The Widow’s Pennies – Mark 12:38-44

A text – Mark 12:38-44

³⁸ As 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 ³⁹ and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! ⁴⁰ They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

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

A reflection:

Jesus, the Word of God, existing before the creation of the universe with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, this amazing person of the Trinity chose to be incarnated and live on earth as a part of our planet. He came from God, the Holy Trinity. He knew how the Triune God had worked for centuries at being in relationship with the children of Israel. But as Jesus grew as a human being, he could see how society worked. He could see how some got rich and others got poor, how some people jockeyed for position at the expense of others, and how whole classes of people, like widows and orphans, through absolutely no fault of their own, had to barely survive in life. And, what was worse, he could see that the very institution that claimed to be centered on the worship of God was making it worse. Those poor folks as well as the rich were taught to pay in to the system which ignored them. And they did.

So Jesus lets loose on the scribes in this lesson, painting a pretty vivid picture of social climbing, and then sees this widow put two pennies into the box, two pennies that might have fed her but now would add almost nothing to the treasury intake for that day. Folks have often read the widow’s story as being about devotion – she has given what little she had in devotion to God. If Jesus had added three more words to verse 44, it would read “…she has put in everything she had to live on…Isn’t she wonderful?” But many scholars believe that, because Jesus has just scolded the scribes for having their priorities wrong, Jesus is pointing out the widow’s act as a consequence of the church leaders’ bad priorities. Even widows feel they must give their last penny even though it costs them their last meal. They argue that Jesus is saying “…she has put in everything she had to live on…Isn’t this deplorable?”

Jesus points the widow out to his followers so that they can see the big picture. God loves widows and rich persons alike as God’s children, but God doesn’t like the position the rich have placed this widow in. The church has lost its focus on loving God and loving the neighbor, and it enriches itself so it can survive as an institution. Faithfulness here is not about turning to God with our whole being, then taking God’s abundant love and sharing it with anyone who needs it – the poor, the alien, the downcast. Instead the entire system of church ordinances and sacrifices and festivals costs the poor far more than it costs the rich, far more than the poor can afford. Jesus could see that economics and politics was part of Israel’s problem. But when he pointed it out to people whose livelihood was bound up in those politics, they of course despised him. He was the voice of God, the very Word of God, living among them. But they could not hear him.

Can we hear him? What would it mean if we loved God with our whole heart, mind, and life, and our neighbor as ourselves? What would be uncomfortable if we did it? What would we have to give up in order to do it? And who would it free us to pay attention to, to love them as God loves them?

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for the lesson Jesus teaches us about the powerful people and the widow and her pennies. Help us to interpret Jesus the way he meant his disciples to learn from this lesson. Help us to love you with our whole lives and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.