GOSPEL MEDITATION # 220
Mark 12:38-44
Beware of the Scribes & The Widow’s Offering
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passages of Scripture.
- Reread them. From memory, determine the central points.
- In our own day we notice that we, and others, love the admiration and attention of others, and we will go to absurd extremes to receive such. Nothing has changed.
- Religious leaders—garments, degrees, titles, symbols of authority and power—again, nothing has changed. To these, read US, Jesus issues a warning–BEWARE.
- Why the warning? Because these will demand too much of us and cause us to look to them for a salvation only God can give.
- “Greater condemnation”—a chilling thought all around. Is Jesus indicating there are degrees of hell? (see Matthew 8:12, 22:13, and 25:30)
- In the Court of the Women, in the Temple, were 13 trumpet shaped receptacles used to collect tithes and offerings. Jesus sat by these on probably Wednesday of the last week of His earthly ministry.
- The poor widow dropped 2 leptas into one of these, each worth 1/64 of a denarius, both together equaled a penny, the minimum.
- Proportionally it represented a great deal in terms of sacrifice. It was all that she had.
- Most importantly however, those who could afford to give did it as a show. The coins, as they were deposited in the “trumpets” (and the word describes much) drew attention from others. The widow’s “mite” would not have.
- What would the penniless widow do now?