Mark 12:35-44

³⁵ Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?

³⁶ For David himself said by the Holy Spirit: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’

³⁷ Therefore David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He then his Son?” And the common people heard Him gladly.

³⁸ Then He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces,

³⁹ the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts,

⁴⁰ who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”

⁴¹ Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much.

⁴² Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans.

⁴³ So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury;

⁴⁴ for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

Also found in Matthew 22:41–23:14 and Luke 20:41-47.

The word “Christ” is the transliteration of the Greek word christos, which means “the Anointed One,” and this Greek word is the translation of the Hebrew word transliterated into English in the word “messiah.” The latter word has a definite connotation, namely, the future King of Israel who will some day reign on the throne of David. The word “son” as used here is a Hebraism speaking of a descendant. The word “Lord” is the translation of the Greek word kurios, which in itself means “master, one who has power over another, and the in the translation in the LXX of the august title of God in the Hebrew Old Testament, Jehovah. It has implication so deity. Both the scribes and the people believed that the Jewish Messiah would come from the royal line of David. David was human, so would the Messiah be human. Thus, He would be David’s son. Our Lord reminds His hearers that David calls the Messiah his Lord (Psalm 110:1). That is, he recognizes Him as Deity, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. The difficulty our Lord puts before His listeners and at the same time tosses into the lap of the Pharisees, is as to how, since Messiah is Jehovah, deity, He can also be human. At once the incarnation is brought before them. One of the charges brought against the Lord Jesus was that He called God His (His private, unique) Father, making Himself equal with God, thus deity (John 5:18). Thus, the Jewish leaders rejected the teaching of the incarnation, and Jesus’ claim to deity. It is well to notice our Lord’s testimony to the divine inspiration of David, also the recognition by David of the two other Persons of the Trinity, the Father saying to the Son, “Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Thus, we have the Trinity mentioned in an Old Testament setting in verse 36. [The Holy Spirit is included based on the fact of inspiration.] — Wuest, page 240.

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long robes (v.38) — The word is stole, and is used in the Old Testament of priestly or royal robes, and in the New Testament, of dress worn on festive or solemn occasions. Our Lord does not condemn the use of a dignified costume, but the use of it for the sake of ostentation display. — Wuest, page 241.

love (v.38) = phileo, fond of, like — They were fond of wearing impressive clothes and being recognized in the marketplace and greeted as rabbis.

best seats (v.39) — benches in the front reserved for officials and VIPs. They faced the congregation.

best places at feasts (v.39) = “first reclining place,” the place for the most-honored guest. The Jews didn’t use tables, but reclined on couches at meals.

These scribes devour widow’s houses (v.40). People often left their whole fortunes to the Temple, and a good part of the money went finally to the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes were employed to make out wills and conveyances of property. They inveigled widows to give their homes to the Temple, and then took the proceeds of the sale for themselves. In order to do this, they offered long prayers in the homes of these widows and for them. Thus, they bent the widows to their will. Our Lord calls these prayers a pretense. They could not be true prayers when offered with such an ulterior purpose. … Men who rob widows, and use prayer as a means of securing opportunities for committing a crime, shall receive a sentence in excess of that which falls to the lot of the dishonest man who makes no pretense to piety; to the sentence of the robber will be added in their case the sentence on the hypocrite. — Wuest, pages 241-242.

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Our Lord’s teaching in the Court of the Gentiles had ceased, and He had passed within the low marble wall which fenced off the inner precinct of the Temple from the Gentiles. He was now in the Court of the Women. Here were thirteen chests placed at intervals around the walls, each marked with the purpose to which the offerings were to be devoted. This colonnade under which these chests were placed, was called The Treasury. — Wuest, page 242.

poor (v.42) — not just poor, but a pauper, poverty-stricken. She had nothing.

mite (v.42) — the smallest coin in circulation, an eighth of a denarius. Two mites would be worth a fourth of a cent.

The widow’s offering was much greater than that of the rich on a percentage basis. She gave 100% of what she had.

The widow cast in more than all the wealthy in the sense that relatively to their respective means, her gift was incomparably the greater. All of which means that it is not how much we give to God, but how much we withhold for ourselves that He is concerned about. The lesson is also brought home to our hearts that in the last analysis, God wants, not what we have, but us, our hearts. — Wuest, page 243.