Soft Hearted - August 20
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 140, 142; PM Psalm 141, 143:1-11(12); 2 Samuel 19:24-43; Acts 24:24-25:12; Mark 12:35-44
Today’s Reflection
As he taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’
He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’ –Mark 12: 38-44
Oftentimes the passage we read today from Mark 12 gets used to explain tithing and stewardship. Something along the lines of “no gift is too small,” or that what matters is that we give sacrificially. The principle often focused on when discussing this passage is that all of what you have when you have a very little is considered more sacrificial in Jesus’ eyes than giving just a little when you have greater wealth.
It’s not that the above principles aren’t the point, because on one level this is what Jesus hoped his listeners would take away from his parable. The crux of this teaching from Jesus, though, seems deeper than principles of relative amounts and percentages when it comes to tithing and stewardship. To me, this parable—and much of Jesus’ teaching and life—has to do with motivation, with purpose. Jesus is interested in the state of one’s heart. Is your heart in the right place? Are you going through life with a basic orientation of being hard hearted or soft hearted?
Why is Jesus warning us about the scribes? He’s warning us about the scribes because they’re going through life concerned with keeping up appearances and gaining positions of influence. The scribes are all about looking out for themselves at the expense of others. They are hypocrites who in one moment are “devour[ing] widows’ houses” and the next moment “for the sake of appearance” are “say[ing] long prayers.” Jesus is warning against hypocrisy, looking out for the needs of oneself over the needs of others, being more concerned with keeping up appearances than doing the genuinely hard work of being transformed through a life of sacrifice and prayer. Jesus is warning against a life of hard-heartedness, of being able to walk through life unaffected by the pains and sorrows faced by others.
Jesus is calling his followers, his children, to be better than that. In a world that for centuries has privileged the people who look out for themselves and emphasizes keeping up appearances, Jesus turned all that upside down. Jesus lifted up the lowly. Jesus saw beauty in the widow’s decision to give out of her scarcity, beauty in her willingness to give everything. This widow, who had next to nothing, looked around and saw a world in need—she looked around and maybe noticed some people who needed two copper coins more than she did. The widow was walking through the world with a soft heart—a heart that couldn’t help but notice and be affected by the pains and sorrows of others. Instead of saying I don’t have anything, I can’t do anything, the widow essentially was saying, through her gift, “I can’t do much, but at least I can do this.”
In yesterday’s Gospel reading, Jesus quoted the Shema, which captures what is most important in life: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.” Love God—and live with others in a way that shows radical empathy. Go through life with a soft heart rather than a hard heart. Go through life with an ethic of mutual encouragement and respect for others’ experiences. Be vulnerable—share your soft spots, and be open to being touched by the soft, vulnerable spots of others. Be soft with others in the way that you go through life—but also be soft with yourself.
Last night, I was reading a poem that a friend shared about this experience of going through life hard-hearted or soft-hearted. I’ll close the reflection for today with some lines from this poem by John Roedel (and if you’d like to read the whole thing, you can find a link in the Daily Challenge below):
don’t be so hard
that you break down so easily.
be soft
like wet clay
in the hands of a potter
be soft like
river water
in the summer
be soft like
the breeze through
a row of tall pines
all of those things
survive no matter what
happens to them
they endure because
they haven’t built their
existence out of hard
materials
be soft with other people
don’t break them
with your words
and don’t let them break you with theirs
be soft with yourself
your heart is more cotton
than iron
Questions for Self-Reflection
Looking back, when were some moments you experienced someone’s hard heartedness? When have you been hard hearted? And when were some moments you experienced someone’s soft-heartedness? And when have you been soft-hearted? What would it look like to be softer with others? What would it look like to be softer with yourself?
Daily Challenge
Read the rest of John Roedel’s poem through his public Facebook page, and other poems and reflections by him on his website.