There are people that I don’t admire and never want to be like. But there are also people that I do admire and do want to be like. This is the warning and the invitation of this text. The warning of our text is to beware of this. The invitation of this text is to be like that. Beware of the scribes and be like the poor widow!

Look at Luke 20:45 – 21:4…

45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

1 Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Beware of this and be like that. Beware of the scribes and be like the poor widow. Be warned and be invited. Be warned of the bad news and be encouraged by the invitation of the good news. Be warned against religious hypocrisy, which wages war against Christ, and be invited to trust in Christ as humble and poor beggars who bring nothing more to the table than our sin. This is the warning and the invitation of this text. Beware of the scribes and be like the poor widow!

20:45 – 47: Beware Of The Scribes

In verses 45 – 47 of chapter 20 Jesus warns us to beware of the scribes because their extravagant lifestyles, their pursuit of social status, their destructive appetites and their religious rhetoric is leading to their impending doom. Beware of the scribes!

46: Beware of their extravagant lifestyles

Jesus says “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes” with all of their self righteous pomp and extravagant outward show as if their long extravagant robes actually made them more holy then the common crowd. Beware of this my friends. The desire to live in external extravagance is rooted in decaying hearts. Beware of your tendency to pursue a more extravagant lifestyle.

46: Beware of their pursuit of social status

Jesus says “Beware of the scribes… who love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts.” This is the pursuit of social status. The desire to be honored with a title in public is the pursuit of social status. The desire to have the best seat in the house is the pursuit of social status. The desire to be the honored guest at public events is the pursuit of social status. The pursuit of social status is like the pursuit of the best social media post. The pursuit of social status is the pursuit of self-glory. Beware of your desire to pursue social status.

47: Beware of their destructive appetites

Jesus says “Beware of the scribes… who devour widow’s houses” because of their destructive appetites. The phrase “devour widow’s houses” means to consume something destructively. The scribes saw God’s people as a means of gain rather than a responsibility to serve. They engaged their ministry with a sense of what was in this for them instead of what were they were called to give. They were consumers not investors. They were wolves instead of sheeply shepherds. They consumed the weak rather than serving the helpless. They attacked the lowly instead of protecting them. They stole from the needy instead of feeding them. If a church pursued any of these scribes to be their pastor these men would have asked “what’s in it for me?” instead of asking “how can I serve you?” Servant leadership is not self-serving it is selfless and humiliating. Beware of your tendency to feed your own destructive appetite.

47: Beware of their religious rhetoric

Jesus says “Beware of the scribes… who… for a pretense make long prayers”. In other words watch out for religious rhetoric or smooth talk or Christianeze. The religious leaders in the crowd had built an entire religious culture out of long and loud public prayers while openly opposing Christ. Every culture has its language and it’s the same in the Christian bubble. We say “I love you bother” or “I’m praying for you sister” or “it’s all for the glory of God” or “it’s by the grace of God”. These are just examples of popular religious rhetoric. These things aren’t bad to say and in fact they are very good to say if they flow from hearts that are resting in these truths out into lifestyles that model these truths. But to learn a cultural language and to speak it only to appear to be a part of that culture or to appear to be on the leading edge of that culture while being destructive to the very culture you claim to be invested in is hypocrisy at it’s highest degree and Jesus is calling that out once again by saying… Hey… beware of the temptation within you to adopt religious rhetoric that isn’t backed up with holy lifestyles.

47: Beware of their impending doom

The reason we need to beware or be warned against all these things the scribes were doing is because Jesus says “Beware of the scribes… They will receive the greater condemnation”. In other words… their doom is impending. Their destruction is coming and the interesting thing is that Jesus (the one whom they sought to murder and eventually do murder) will be the very one who brings the entire weight of their impending doom down upon them in the coming judgment. Beware or be warned of the coming judgment. If you choose not to heed these words and instead choose to be like the scribes then you will receive greater condemnation. Beware of your temptation to be like the scribes because their doom and your doom if you are like them is impending!

Head, Heart, Hands Application

Think about your desire for a more extravagant lifestyle or your pursuit of higher social status. Contemplate for a moment what destructive appetites you struggle with. Think about how easy it is to project an external religious rhetoric that doesn’t match the internal position of your heart. Think of the coming judgment & destruction that Jesus warns us about here. Jesus warns us to beware of the scribes because their extravagant lifestyles, their pursuit of social status, their destructive appetites and their religious rhetoric will lead to their doom. Beware of the scribes & be like the poor widow. This is the warning and the invitation of this text.

21:1 – 4: Be Like The Poor Widow

In verses 1 – 4 of chapter 21 Jesus teaches us to be like the poor widow whose poverty wasn’t an excuse for selfishness but instead it was a powerful motivator for generosity. Her gift was worth more than it was worth because it was given as a sacrifice rather than a leftover and her gift was given as an act of dependence & total trust. Be like the poor widow!

