(a Steve Orr scripture reflection)
What is it with Hollywood making folk heroes out of very real bad guys?
In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the two were handsome, swashbuckling cowboys (portrayed by Paul Newman and Robert Redford). In real life, Butch and Sundance were actually Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh. They were thieves. They robbed trains and banks. They were bad people who stole real money from ordinary working people.
In The Sting, Newman and Redford return as two handsome Depression Era rogues named Henry Gondorf and Johnny Hooker. They con a fortune out of a murdering gang boss. We find ourselves cheering them on. After all, didn’t “the mark” deserve his comeuppance? But that fictional story is based on the true story of brothers Fred and Charley Gondorf, a couple of real-life grifters. They swindled anyone and everyone out of whatever money they could get. They were bad people who stole real money from ordinary working people.
No matter how you dress them up—no matter how you work to make them seem like good people—bad people are bad. The things they do hurt real people. Contrary to the movies, most con artists are heartless criminals with no concern for anyone but themselves. Most will stoop to anything, including murder, to get what they want.
And that brings us to this week's Gospel of Mark selection where Jesus identifies a surprising con artist scam.
As students of God’s Law, scribes dressed themselves in respectability. People trusted them to explain how to live a life approved by God. There were likely some good scribes. But Jesus charged the group of them with something worse than criminal behavior: using their understanding of God's Law to swindle people. And not just any people. They were guilty of fleecing widows and their families out of the little they had, even to the point of making them homeless. They were truly wolves in sheep’s clothing.
I know. It's hard to believe someone could stoop so low.
Sad as it is to contemplate, there are people among us who will swindle us out of our money. They will use God, Jesus, the Bible—whatever works—to move our property from our control to theirs. And they absolutely do not care if their "marks" are already impoverished or hurting from the loss of a loved one. All they care about is whether they can scam the mark.
We have to be alert to these wolves—still. We need wisdom to discern them from the real sheep. It's bad enough that these kinds of people walk our streets. It is far worse that they walk the aisles of our churches. They don't just "sting" their marks. They destroy them, wound their faith, and drive them away from God.
For those who have fallen prey to these wolves, Jesus promised: “They will be punished most severely.” Until that day, we must lean into the guidance Jesus gave His followers about wolves in sheep’s clothing: “Be wise as serpents, harmless as doves.”
