GOSPEL MEDITATION

Luke 20:41-21:4

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 passage of Scripture.

1.         Jesus, speaking to a group of Sadducees who seemed to have been saying that the Messiah was actually a descendant of King David, thus merely a human being. Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1, a Psalm of David which refers to the Messiah as the Jehovah God, thus negating the idea that the Messiah was only human and not divine at all.

2.         Next then Jesus warns not only His disciples but a wider audience of the duplicity of the Scribes, these the lawyers, synagogue rulers, and more, that their religion is for show only and not real and actual. He ends this warning with a most solemn warning, that these hyper-religious showmen will receive a great condemnation.

3.         In both cases, the Sadducees and the Scribes, Jesus is reaching out to them as He knows their fate unless they turn from their ways and humble themselves.

4.         This third story now takes place, very likely, some time later than the above confrontations, and takes place, as thought by most commentators, in the Court of Women in the Temple. Placed there were 13 trumpet shaped receptacles for people to drop offerings of money into.

5.         Jesus calls attention to a very poor widow who they can observe dropping in 2 coins (leptas–worth 1/8 of a penny) Jesus commends her and teaches His disciples an important lesson.