead and are constantly getting set back.

I have seen a landlord accept only cash for rent and then evict a mother and her children while she was at work and they were at school. He placed all of their belongings on the sidewalk and invited the neighbors to take what they wanted, and he urinated on their mattresses, sheets, pillows, blankets, and comforters.

I have seen a used car dealer sell a van to a family, only accepting cash paid in full, and not allowing them to have a mechanic look it over first, saying this deal is “now or never,” only to shrug when the transmission went out two days later. We had a mechanic who had agreed to look over any vehicle she found for free, but she was too afraid that the good deal would disappear to insist on waiting on him.

I have called to question an MLGW bill for a person who lived in a neighborhood mostly populated by low-income families in rental homes. This was over 15 years ago, in a month that had been temperate…the bill was over $700. I questioned it because the usage was about the same as mine…which was just over $100. I was told that different zip codes have different rates.

I could go on…but these examples all happened to one woman and her children.

Perhaps we should focus on the widow when we teach children in Sunday School and when we read this passage in Mark…and wonder why she only has two copper coins. Why the scribes are striding around in their robes and smiling broadly as they greet folks, why they are sitting tall in the best seats in the Temple and taking the plate offered to them first and piling it high at the feast, handing a bill to a widow and accepting the deed for her home in payment – after all, it is what she owed for services rendered – and then praying the most eloquent prayers, while she shuffles into the Temple court, offers all she has, and shuffles away, and no one offers her anything.