你关心那些寡妇吗？DoYou Care About the Widows?
作者:
R.C. Sproul 譯者: Maria Marta
根據聖經的教導，做到心虔志誠，並不一定意味著你是敬虔的。成為虔誠的人可能只意味著你參與以宗教作裝飾的活動，也就是說你可能是一名假宗教成員。然而，聖經有時從積極的意義上談論宗教，即在實踐意義上，結出真正信靠基督，委身上帝話語的果子。
使徒雅各強調宗教是那些真正信靠耶穌基督的人的實踐，真敬虔是什麽模樣? 雅各說，真敬虔是表現出有在基督裡的得救信心（雅二14–26）。他告訴我們，真敬虔不僅是「在我們心思裏對正確教義的持守」的問題，盡管這是必要的。不，真敬虔是指用教義塑造我們的生命達到一個程度，以致我們表露出上帝希望我們活出來的那種生命。雅各給出真宗教、真敬虔的簡潔定義：「純潔無玷汙的虔誠，就是照顧患難中的孤兒寡婦，並且保守自己不被世俗所汙染。」雅各將照顧寡婦和孤兒的行動提升為「清潔沒有玷汙的虔誠」的本質。我深信這種觀念非常重要，但却被今天的教會漠視。
在這篇文章中，我想把重點特別放在「寡婦」這話題上。寡婦和照顧寡婦在上帝為祂的教會制定的議程中占據顯著的位置。在使徒時代的教會，「寡婦被忽略」是其中一個最早出現的問題。如果這是第一世紀教會的問題，那麼在二十個世紀之後，在我們當中多麼有可能犯有忽略寡婦的罪？
在我成長的過程中，在我的祖父去世後，我的祖母搬進我們家，與我們一起生活了很多年。有好幾次，她在深夜與我交談，哭著告訴我她的痛苦重擔，她覺得自己不僅失去了丈夫，而且也失去了社區的地位。自從她丈夫過世後，她突然感到被排除在丈夫活著時與她緊密相聯的事情之外。一個人失去自己的終身伴侶，就像失去他自己完整、親密的一部分，因為聖經告訴我們，丈夫與妻子在婚姻的奧秘中成為一體。所以，守寡的痛苦帶來孤單的獨特維度。當一個人長期習慣了配偶的穩定相伴，突然變成孤單一人，這是何等的悲痛欲絕。因為上帝是祂的子民的偉大的安慰者，所以祂對遭遇痛苦經歷的寡婦如此關心是有道理的。
那麼，為什麼雅各不提鰥夫？畢竟，鰥夫也經歷失去終身伴侶的相同痛苦的劇痛。每一個曾與我交談過的人都無例外地說，他們希望先離去，因為他們無法想象沒有妻子的生活。我不能證明這一點，但我認為這就是男人的正常平均壽命比女人的正常平均壽命短的原因之一，因為上帝恩待我們男人，祂知道我們不如女人堅強。但我確實知道，寡婦在每個時代和每種文化當中總會經歷特別的困難。在古代世界，她們面對特別的問題。沒有保險、年金、或其他各種各樣的資助，沒有丈夫，寡婦通常是社區中最易受傷和最無助的人。在古代社會，寡婦幾乎沒有生計來源。因此，舊約和新約把照顧寡婦的責任交給教會。
從耶穌的教導中得知，祂常常關心寡婦。 只要想想馬可福音十二章41–45節所記載的寡婦捐一個銅錢的故事便可看出來。在教會裡，通常誰會獲得人們的注意？是那些大的捐助者，那些其捐贈對教會預算的持續供資是如此重要的人。很少人會注意那些捐款微薄，對教會的預算底線無關緊要的貧困者。但是耶穌注意到每一個被忽視的人。祂告訴祂的聽眾看看貧窮的寡婦。盡管這位婦女只捐給聖殿等值兩便士的銅錢，但她比所有其他捐贈財寶的人投（進奉獻箱）的更多，因為她捐出她的不足，她捐出對上帝的忠誠。
在新約聖經- 約翰福音十九章19:16b–27節，記錄了其中一個最溫柔的瞬間。當耶穌基督在十字架上，朝母親的方向望去，她是祂受難的目擊證人，耶穌對她說：「母親，看！你的兒子。」耶穌不是要求祂的母親看祂。她顯然在看著祂。然後耶穌對約翰說，「看！你的母親。」耶穌臨終時，祂將照顧祂寡居母親的責任托付给祂心愛的們徒約翰。在十字架上，耶穌對約翰說：「約翰，你照顧我的母親。她是一個寡婦，所以她對你來說就是你的母親」，然後祂又對馬利亞說，「母親，約翰對你來說就是你的兒子。」
兒子有什麽用？照顧他們的母親。母親的作用只能照顧他們的孩子？想想這些年來，母親們把握所有的機會照顧她們的孩子，現在她們開始孤獨過日，我們首先要照顧的必然是尚存的家人。但決不能到此為止，因為較大的家是教會。雅各，耶穌的兄弟，認為照顧寡婦這個任務是如此的重要，以致他用「照顧寡婦」來描述真宗教的实質。你自以為虔誠，但你卻不關心寡婦？你的虔誠是有名無實的，因為雅各說純潔無玷汙的虔誠，就是照顧患難中的孤兒寡婦。
本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌2017年二月號 。
Caring for Widows
by
R.C. Sproul
In
biblical terms, to be religious does not necessarily mean you are godly. To be
religious can mean simply that you’re involved in the trappings of religion,
that you may be a member of a false religion. Yet, the Scriptures sometimes
speak of religion in a positive sense, in the sense of practice that is the
fruit of true faith in Christ and commitment to His Word.
