NOTES for Mar 12:35-44

It is hardly accidental that Christ's teaching about the Son of David and about Christ being Lord stands alongside the story of the poor widow. She gave very little to the Temple, just a few small coins, but those coins were all she possessed. In humbling Himself, Christ shared the lot of all who suffer and are poor, including this widow, and it was precisely in this condition that He gave His whole self as a sacrifice. It is entirely fitting that this passage of the Gospel condemns the scribes' behaviour: they devour widows' livelihoods, and they are the ones who will send the Son of Man to His death.

Many people, as the evangelist notes, listened to Christ's words with delight. This would seem to speak well of the listeners. Yet ‘delight’ can take different forms, and it is easy to begin receiving a sermon purely aesthetically, admiring the speaker's eloquence without following what we have heard in our everyday lives. That is when we become like those scribes...