Mark 12:38-end: The Widow’s Offering
In Mark 12, Jesus is confronted by three questioners, on tax, on resurrection and then on the law. Each question revealed more about the values of the questioner. The chapter ends with Jesus simply pointing out what the kingdom is about, a real-life picture that painted a thousand words.
The great temple had a collection box (in our church it’s marked “donations’ ‘) where people give money in public view. A procession of rich men display their generosity and ostentatiously give large amounts. Then a poverty-stricken widow gives two small coins. Jesus notices both and highlights her: she is now enshrined in the Bible as an example of faith.
What mattered to the men watching, and to the institution of the Temple, was the amount. They wanted approval and status, and the temple needed to fix the roof and pay the priests. What matters to God was the motive, the reason behind the gift. The crucial arena was the human heart, not the physical space.
The rich men wanted to look and feel important, and display their self-sufficiency and largesse. All for approval. The widow reluctantly parades her insignificance, impressing only Jesus, and declares her total dependence on God. Her gift mattered nothing to the roof fund, but it was everything to God. Jesus affirms the fact that she casts her vulnerability on to God – I think this is central to understanding how he thinks.
Some of us criticise the rich men, yet that is the category in which we sit, including me. Look at where this incident sits in the text. The last thing to happen in Chapter 11 is the cleansing of the Temple, the first thing to happen in Chapter 13 is Jesus’ prediction of its destruction. In between, the widow casts her faith on God.
Prayer: Lord, help me to understand what it means to give my all, and depend on you for my life. Forgive me when I care more about the approval of others. Amen
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