I find it curious that Jesus never rebuked people for their beliefs or their doctrines, but he did for their behavior. With his disciples, Jesus warned against those scribes who appear in nice clothes, greet others in the market place and desire places of honor at banquets, yet they take over houses of widows and for appearance sake pray long prayers. In effect they are hypocrites who will receive a harsher condemnation. In the midst of his warning Jesus said that they, the scribes, devour widows’ houses. All the other descriptions are obvious, but how would they “devour a widow’s house”? In that culture a widow and possibly her children would have been the most vulnerable people in society. After the death of her husband a widow would have been both grieving and wondering how she was going to survive, particularly if she lacked other family members to assist her. A wealthy man, maybe even appearing as a benefactor, could offer to purchase her home, quite possibly at less than the value of the home, if the widow was not aware of the true value of the house. In that culture, the wealthy were considered blessed by God and were honored for their apparently moral and religious behavior. These scribes may even have been considered blessed in that transaction, because they acquired the house at such a favorable price.
Reading this account I wondered how often we hear of someone getting a “great deal” and give thanks to God for giving them such a great deal, but fail to consider all the facts. Was a widow’s house devoured in the process? Like the first century society, our own society tends to give recognition to those who have acquired wealth and give them special attention, without knowing the details and business deals that happened to acquire that wealth. How often does this take place and we call it getting a great deal and are blessed by God? These scribes were considered by society and by themselves to be blessed by God, because they had accumulated wealth, but Jesus had a very different perspective on what they were doing. As a people of God we are called to be a blessing and therefore we are to be vigilant, so that in our dealings with others, we are not trading on the misfortune that someone else might be going through. Are we getting a great deal, because someone else is in a difficult and desperate situation like those widows may have been in? They have to sell so their buyer is taking advantage of them. It might be good to pause and ask ourselves why we are getting such a good deal to make sure that both parties are getting a good and fair deal, so that both parties can walk away feeling like they have been blessed by God.
David Freitag 