The
Apostle James focuses on religion as the practice of those who have true faith
in Jesus, and he says that true religion demonstrates the presence of saving
trust in the Lord (James 2:14–26). What true godliness looks like, he tells us,
is not a matter of merely holding to right doctrine with our minds, though that
is essential. No, true godliness means that doctrine shapes our lives to such a
degree that we manifest the kind of life God wants us to live. And James gives
us a succinct definition of true religion, of true godliness: “Pure and
undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: To visit orphans and
widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James
elevates the activity of caring for widows and orphans as the very essence of
pure and unde led religion. That strikes me as being very significant, and it’s
an idea that is neglected in the church today.
In
this article, I want to focus particularly on widows. Widows and their care
figure prominently in the agenda that God has set for His church. One of the
earliest problems that arose in the Apostolic church was that the widows were
being neglected. And if that was a problem in the first-century church, how
much more likely is it that we, twenty centuries later, would be guilty of
neglecting the widows in our midst?
After
my grandfather died, my grandmother moved into our home and lived with us for
many years as I was growing up. On several occasions, she would talk to me late
at night and weep, telling me of the burden of pain she had in feeling like she
had not only lost her husband but that she had also lost her place in the
community. Once her husband passed, she suddenly felt excluded from the things
she was intimately involved with alongside him while he was alive. When a
person loses her lifelong mate, it’s like losing an integral, intimate part of
one’s self because husband and wife, we are told, in the mystery of marriage
are one flesh. So, the pain of widowhood brings a unique dimension of
loneliness. It’s jarring to suddenly be alone when one has been accustomed to
the constant companionship with one’s spouse over a long period of time. Since
God is the great Comforter of His people, it makes sense that He would have
such concern for widows given the pain they experience.
Now,
why does James not mention the widowers? After all, the widower also
experiences that same pang of suffering that goes with losing a lifelong mate.
Well, every man that I’ve ever talked to always says they want to go first
because they can’t imagine living life without their wives. I can’t prove it,
but I think that’s one of the reasons why the normal life expectancy of the man
is shorter than the life expectancy of the woman, because God is gracious to us
men, and He knows that we’re not as strong as women. But what I do know for
sure is that widows have always experienced particular difficulties in every age
and culture. They faced particular problems in the ancient world. There weren’t
insurance programs, annuities, or other sorts of things, and without a husband,
the widow was usually the most vulnerable and helpless person in the community.
Widows had little or no means of support in ancient societies. Thus, the care
of the widows was given to the church both in the Old Testament and in the New.
Jesus
frequently pays attention to widows in His teaching. Just consider the story of
the widow’s mite in Mark 12:41–45. Who is it that normally gets the attention
in the church? The people who are the big donors, the ones whose donations are
so important to the ongoing funding of the church’s budget. Few pay attention
to the poverty-stricken person who makes a tiny donation that’s insignificant
to the budget’s bottom line. But Jesus noticed what everyone else overlooked.
He told His hearers to look at the poor widow. Even though the woman gave only
the equivalent of two pennies to the temple, she put in more than all the rest
of the people who donated heavily to the treasury because in giving out of her
own poverty, she gave out of her devotion to God.
One
of the most tender moments recorded in the New Testament is found in John
19:16b–27. While Christ was on the cross, He looked in the direction of His
mother, who was an eyewitness to His passion, and He said to her, “Woman,
behold your son!” He was not asking His mother to look at Him. Obviously, she
already was looking at Him. Then, Jesus said to John, “Behold your mother!” In
His dying moments, Jesus was commending the care of His widowed mother to His
beloved disciple, John. On the cross, Jesus said to John, “John, you take care
of My mother. She’s a widow, so let her be to you as your own mother.” To Mary,
He said, “Mother, let John be to you as your own son.”
What
are sons for? To look after their mothers. What are mothers for but to look
after their children? When you think of all of the years and the opportunities
where mothers have looked after their children when they enter into their
loneliness, the first line of care is to be the surviving family. But it by no
means stops there, because the larger family is the church. James, the brother
of Jesus, sees this mandate to care for widows as so important that he uses it
to describe the crystallized essence of true religion. Do you think you’re
religious, but you don’t care about the widows? Your religion is an exercise in
futility, because James says pure and undefiled religion is the care of widows
and of orphans in times of trouble.
