And Jesus sitting over against the treasury, beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. And calling his disciples together, he saith to them: Amen I say to you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they who have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want cast in all she had, even her whole living (Mark 12:41-44).
The Sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, was near at hand. Jesus was in Jerusalem in the Temple with His disciples. The Pharisees, scribes, and the Herodians had joined together to try and catch Jesus in His words as He was teaching there that they might thereby accuse Him of contradicting the Law or, with the Herodians, of rebellion against Caesar, and thus undermine the admiration the people had for His teaching and authority. After answering their crafty questions and instructing the scribes as to the divinity of the Messiah, Son and Lord of David, Jesus rebuked their hypocrisy:
“Beware of the scribes, who love to walk in long robes, and to be saluted in the marketplace, And to sit in the first chairs, in the synagogues, and to have the highest places at suppers: Who devour the houses of widows under the pretence of long prayer: these shall receive greater judgment” (Mark 12: 38-40, my italic).
Jesus had particular concern for the poor, especially poor widows and orphans. And He had particular disdain for those religious pretenders to piety who would prey upon any pious widow, rich or poor, to exploit them for money, even to the devouring of their houses. “Beware”, He told His Apostles of those scribes who would do these things and who crave adulation. Not that it was wrong to salute a priest or learned scribe in the marketplace, as a sign of respect, but what was reprehensible was the recipient’s “loving” this esteem. As if they created themselves and were “something” before God.
So, He sits with the Twelve in the treasury of the Temple and He watches the donors put coins into the offering box, which was not only for the care of the Temple and priests, but for the poor and the widowed as well. Then came along a certain widow, close enough to them that He summons His disciples to observe and learn: “And calling his disciples together, he saith to them: Amen I say to you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they who have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want cast in all she had, even her whole living” (Mark 12: 43-44).
Jesus knew that she was a widow, for He knew all things. Then again, perhaps Jewish widows wore a certain type garment or veil or color that identified them. I do not know. What He drew the attention of His Apostles to was the richness of her heart, which no one could see but Himself. She gave “all she had, even her whole living.”
Not many days after, in Bethania, at the house of Simon the Leper, a woman came into the room as Jesus and the Apostles were at table as guests of Simon and, coming to Jesus, she opened an alabaster jar of precious ointment and anointed Him with it. Judas was indignant, as were other disciples. “To what purpose is this waste?” they murmured, “For this might have been sold for much, and given to the poor” (Matt 26:8). This woman, who was not poor, had great faith (not to mention daring) and a very good heart. Her act of faith and love earned her a remembrance wherever the gospel would be preached: “Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memory of her” (Matt 26:13).
God is not impressed by the richness of the gift but by the liberality of the heart that, by His grace, is detached from the necessary things that He will provide for our sustenance and is attached to His Will.
There are many lessons to be learned here. The Apostle James the Less imbibed them well:
“Religion,” he wrote, “clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one’ s self unspotted from this world” (James 1:27).
