The Scribes and the Widow

Today on Renewing Your Mind... Also in Mark chapter 12, we read how the Pharisees wanted to prove their superiority over Jesus.

They tried to trap Him with the nuances of the law. But Jesus, of course, outsmarted them every time. As we continue our study in Mark's gospel, we will see how the exalted status of the rulers could never compare with the humility of the one who simply wanted to serve God. Here's Dr. R.C.

Sproul. We continue with our study of the gospel according to St. Mark this morning. I'll be reading from chapter 12, verses 38 through 44, which brings us to the end of chapter 12. And I'll ask the congregation to stand for the reading of the Word of God. And then He said to them in His teaching, Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayer.

These will receive greater condemnation. Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much.

Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrant. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, Assuredly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all of those who have given to the treasury, for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood. He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear.

Please be seated. Let us pray. Again, O Lord, we call upon You to help us discern, understand and apply to our own hearts and lives the things that we have just heard from Your Word. We pray that through the help of the Holy Ghost we may this morning be taught by Jesus, for we ask these things in His name.

Amen. Chapter 12 of Mark's gospel comes to an end when the gospel writer presents for us a vivid contrast between the scribes and the widow. The portion of Scripture that I just read begins with a serious warning, where Jesus said to those who were around Him, Beware. That is, watch out.

Be on the alert. Be careful of something. And the caution that came from the lips of our Lord concerned the scribes, the theologians, the academicians, the professors of the Bible in that particular day. He said, Watch out for these who have been appointed to the position of teachers, anticipating what James would teach us later.

Let not many become teachers, for with that office comes a greater judgment. That anyone who is put in a position of biblical, theological, ecclesiastical leadership, who has been given the responsibility to feed the sheep of Christ have an enormous power to mislead and to misfeed the sheep to the destruction of the flock of God. And so Jesus warns His disciples about those who are the scribes. They desire to go around in long robes. Excuse me while I remove my… What Jesus is referring to here was the custom of the Jews to have a prayer shawl that they would put on when they would recite their prayers.

But the scribes had specially made prayer shawls that were full length like robes that would touch the edge of the ground. They had ornate tassels on the end of them, and these robes or shawls depicted the lofty status that these professors enjoyed in the community. When things never change, I know that in the academic world there is great jealousy among professors with respect to status, with respect to position, with respect to titles, and even with respect to the garments that are worn in academic processions. This still goes on with a vengeance even in our day.

How much energy is spent by those in this arena to gain higher titles? You start out as an assistant or an instructor, then as an assistant professor, and then a full professor with tenure and that sort of thing. And I've always told my students that, you know, you start off in your education, all you have is your name. And then maybe you go through seminary, and now all of a sudden you're a reverend.

And then you maybe go to graduate school and get the advanced degree where people now call you doctor, but in the academic world that's not as high as being called professor. But you haven't really made it in the theological world until you're known simply by your last name. You know, we don't talk about Professor Calvin or Professor Luther or Professor Augustine. We just speak of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin by their names. In fact, perhaps the greatest tribute of any theologian in history apart from Jesus and Paul would be Thomas Aquinas, because how was he known in the academic world? By his first name. His philosophy is called Thomism. And so when we speak of Thomas, everybody knows what Thomas were talking about. Isn't this crazy how people go to such great extremes to receive the status of title when the highest status you can have is when you're known simply by the name with which you came into the world.

Watch out for these guys. They like to go around in long robes. They love greetings in the marketplace because it was the custom among the Jews that if a scribe came by and you were a merchant, it was your duty to rise in the presence of a dignified scholar such as a scribe. They loved the best seats in the synagogues, which were the benches along the sides. The common people sat on the floor where the scribes had what was then a comfortable place to sit. And then, of course, the best places at the feasts.

Whenever the feasts were there, the scribes always sat at the head table and were honored in that way. Jesus said, watch out for these people because they devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. What does He mean that they devoured widows' houses?

You know there's a special concern in the Bible for taking care of widows and orphans, because among the Jewish people these were the ones who were most vulnerable, most dependent, most easily exploited. And here these scribes would go to these vulnerable widows and basically bilk them out of whatever savings they had. When I read this text, I can't help but think of what happened when I was teaching in Jackson, Mississippi and was taking dance lessons at a local dance studio. And there was this expose written by an investigative reporter in Jackson about the unethical goings-on in these dance studios where they reported that the dance instructors would invite these elderly widows to come in for dance lessons and make them pay an exorbitant amount of money for them, but they would promise them companionship, and they would take them to the contests in New Orleans a couple of times a year. And this became the lives of these widows. And then the paper reported one dance instructor who went to the woman's house and explained it. She needed to take like ten thousand or fifteen thousand dollars more of dance lessons. She didn't have the money, but he said he would drive her to the bank so that she could take a second mortgage on her home in order to afford these dance lessons, and that's what she did.

Widows are the number one target of Ponzi schemes in our country today because they are frightened, they are not secure, and somebody promises them the benefit of some return on investment that's extravagant, they will often fall for it. And this is what these clergy were doing in the ancient world. Jesus said, watch out for these guys. And they disguised their hypocrisy with their long drawn-out prayers that they made in public not to honor God, but that they may be seen by men. It's as if when they prayed they peeked to see who was watching so that they would enjoy this reputation for piety. And what a dreadful, dreadful evaluation of a group of people Jesus makes here.

