Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-december-10-2024
Luke 20:24 – 21:4
Warning Against the Teachers of the Law
20:45While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46“Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
The Widow’s Offering
21:1As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3“Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
Our NIV Bible presents this reading as two separate ‘pericopes’ – two separate passages, each with its own ‘lesson.’ But I can’t help thinking that the Holy Spirit might have wanted us to think about them together. I say that because when you read them together, the two passages present a striking contrast between people who think of themselves as good and righteous people who are superior to most others, and other people who are meek and humble in heart. And of course, it’s the second group of people who have a spirit that seems like Jesus’ own.
The first part talks about the religious leadership – “the teachers of the law.” These men (and they were all men) were authorities in the Hebrew religious tradition. When Jews talked about “the Law,” they meant the Law of Moses. That Law was found in the first five books of the Old Testament, which were collectively called “the Torah.” When you read through those books, you find just about all of the commandments handed down throughout history to the people of Israel.
The teachers of the law were experts on the law of Moses, and they were also experts in the commentaries on that law that had been handed down by leading rabbis over the centuries. The commentaries gave the Hebrew people specific guidance on how to follow the laws of Moses – how many steps they could carry a burden on the Sabbath, how many days after childbirth a woman had to perform a purification ritual, and so on. So the teachers of the law played a very important role in the religious life of their people. And they had a lot of power, because those who violated their teaching could be excluded from the synagogues. They could lose jobs or customers for their businesses. They could be shunned by their neighbors. And in some cases, they could even be stoned.
But as the saying goes – and as contemporary psychological research confirms – power corrupts. And the teachers of the law had become a corrupt force in Hebrew society. Jesus mentions two forms of corruption.
First, the teachers of the law had come to engage in self-glorification. They were allowing themselves to be treated like exalted figures instead of the humble servants God wanted them to be.
And what’s more, many of the teachers of the law were interpreting the laws of Moses in ways that allowed them to take advantage of the poor and the vulnerable for their own benefit. In the seventh chapter of Mark, Jesus points out one way this was happening: The teachers of the law were allowing people to give their resources to the religious establishment instead of supporting their elderly parents. So the teachers of the law were displaying a public ‘religiosity,’ but abusing their positions to enrich themselves, sometimes to the detriment of the poor and the vulnerable.
On the other hand, in the second part of today’s reading, Jesus calls attention to the spiritual superiority of one of those poor and vulnerable people.
The original version of this story appears in Mark 12 – it’s the eye-witness account from Peter. In that version, we’re told that Jesus sat down in a place where he could observe people giving their offerings at the temple. So it seems that he didn’t just happen upon the scene – he went there intentionally. He watched as rich people put large sums into the temple treasury, and then as a poor widow put in “two very small copper coins.”
Calling this small gift to his disciples’ attention, Jesus said that the widow had actually “put in more than all the others.” The rich had given some of what they could spare. But the widow had given sacrificially – she had given out of the small amount she had to live on.
This, it seems to me, makes two important points for those of us who follow Jesus today:
First of all, it seems that in God’s eyes, the most valued giving is giving that actually costs us something. God does not want the ‘leftovers’ – what’s left over when we’ve spent all we want to spend on our own desires. God has always asked for the ‘first fruits.’ We’re called to offer up some of our income first, and to meet our own needs and desires out of what’s left.
That’s a special challenge for those of us who live fairly comfortable lives. Studies have consistently shown that poor people give a greater percentage of their incomes to churches and charitable causes than well-to-do people. My sense is that we tend to give an amount we regard as “reasonable,” while poorer people give more sacrificially. That should probably give us pause.
It seems to me that God is more pleased by the small-but-sacrificial gifts of those of modest means that he is by the large gifts out of the surplus of the wealthy. So people of modest means never need to be ashamed of the humble amount they’re able to give. Because in God’s eyes, it’s a precious gift received with joy.
Bible scholars point out that throughout the scriptures – the Old Testament as well as the New – God demonstrates a preferential attitude toward the poor. Worldly wealth and power tend to corrupt and spiritually impoverish us. So for those of us who live materially comfortable lives, these two stories point out some of the hurdles we face that people of humble means apparently do not.
Let’s pray. Lord, move in our hearts and give us a more generous spirit, to give sacrificially as we are able in support of the needy and the vulnerable around us. And those of us who can give only modestly rejoice in the knowledge that you receive our giving with joy, and in the knowledge that we, too, can play a part in the work of your kingdom. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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