4 x 6 Plan | Read: Mark 12:35-44 & 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.” (Mark 12:44)
A different interpretation from Re-enacting the Way
For centuries, Christians have assumed that Jesus wants us to emulate a poor widow’s sacrificial giving of her only 2 coins. As the story goes in Mark 12, Jesus was watching people put money into the Temple treasury. Rich people put in a lot of money. Then, a poor widow put in 2 small copper coins worth about a penny. Jesus saw a lesson here for the disciples so he gathered them together and said:
“this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury; for they gave out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, gave all she owned, all she had to live on.” – Mark 12:43-44
Jesus’ commentary makes it clear that the widow felt the impact of her contribution much more than all the rich people giving money they didn’t need. She gave the only money she had to buy food to survive. Her sacrifice had painful consequences in her poverty.
Before we can jump to personal application like so many do, we need to make sure we understand Jesus’ original meaning. Is the point of Jesus’ observation to praise the sacrificial heart and actions of the widow? The only way to answer that question is to examine the context. Each story included in each Gospel is contributing to a larger story about Jesus’ identity and mission. We must interpret each story by how it connects to the material before and after it. In the case of the widow’s offering, that context completely changes our assumptions about what Jesus is communicating.
If you read carefully, you recognize that Jesus talks about widows in the preceding context and the Temple in his subsequent remarks to the disciples. That context is how we should understand the story about the widow giving her last penny to the Temple.
Jesus is angry at other Jewish teachers who are persuading widows to give all their money to the Temple bank account. He sees a corrupt religious system that no longer honors God’s heart to care for the needy. Teachers of the Law no longer honor the intent of the Law. Instead, the system has created wealthy religious celebrities who construct lavish buildings and pray in long robes to puff up their public reputation, while the poor go bankrupt. That’s why he isn’t impressed by the “wonderful stones” and “wonderful buildings” in the Temple complex.
Jesus is intentionally highlighting the widow’s gift to the Temple as an illustration of how messed up Jerusalem is. He is condemning Jerusalem’s leaders just like Amos and Isaiah and Ezekiel did before him. The widow’s gift is evidence of what Ezekiel saw in the Temple over 600 years earlier: “The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner without justice” (Ezekiel 22:29). In that context of prophetic judgment against Jerusalem, the widow’s offering takes on a much different meaning than we first suspect.
Action Steps
Bible: What is God showing me? What am I going to do about it?
Bless: Serve one person through word, action, or gift today.
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