I’ve heard a lot of sermons and Sunday School lessons on Mark 12:41-44. If you don’t remember allow me to summarize. Jesus watches a widow offer up to the temple two small, seemingly worthless coins in the midst of many others tossing in greater sums. Jesus comments that she gave more than the others because it was all she had. A charming vignette which brings with it great opportunity for teaching, as Jesus often does.

Why, then, bring it up? Well, I have an issue with almost every lesson I’ve heard on this subject: What are those two coins worth? Without fail, you can bet that at some point during those teachings, there will spring out an explanation of the value of these two small coins. Some will give it in a percentage of a day’s wage. Others will compare it to the living costs of the first century. And my favorite is the amount adjusted for inflation.

Now, it would be unfair of me to say that I do find such data interesting, and many times it can seem to help hit home the point of the speaker. What, though, does it do to the strength behind the true meaning of this passage? To see that, start by looking back to verse forty. Speaking of the same rich folks seen in the story, Jesus says, “They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” I doubt placing a story about a widow and the rich immediately after this statement is a coincidence.

What I am getting at is this: the amount of the money does not matter. Especially in our possession driven culture, we hear the amount in comparison to what we have and it throws up walls. Almost no one in America can relate to what this woman is doing. We toss our checks into the offering plate, or worse charge our tithes to a credit card online, like the rich tossing around bags of money.

What we need to look at is the comparison of these two characters. The rich use their money and power to gain more for themselves, often at the expense of other people. They even put up pious acts, demonstrating their superiority. The widow, on the other hand, gave out of poverty. She knew she had nothing, but she sacrificed anyway. It wasn’t out of a will to get ahead, but from a heart that trusted God.

I’m not saying you have to become poor to be a good Christian, far from it. I think that God does give to some in certain ways for the benefit of His will. What I am saying is that we are all in poverty before God. The earth is His, all living things are His, and every possession we own, even our money, is His. The amount is, in many ways, irrelevant. We are called to give with our hearts, and in doing that we give out of our poverty before God. Not one of us is great, especially because of the amount of wealth we have.

The widow knew this, and so, out of her poverty, she gave all she had to live on. May we all be blessed with such wisdom.

Pax,

Paul Hart Cochran