I. BEGINNING
There are a lot of ways you can end an argument. You can point out logical fallacies. You can claim some kind of superior knowledge of the subject matter. You can do what a seminary professor of mine said was the best way and say, “Well, in the original Hebrew…” Or you can use statistics.
| Rev. Mark Schaefer Congregation of St. Thomas the Doubter November 7, 2021 Mark 12:38–44 |
If someone tells you that, say, New Yorkers pay more in taxes than the people of DC, you can respond, “Well, per capita, nobody pays more than DC residents.” There’s nothing like drawing attention to the relative proportions to best an opponent.
II. THE TEXT
Jesus employs a similar analysis when it comes to the contribution to the temple treasury made by the poor widow. Jesus and his disciples had been sitting opposite the treasury, watching as people placed their contributions. The text tells us that a lot of rich people were there donating a “great deal of money.” Compared to those great sums, the woman throws in two tiny copper coins worth a penny.
Jesus remarks:
Trust me when I say that this poor widow has thrown in more than everyone who’s putting money into the treasury. See, everyone else is throwing in money out of their excess, but she, out of her want, threw in everything she had—her entire living.
III. THE WIDOW’S MITE
We’re not told how much the wealthy are putting into the treasury beyond the vague “great deal of money.” But we are told exactly what the widow has given. While the text says “two small copper coins,” the underlying Greek word λεπτον lepton means a “flake” or a “fish scale”: something very small and light. Together, these two small coins were worth a quadrans—one-fourth of an as and the smallest unit of Roman currency. In Jesus’ day, a quadrans was worth 1/64 or a denarius, or a day’s wage. In today’s terms, using a minimum wage of $58 a day, this would amount to about 91¢. Hardly anything at all. But Jesus tells us that relatively speaking, she has given so much more than the wealthy have.
This is a nice interpretation, especially since it can be used around stewardship time to get people to pledge. That way, you don’t have to focus on raw dollar amounts; you can just focus on percentages. It’s not really about how much money you give; it’s about what percentage of your money you give!
But is that really what Jesus is saying? Is Jesus making a simple comparison extolling the widow because she’s given more proportionally than the rich people? I’m not sure that that is entirely what he’s talking about.
IV. THE SCRIBES
Just before this episode with the widow and her two “flakes,” Jesus has taught his disciples:
“Look out for the scribes who like to walk around in robes and to be greeted in the marketplaces, who want the best seats in the synagogues and the first seats at dinner. They devour widows’ houses and are public about their long prayers. These ones will get the most extreme judgment.”
The version of this teaching that we get in Mark is not nearly so detailed and harsh as the one in Matthew and Luke’s gospels, and it is focused on one issue: the advancement of self-interest over that of the most vulnerable.
The scribes are denounced because they “like to walk around in robes and be greeted in marketplaces.” That is, they appreciate the attention and the prestige that comes with their work. They enjoy their minor celebrity status as important people in the community.
He notes that they “want the best seats in the synagogues and the first seats at dinner.” We’re not talking about “best seats” in the sense of the seats with the best views or access to the aisle or something like that. In both contexts of synagogue and dinner, we are talking about places of honor. Jesus denounces them because they are concerned with receiving praise and honor from their fellows. They are concerned with status.
And in an interesting juxtaposition, he notes that they “devour widows’ houses and are public about their long prayers.” This is an age-old prophetic judgment against the wealthy and powerful. The prophets of the Old Testament frequently criticized the people of their day for being far more concerned with piety than with justice. And here, it’s even worse because Jesus suggests that the scribes aren’t even really concerned with piety but the appearance of piety. They are “public” about their “long prayers.” That is, they really want to be seen being pious.
All of that is contrasted with what the widow does.
Jesus is drawing a distinction between the self-interested behavior of the scribes and the self-sacrificial behavior of the widow. It’s not really about money at all—either the amount or the percentage. It’s about what someone is willing to sacrifice without gain for the kingdom of God.
That’s why Jesus extols her for “giving out of her poverty” or “out of her want.” Not only has she given of herself in ways that represent a real sacrifice, but she has done so in a way that has drawn no attention to herself. Only Jesus has noticed what she has done.
A. Latter-day Scribes
Jesus’ criticism of the religious establishment remains just as relevant today. We do not have to look far to see religious leaders who are guided more by considerations of their reputations and their prestige than in the interests of justice. There are plenty who value the standing of their institutions in the community over whether those institutions have helped anyone. I had a boss who used to say, “It’s far more important that the work get done than we get the credit for it.” So many leaders in the contemporary church have it exactly backward.
And there are plenty of rank-and-file Christians who seem to think that Christianity is meant to benefit them rather than ask anything of them. They imagine that because they have made public demonstrations of piety—usually in their Twitter profiles—that they have become exempt from actually doing anything Jesus told us to do. It’s enough to place a cross and an American flag emoji next to your name—though usually not in that order—than it is to quietly live out the gospel in service of the most vulnerable.
There are a great number of Christians who are upset that their Christian faith no longer affords them privilege or gets them special access to resources or benefits. People who have become accustomed so long to a privileged place in our religious landscape that equality for other religions now feels like oppression to them.
There are people whose concept of religion is based entirely on their freedom to profess to belong to a religion and not at all on making sacrifices for the most vulnerable. Who are only too happy to publicly declare that they won’t wear a mask because of their “Christian faith” and their “freedom,” all the while ignoring the fact that the whole point of wearing one is to protect the most vulnerable, those who stand to lose everything if they contract the disease.
All of these have focused, like the scribes, on what they get out of faithrather than what they put in.
It is clear where Jesus stands on the issue: it may cost you everything. And he should know: it did cost him everything.
That is why he disparages the rich who make a show of giving vast sums, disparages the scribes who make public displays of piety, and praises the humble, poor widow who makes a quiet commitment of everything she has.
V. END
Mark’s gospel, like all of them, was written by an anonymous author. We don’t know who wrote it, but we have some clues as to where and when it might have been written.
The consensus is that Mark was written sometime in the late ’60s of the first century, probably in Rome, to a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile Christians.
This is a community that would have known persecution and suffering, especially recently under the Emperor Nero. Such a community might have wondered why this new religion of theirs was not bringing them peace and security, wealth and happiness. They might have wondered whether they were doing it wrong or whether this God and messiah were all they were cracked up to be.
But the witness of Mark’s gospel is clear: self-sacrifice, commitment, and perhaps even suffering are part of discipleship. They are what it means to be a Christian—to follow in the footsteps of the one who sacrificed everything for the sake of God’s kingdom. This is not a faith of privilege or benefit; it’s not a faith of status and honor. After all, in its early days, it was a faith popular with slaves and second-class citizens, like women.
No, it’s a faith of a commitment without thought of reward or without claims of status. It is a faith that responds to our master’s call to be willing to give everything we have for the sake of the kingdom. To be willing to pick up our cross and follow him.
The Text
Mark 12:38–44 • As he taught, he said, “Look out for the scribes who like to walk around in robes and to be greeted in the marketplaces, who want the best seats in the synagogues and the first seats at dinner. They devour widows’ houses and are public about their long prayers. These ones will get the most extreme judgment.”
He sat opposite the treasury and watched the crowd throwing bronze coins into the treasury. A lot of rich people were throwing in a great deal of money. Then a poor widow came and threw two tiny copper coins, worth a penny. Jeshua called his students over and said, “Trust me when I say that this poor widow has thrown in more than everyone who’s putting money into the treasury. See, everyone else is throwing in money out of their excess, but she, out of her want, threw in everything she had—her entire living.”