The Widow's Gift

Mark 12: 38-44 (November 8, 2009)

1) The Text

38As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

41He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43Then 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. 44For 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.”

2) The Context

A scribe has asked Jesus: which is the greatest precept in the law? His agreement that the laws to love God and to love one’s neighbor are the most important has led Jesus to tell him that he is almost ready for the kingdom of God. Now, as Jesus teaches in the synagogue, he warns of certain scribes (professional interpreters of the Law) who “walk around” ostentatiously, seek honor in public places (“marketplaces”) and seek prestige “in ... synagogues” (v. 39) and “at banquets”. (“Long robes”, v. 38, may be prayer shawls, normally worn only when praying. The “best seats”, v. 39, in the synagogue were near the Ark – where the scrolls were kept – and faced the congregation; the “places of honor” were couches at the host’s table.)

Certain scribes, as legal trustees of a widow’s estate, charged exorbitantly for their services. The fee was usually a part of the estate, but some took the “widows’ houses” (v. 40). Some kept up an appearance of piety. On the other hand, a “poor widow” (v. 42) is an example of good discipleship. Jesus is “opposite the treasury” (v. 41), possibly in the outer court of the Temple, where people placed their offerings in chests. The “poor widow” – widows were often poor – makes a real sacrifice in giving two leptas, the lowest value coin in circulation; she “has put in more than all those” (v. 43) rich people who only give what they do not need.

3) Interpretation

a. Generosity

Mark is fond of contrasts. From the exploited widows, abused by religious power-people, we turn to one particular widow offering her all to God’s house. It is one of those anecdotes about Jesus where he is not the hero: the woman is. The scribes exploit and grab in their spiritual poverty; she in her poverty has a wealth of generosity. She is a type of Jesus himself: a self-giving person. The parading men are upstaged by what most would have seen as a pathetic woman, probably a beggar (Greek: ‘ptoche’ - really poor). She is as memorable as the suspect woman who will anoint him a chapter later in 14:3-9. We miss the point of both stories if we press their logic and identify their causes. The temple is done for. Jesus needs no oil. In both, the point is the total openness, the costly self-giving, the vulnerability.

Mark is clear that God’s way is the way of self-giving love and God’s community needs to be a place where love has freed people to be like that, and that includes its leadership. Leadership and the grace to liberate leaders from living out their own needs at others’ expense are a key theme.

One cannot help thinking back on the alternatives: the rich man too big for the kingdom, the disciples too obsessed with themselves to understand, the authorities needing to protect the confusion of their own interests tangled with what they saw as God’s. In contrast: the little child, Bartimaeus the sidelined, this widow, then the woman anointing his feet, and Jesus, himself.

Jesus uses the widow's gift to teach his disciples about the nature of service to God. A sizable gift, with its capacity to do great things for God, is not as valuable in God's sight as the motivation behind the gift. The widow's expression of total commitment to God is far more valuable than a generous gift which does little to the affluence of the giver, even though the gift may achieve wonderful ends.

b. Social Injustice

This scene takes place in the Temple in Jerusalem: the centre of Jewish worship, the focus of Jewish identity, the seat of Jewish power. The Temple complex was made up of various courtyards which became increasingly exclusive the closer one came to the religious heart of the Temple - the Holy of Holies: the place where God dwelt.

The story about Jesus observing a widow giving money to the Temple is set in the Court of the Women - one of the outer, less holy areas. Mark records this short passing comment from Jesus about the widow giving more than everyone else, but we get no idea of Jesus's mood, or his tone of voice, and this is where I think we sometimes misunderstand exactly what Jesus was drawing his disciples' attention to.

We frequently think we hear Jesus say, 'this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others; what a wonderful example of self-sacrifice and devotion to God.' I think we need to listen for Jesus saying, 'this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others; just look how the Temple authorities are screwing those last few coins out of the poorest of the poor. This is not the God I came to bear witness to!'

One of the recurring themes of the gospel is that Jesus repeatedly challenges the corruption and idolatry of the Temple, offering a radically new understanding of God's relationship with humanity in its place. The widow may have been a woman of great faith. Her gift might have come from the heart and been a willing sacrifice. But I feel sure Jesus was fast reaching the conclusion that the Temple was a corrupt institution taking what it could get from those who had the least to give, and wrapping it all up inside a call to religious obedience.

In the Temple, by drawing his disciples' attention to the actions of the widow and her gift, Jesus was drawing their attention to an issue of social justice. He showed them something that should not have been happening in a fair and just society.

4) Thought Exercise

Is this more a story about the generosity of giving or of social injustice?

Is there a social justice dimension to our faith?