The 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 10, 2024

Mark 12, 38–44

In the course of his teaching Jesus said to the crowds, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation.”  He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” 

“Beware of the scribes.”  The Lord is teaching the crowds in the days after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  Many of his followers were expecting that with his coming to the holy city he would reestablish the line of David and expel the Romans.  They must have been mystified at his warning about the scribes.  And, in taking on the scribes, it must have seemed to them that he was undermining the basis of society.  Jesus characterizes the scribes as those “who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.”  He calls them out for their high opinion of themselves, but he warns the crowd about them primarily because “they devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers.”  That is, they charge for their legal services more than the worth of an inheritance, driving vulnerable people into poverty.  In other words, their outward appearance and actions arise from the contempt of the people they profess to serve.  “They will receive a very severe condemnation.”  In ancient Greek, the future tense is used to assert that something will certainly happen.  The Lord is not warning the scribes to repent; he is speaking as though they were already judged.  The Lord thus warns us all to shun contempt and not to take advantage of people in their need.

“He sat down opposite the treasury.”  The treasury was located outside but near the Temple building, in a courtyard.  It featured receptacles in which people would place their donations for the Temple.  The Lord sits down on the stone pavement a little distance away and the Apostles do likewise.  He sat for some time and “observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums.”  He watched “how” or “in what manner” the members of the crowd made their donations.  That is, he noted when people made a great show of their donation, perhaps holding it up in the air for all to see, or making an announcement to the rest of the crowd.  Some such thing must have happened because otherwise we would not know about the large sums the wealthy gave.  Now, there was nothing contrary to religion in their doing this.  The Law did not command modesty or humility.  Nor does the Lord speak out against their ostentation.

“A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.”  Her widowhood would have been known through her garb.  Her two coins would have amounted to very little indeed.  It would have bought maybe a mouthful of bread.  “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.”  Jesus does not speak when the wealthy deposit their contributions, but he does so now and draws attention to the widow, someone who otherwise would have gone completely unnoticed by everyone else.  And then he makes an extraordinary statement about her two little coins. And then he explained: “For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”  Since the death of her husband she has had to beg so that she might eat, but she had not stopped loving God, and she proves her love for him, doing without so that his Temple might have a little more.  

We do not see the Lord rushing to embrace her or to replace her alms.  He allows her to make this sacrifice and receives it with great love.  We can hope that afterwards she found a place to stay and a way to eat that did not involve the cruel fate of begging, but we can be sure that she is feasting now in the great halls of heaven.