Luke 20:45-21:4
Let’s continue to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” I’ve probably noticed it before: …who devour widows’ houses… (v. 47), but never really thought about it. Is Jesus saying that the scribes are able to take advantage of uneducated Jewish widows, promising them “whatever”, then taking ownership or control of their properties? Here is what I found online: “This they did under pretense of counseling them in the knowledge of the law and in the management of their estates. They took advantage of their ignorance and their unprotected state, and either extorted large sums for their counsel, or perverted the property to their own use.” https://biblehub.com/commentaries/mark/12-40.htm That’s cruel!!
Slava Bohu!
Cruel indeed! Widows usually had no source of new income so this elder abuse was particularly egregious, it seems some religious leaders were running scams.
One thing God added to what I had heard re the widow’s sacrificial giving. Hers was money, beyond what was convenient or safe for her. But I also heard about sacrificial giving of time and talents, beyond what is convenient or safe. Ouch. My prayer is that I learn to love God more and more deeply so that such giving is a joy, not a duty or burden.
Those swine!!! How could they???
But I have a faint echo in my heart saying, “Are you guilty similarly through your tacit compliance to a dominant culture that neglects and even abuses the poor, immigrants, and others—here and abroad…?”