1 – 2: Her poverty wasn’t an excuse for selfishness it was a motivator for generosity

As Jesus was speaking, Luke tells us that he “looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.” Evidently there were offering boxes in the temple for people to give their offerings to the Lord and there were both wealthy people giving their offerings and poor people giving their offerings and specifically in this case there was a poor widow giving her two cents to the Lord. This poor widow is an example of godly generosity for us and she stands in stark contrast to the scribes that Jesus has just warned us about because she is poor but nevertheless she doesn’t let her poverty become an excuse to be close-fisted with her money but instead she uses her poverty as motivation for open-handed generosity. The invitation of this text is to be like the poor widow whose poverty wasn’t an excuse for selfishness but was instead a powerful motivator for practicing godly generosity.

3: Her gift was worth more than it was worth

As Jesus observes this poor widow giving her two cents while all the wealthy folks are dropping large gold & silver coins into the offering boxes he says “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them”. In other words… this poor widow’s gift was worth more than it was worth and it was worth more than what everyone else gave. It’s too easy to compare our tiny offerings with someone else’s large financial gifts and begin to think that our little offering isn’t helpful. It’s equally as easy to see what little someone else brings to the table and diminish the worth of their offering. But Jesus turns all of this comparison making upside down by saying that this widow’s gift was worth more than everyone else’s gift combined. The invitation of this text is to give generously without regard to the physical value of the gift because even the tiniest gift given from the right heart is more valuable than all of the gold and silver in this world combined.

4: Her gift was sacrificial not leftover

Jesus says, “they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on”. In other words… while some wealthy people were giving out of their leftovers this poor widow woman was giving sacrificially. She gave until it hurt. She gave all that she had to the Lord. She didn’t pay her bills and then give the leftovers to God. She gave all that she had to live on to the Lord. The invitation of this text is to give generously & sacrificially to the Lord instead of giving your leftovers to him because God didn’t give his leftovers to you and I. He gave his best. He gave until it hurt. He gave sacrificially. He gave his son Jesus to pay the price of our sin, which bankrupts our souls. So the invitation of this text is to not only be like this poor widow woman in our giving but to also be like God in our giving. We are being invited to model Christ sacrificially through our giving. We are being invited to give sacrificially to the Lord instead of giving our leftovers to God.

4: Her gift was an act of dependence & total trust

Don’t forget that this poor widow “out of her poverty put in all she had to live on”. Her gift was an act of complete dependence and total trust in the Lord as her provider and king. How else could a poor widow put everything she had to live on into the offering box? I think its because she didn’t try to serve her money. We cannot serve both money and God because we will serve one while hating the other. I personally would rather hate money and love God because money is like a bad politician who makes big promises and doesn’t follow through while coming back and demanding more from you. The invitation of this text is to be like the poor widow woman and give our gifts as acts of complete dependence and total trust in the one true God who is the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords!

Head, Heart, Hands Application

Think about your experience of poverty for a minute. Think about where your budget is lacking. How often does your need or lack of resources become an excuse for selfishness rather than a motivator for generosity? How often do you compare the size of what you do give or could be giving to what someone else gives or could be giving? Are you giving only the leftovers to the Lord or are you giving sacrificially? Does your giving exhibit your complete dependence & trust in God as your provider and king? Jesus calls us to be like the poor widow whose poverty wasn’t an excuse for selfishness but instead was a powerful motivator for generosity. Her gift was worth more than it was worth because it was given as a sacrifice rather than a leftover and her gift was given as an act of dependence & total trust upon God. Beware of the scribes & be like the poor widow. This is the warning and the invitation of this text.

Final Thoughts…

As I wrap this up I want us to think about Jesus in light of this contrast between the scribes and the poor widow. Jesus is our only hope. This is the point of the message of the gospel. We have no hope in doing this right and I would submit that if we think we can somehow get this right in terms of resisting our tendency to be like the scribes or if we think we can get this right in terms of being like this poor widow without resting in the finished work of Christ who does this perfectly then we have missed the point of our great need for Christ to come and wash us & cleanse us with his blood and empower us by his Spirit to resist our tendencies towards being like the scribes and help us to become more and more like the poor widow.

Jesus says we need to beware of the scribes and when he says this he says it with absolute integrity because he himself wasn’t like the scribes. Jesus lived below his means. He didn’t pursue social status. He came to serve and not be served. His lifestyle matched his ministry and he will return one day to reward the wicked and the righteous according to their opposition or surrender to God.

Jesus also tells us to be like the poor widow. Poverty wasn’t an excuse for Jesus to live selfishly but it was instead a powerful motivator for him to give himself generously on our behalf. When Jesus looks at you and I, he says that we are worth more than we are worth which is why he gave his life as a sacrificial offering so that we can be made right with our father in heaven and now Jesus calls us to depend upon him as we trust in his work at the cross. This is how we live our lives in a way that we receive this warning about the scribes and this invitation to be like the poor widow. The cross of Christ is how we… beware of the scribes and be like the poor widow. This is the warning and the invitation of this text!