Sermon - Proper 27, 2024 - Year B - Mark 12:38-44

The Widow's Mite, Joao Zeferino da Costa, 1876

The Lord blesses the lowly

1. The Lord condemns the vainglorious

2. The Lord praises those who submit themselves to God

3. The Lord looks upon the lowly and supplies all of their needs

How do you know success when you see it? Typically we perceive success when we see grand displays of wealth. So the president or governor shows up in a big shiny expensive vehicle with a bunch of people and a really sharp looking suit. The businessman owns multiple properties, lake houses, big houses, manicured lawns, hired help, fancy cars, eats at expensive restaurants, wears upper class name brand and designer clothes. Successful people speak eloquently and everyone laughs at their jokes. Everyone wants to be liked by the successful person in order to get invited to their parties. Typically successful people create a following, and people cling to their coattails, hoping to benefit from their successes.

Yet the Psalmist sings: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.” Those verses apply very accurately to our leaders whom we voted into office this past Tuesday, and so perhaps that is what’s on your mind at the moment. But the applications here are much broader than that. Jesus says: “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” The Lord doesn’t tell us only to forsake hope in earthly rulers, but in all vainglory. For the vainglorious are condemned, but the lowly are blessed.

Today’s Gospel reading takes place during holy week, after Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, after He flipped over tables and chased out the money changers, after He argued with the pharisees and sadducees, He sat down and taught His disciples. And in His teaching He warned them of the vainglory of the Scribes. 

The description of the scribes can sound a bit unusual to our modern ears: walking around in long robes, receiving greetings in the marketplace, having the best seats at the synagogues and feasts, praying long prayers as a pretense for devouring the meager wealth of the poor. It all sounds so foreign to us that we have a difficult time applying it to modern life.

The only people we know who wear robes are pastors, judges, graduates, immigrant middle easterners, and folks who just took a shower. But Jesus’ words aren’t a condemnation against robes. These long robes Jesus mentions were a technical term for showy clothing worn to denote one’s high status. This is hard to recognize today because we live in such a casual society that nearly never dresses up anymore. We tend to flaunt our high status in other ways and with different possessions.

Similarly Jesus isn’t condemning being greeted when you’re at the grocery store, but He’s referring to receiving public accolades for your success. We don’t even have anything similar to sitting at the places of honor at feasts, but more or less this is pride and arrogance to think you are the most important person in the room. Nor is there anything wrong with praying a longer prayer, but it is wicked to use your eloquent prayer to cover up your underlying evil motives. In particular, it was quite evil for the scribes to prey upon the faithful poor Christian widows, taking advantage of them in their low estate.

Ultimately, Jesus is taking aim at vainglorious living, especially as it was known among the religious elites of His day. In some ways this is harder to see today, simply because pastors by and large are not elites today. Some of you helped move my junk from Iowa up here, and you could see that my stuff obviously carries more sentimental and functional value than monetary value. Now, the christians in Iowa took good care of me and my family, and you all are taking good care of us here. Nevertheless, I’m obviously not an elite, I’m just a normal person. Pastor Matheny, and nearly every pastor I’ve known personally has just been an ordinary human being and would not be considered a religious elite by any stretch of the term.

However, it does still happen that certain religious elites take advantage of the elderly and the poor and do everything they can to milk these faithful Christians for all they’re worth. I’m sure you’ve heard of different megachurch pastors and evangelists flying around in their private jets and living in their multimillion dollar mansions, for a pretense they put on the impression of religion so as to take the offerings of widows. 

The widow’s mite is an example of scribes fleecing the poor. You might notice that Jesus doesn’t interact with the widow at all, He is merely observing her behaviors. He doesn’t commend her nor condemn her when she gives the equivalent of her final few dollars to the church, everything she had to live on. The scribes live in luxury because this poor woman is giving away everything she has to live on. She is the one who should be receiving help from the scribes, not the scribes taking all she has! Indeed, “They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Nevertheless, even though God doesn’t command this widow to give all of her money away so that she has nothing left to live on, it is notable that Jesus notices her. While the rich people were placing their large offerings out of their abundance, probably getting all of the attention, Jesus takes notice of this poor woman offering a small pitiful amount, which would’ve been overlooked by anyone else. Like the Psalmist sang: “The Lord watches over the sojourners; He upholds the widow and the fatherless.” The Lord notices the poor and destitute, and He cares for them.

This is well illustrated in the story of the widow of Zarephath. The Lord sent Elijah to a Gentile living in the midst of a terrible famine which the Lord had brought about as punishment against the evil in the land. She has practically nothing left. Only enough food for her and her son to eat one last meal before starving to death. Nevertheless, she trusts the word of the Lord and she provides for Elijah out of her poverty. The Lord promised to care for her, she believed the promise, and the Lord kept that promise.

Elijah was not taking advantage of the widow, the scribes did take advantage of widows, but regardless of others’ intentions God promises to preserve and bless the poor and lonely who trust in Him. Dear Christians, regardless of your level of wealth, the Lord promises to watch over you and guard you. The Lord bids you to trust in Him and submit yourselves to His Word. This isn’t about money, the Lord doesn’t want your dollars, He wants your heart, mind, and soul. Look at these poor widowed women and see their love and trust in the Lord! See their faithfulness, and learn from them.

As you make sacrifices throughout life for the sake of your faith in God, the Lord promises to watch over you and provide for you. You may suffer both materially and emotionally, and may be overlooked by everyone else, but the Lord sees you and you’re not forgotten nor ignored by Him. Just as the widows sacrificed all they had in love for God, so does this remind us that Jesus sacrificed His life in love for the Father and you. Our sacrifices don’t help us inherit heaven, only His sacrifice earns for us salvation. But in your sacrifices you are reminded of Christ’s sacrifice. Therefore be comforted to know that God will provide for you throughout all of life. How can you help but respond with joy to that comforting word! “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my Soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being… The Lord will reign forever!... Praise the Lord!”