He said, they will receive their condemnation. But the main focus now of the text is not on the scribes but on the contrast between those who serve God with hypocrisy and those who serve Him with true spiritual devotion. The attention now of Mark comes to Jesus as He sat opposite the treasury of the temple, which was found in the court of the women because both men and women could enter into that court of the temple, and in that court were thirteen receptacles for donations or alms, for there were many needs for which the donations were used in the temple. If you were listening this morning when Burke read from the book of Exodus where God commanded His people to bring their offerings because God wanted His sanctuary to be built. And God said to the people of Israel, bring now your gold, your silver, and your bronze. And then He said, bring unto My house your precious threads, your colored threads, and your woolen skins, and your linens. And those things were used to make the garments for the priests that were woven of the finest materials and adorned with the greatest beauty because they were to serve God in the beauty of holiness. And notice also what Moses commanded, that the people should bring in grain, that they should bring in wine, that they should bring in oil, that they should bring in incense and precious fragrances.

Why? All of these things would be used in the worship of the people of Israel. Oil was needed for the lampstand and for the candles that were in use, and wine was used in the sacrifices. Now that was in the original edification of the tabernacle in the Old Testament. Fast forward now to the Herodian temple that now has this court with the thirteen receptacles for donations.

It still was required of the people of Israel to bring in gold, silver, and bronze, and wine, and precious garments because these things were still to be used in the sacrifices in the temple. So really the temple became almost like the central bank of the nation. There was so much money deposited regularly in the temple treasury that the person who administrated the temple treasury was the second highest figure in the nation, just underneath the high priest. And Jesus is watching the drama of the giving of the people.

He saw how the people put money into the treasury. And what we have here, folks, is a description of the most famous donation that has ever been made by a human being in the history of the world, that fame that goes beyond the fame of a Bill Gates who has given his hundreds of millions by way of donations or of the Carnegies or the Rockefellers or anyone else who have made names for themselves by their great generosity. But the most famous gift, the gift that has been known by more people than any other gift in all of history is the gift that this woman brings to the temple treasury. And the amazing thing is that in stark contrast to the scribes who couldn't wait for people to see their piety, to see their spirituality, the last thing this poor woman wanted was for anybody to even notice her. She was probably ashamed of the meager donation that she was giving. What she was offering in the temple was a mere pittance. She brought two mites, which together make up one thirty-second of a denarius, and a denarius was the pay for one day's work of a laborer.

So this woman's offering was one thirty-second of one day's work of a laborer. Two cents would not catch it. It was less than two cents. But this is where we get the phrase, putting your two cents' worth in. The widow comes with her meager donation.

Why? Because that's all she had. Jesus watches as the wealthy people come and give out of their substance. They gave to God what they could spare. This woman had nothing to spare. She had nothing to spare. But what she had, she gave. This is a story of sacrificial giving because again it was for the purpose of offering a sacrifice to God. For the vast majority of people who came into the treasury, there was no sacrifice involved at all.

It cost them hardly anything in terms of their substance. One poor widow came, threw in two mites which make a quadrant. Jesus then called His disciples to Himself and said, this poor widow has put in more than all of those who have given to the treasury.

Now that sounds crazy. She's given more? Can't you add, Jesus? Do the math please, Jesus. She doesn't even give two cents.

How can that be more than all the rest of the money that's being poured into the treasury by these people who don't miss it? Well you see what Jesus is telling us here is something about God's balance sheet, isn't He? Now let's stop for a minute and use your imagination.

We started our study of the book of Mark where I asked you to use your imagination to pretend you were back in the catacombs of Rome at the time when this book was written. Let's put ourselves for a moment into the skin of this poor widow. I'm sure that she approaches the treasury and the offering place tentatively, almost furtively. She doesn't want anybody to see how small her donation is, hopes that nobody's looking when she gives her gift. The one who is watching her is God incarnate. God Himself in the flesh was in the treasury of the temple that day watching.

Who was giving what? And when He saw this woman make this sacrifice, He called His disciples, and He said, look at that. That's devotion.

That's what it means to be a disciple. That's what it means to love My kingdom because this woman did not give out of her substance. She gave out of her poverty. She gave herself as a living sacrifice, which is what Paul would later say is the appropriate response for every Christian who has received the pearl of great price, that there is no gift big enough that we could ever give to outgive the gift that we have received. Out of her poverty, she put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.

This was not very long before Jesus would deposit into the treasury of His Father the richest contribution He could make. He held nothing back. He gave His life.

Nobody took it from Him. He laid down His life for His sheep. Paul noted that when he wrote to the Corinthians, he said, the night in which our Savior was betrayed, He took bread, and when He blessed it, He broke it, and He said, this is now My body given for you.

He didn't come to the table with a denarius or a quadrant or two mites. He came with His body, and He said, I'm giving it up for you. And that is a gift of immeasurable worth. We've heard a convicting message about selfless giving today here on Renewing Your Mind. Each Sunday we return to Dr. R.C. Sproul's verse by verse series through the Gospel of Mark. And even though today's message is familiar to many of us, God's Word always teaches us, and we so appreciate Dr. Sproul's careful study of this passage. Our resource offered today will help you continue your own examination of God's Word. When you contact us today with a donation of any amount, we'll be glad to send you a digital download of Dr. Sproul's commentary on Mark.

In it, you'll find easy-to-read insight into every verse. You can go online and request it at renewingyourmind.org. Again, that's renewingyourmind.org. Your faithful support allows people around the world to access the teaching of Dr. Sproul and our Ligonier Teaching Fellows, a teaching that you will find in the many resources that we publish, produce, and distribute. So thank you for your generous gift. Well, next Sunday we will turn to chapter 13 of Mark's Gospel. The disciples will ask Jesus about things to come, and Jesus' answer will point us to the end of all time. I hope you'll join us again next week for Renewing Your Mind.