November 10, 2024

Today's Reading: Mark 12:38-44

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 23:1-20; Matthew 25:14-30

And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. (Mark 12:38-42)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The widow enters the scene. The usual Temple characters are present, too, but Jesus draws our eyes to the widow.

The widow is not to be left alone. Moses had instructed the Israelites how they were to love the Lord God (“with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind”) and to love their neighbor (“love your neighbor as yourself”). In the Commandments, the Lord places you as His servant to care for your neighbor, especially for the weak and helpless. Moses taught how the fatherless, the orphans, the sojourners, and the widows are not to be left to fend for themselves. Deuteronomy 24:19, 21 states:

When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands… When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

The sojourner, the fatherless, the widow— don’t leave them to fend for themselves. Be with them and help them. Why? Moses tells us, “Because you, too, were a slave before you were redeemed” (Deuteronomy 24:18).

The widow shows up. She is right where she belongs— at the location where the Lord is taking care of the fatherless, the widow, and those who are alone. Those who belong to Christ Jesus are the Israel of God, says Paul (Galatians 6:16). The Word comes to the church. The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow come to the church. Be with them: help them.

These words our Lord gives us for one other: comfort, console, suffer with, encourage, build-up. For we are redeemed by Christ Jesus; we are his body, the Church.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O God, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by your Holy Spirit that, being ever mindful of the end of all things and your just judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with you forever hereafter through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen.

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.