Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
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Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:38-44)
Our reading this week contains one of the most misunderstood stories in Mark’s gospel. There’s quite a bit to unpack here, so let’s jump right in with the political context of Jesus’ critique of the “teachers of the law.”
Political Context of Mark 12
Interpreting Jesus’ critique of the teachers of the law without its context too often leads to thinking that Jesus was against the law (Torah) itself. Jesus was not engaging in a Protestant, post-Reformation contrast of the law versus grace. That way of reading our story is anachronistic and misses Jesus’ point entirely.
Jesus was leading a Jewish renewal movement that hoped to liberate and restore the rural village communities disintegrating because of the Roman occupation. Jesus was calling his listeners back to fidelity to the Torah’s justice in opposition to the ruling class of his day, which was colluding with Roman oppression for its own gain.
The tension in the gospels is not between Jesus and the law, but between Jesus and Roman oppression, including the Romans’ client regional ruler Herod and high priests of the Temple State. Roman exploitation and oppression through those Rome had placed in positions of power in the Temple State was wreaking economic and social havoc on the vast majority of people living in villages of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. According to Richard Horsley, those named in the gospels such as the scribes, the Pharisees and the “teachers of the law” served in the Judean temple-state as “intellectual-legal retainers.” (Richard A. Horsley, Jesus and the Politics of Roman Palestine, p. xi)
This leads to some interesting political and social insights into who these “teachers of the law” were. We’ll begin with that, next.
(Read Part 2)
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