A Scribe’s Awakening
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Mark 12:28-34
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031326.cfm
In a lot of the gospels, the scribes are associated with Pharisees, elders, and Sadducees. There normally is a critique on how their perspectives are screwed, but in today’s gospel, we see more to the scribes, well at least this one. With these stories having passed down via oral tradition before they were documented, we know it has a significance on mentioning it was a scribe. The person being a scribe has a two-fold value because of what it shows about Jesus and about the scribe. In one way, it’s a proof of Jesus’s teaching as the scribe agrees and validates Jesus. In another way, it shows that some of the scribes kept an open-mind and thought critically about what Jesus said in such a way to shift the way they saw things.
The scribe ultimately comes up with the conclusion that not only does Jesus’s commandments fully summarize the law, but it also has more value than rituals for forgiveness and alignment with God. He says that Jesus’s commandments are worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. Those rituals/sacraments were a means of restoring one’s relationship with God, but if one lives by Jesus’s commands, there’s no need for such rituals. If we live by Jesus’s commandments, we will be in the right relationship with God and our fellow man. Jesus responds to the scribe's confirmation and insight by saying that the scribe is not far from the kingdom of God. Seeing that the scholarly among them were in agreement with Jesus, the rest of the crowd remained silent without any more questions.
In this gospel, there was no real “Gotcha!” but there was definitely an “Aha!”. God is seeking for us to have awakenings like with the scribe in today’s story. To think critically about the world around us and validate when we find and see truth. God is always giving us the opportunity for further transformation and growth, but we must be open to it. We can’t be dismissive like we normally hear about the scribes in the other gospel stories. While there might be the standard narrative about the scribes, that doesn’t mean that they are limited to that narrative. I’m sure some of the Pharisees and Sadducees experienced transformation through listening to the teachings of Jesus. As Jesus spoke of the redemption of tax collectors and prostitutes, he was just as open to the transformation of the scribes and religious leaders. It is much harder though for a person who is benefited by the power structures of the world to be open to the transformation that Christ offers. That, for me, is what makes this gospel so powerful.
Regardless of where we sit in society, Jesus is there for all of us. May we keep ourselves open to Jesus’s transformative power in our times of success as much as we are in our times of trouble.
