All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford-she gave her all. - Mark 12:44 (The Message)
What a scene it must have been that day in the temple! The air would have been thick with the scent of all of the people gathered in the Court of the Women and the loud clangs of coins being dumped into the treasury chests. Add to that the buzz around Jesus’ recent arrival in Jerusalem, the excitement and anxiety over the scene he caused turning over tables in the Court of Gentiles, and the whispers of assassination attempts and you’ve got one heck of a set-up for the arrival of the poor widow and her two small copper coins.
As I read the text and studied my notes in preparation for writing this, I couldn’t help but be drawn into details like these and wonder about the background of the story. What happened in this woman’s life that left her with next to nothing to give? Why did she even bother to show up on this scene? What was her story?
Interestingly enough, in the verses directly before we encounter this particular widow, Mark shares with us another story about widows. In verses 38-40 he recalls a time when Jesus warned, “Watch out for the experts in the law. They like walking around in long robes and elaborate greetings in the marketplaces, and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ property, and as a show make long prayers. These men will receive a more severe punishment.” Mark then launches into our story about Jesus seeing the significance of widow’s sacrifice in comparison to the offerings made by others, including by those we can assume were experts of the law.
It strikes me that here we have two stories of widows: one that tells us the religious leaders were “devouring” the property of widows and one that tells of a widow giving away all she had left. In the original Greek, this word for “devour” in the first story gets at the all-consuming nature of the removal and ruin inflicted upon these widows. Was the women with the coins one of these widows who had her property devoured by religious leaders? If so, what must it have been like for her to walk into the presence and onto the turf of the religious institution that left her in ruin? Did she recognize some of the faces and robes and elaborate greetings of the leaders who were there? Did they recognize her?
It also strikes me that this thing we call the church is still far from a perfect place. It's well known that the people of God have a history of devouring more than just property. There are countless people who, like the widows Mark tells us about, carry stories about the actions of a church leader, a family member, or entire institutions who, in the name of God, “devoured” them emotionally, monetarily, spiritually, psychologically, and physically. And, like the widows Mark mentions, many of us are left to live with the wreckage left behind.
Yet somehow this particular widow in Mark’s story will not allow herself to merely live in the wreckage. She brings everything she has left and gives it to the very cause of the people who left her in ruins. She refuses to allow their actions to deem her “unqualified” to continue to be a part of the community. She doesn’t allow them to define how and if she gets to contribute to the on-going work of the people of God.
I don’t know what this means for those who have fallen prey to those who devour in the name of God. I don’t know what this means for all of the people who have been faithful for years yet feel abandoned or left hopeless by tragedy or unfulfilled promises. I squirm when I think about what the call to “sacrifice” means to those to who have already lost everything. Didn’t Jesus say somewhere that he came so that we could have life to the fullest? And if so, why do we have to sacrifice anything at all? How can God allow us to suffer ruin at all, let alone at the hands of those who profess his name, and then have the nerve to call us to give up all that we have left? “The greatest gifts are given when you have the least”? That’s a hard sell when you've been left with nothing!
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| Photo credit: Flickr user Lilmonster Michi |
All I know is that we are all part of a long line of widows who face different kinds of devouring in our lives. And at some point we all find ourselves feeling like we have nothing left to give. In those moments, stories like the one of the widow giving to God everything she had left seem absurd. But maybe the hope is that in this story we get this: a picture of Jesus sitting with his disciplines during one of the most intense and agitated weeks of his ministry, peering out over hundreds of people in that smelly, noisy, and crowded courtyard, and picking out the lonely widow walking through the crowd. He knows what has happened when she, in the presence of those who have brought her pain, offers up everything she has left. He sees her and knows the value and depth of her loss and her sacrifice. And he sees and knows the value and depth of our loss and our sacrifice today.
Just as Jesus saw the widow through the crowd and recognized the depth of her loss and sacrifice, know that God will see, know, and be there for you, especially when you feel you have nothing left to give.
[Derek Atkins is a project coordinator at the denominational office of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. He and his wife Keri live in Alger Heights and spend most of their time trying to keep up with their two little girls, Alida and Cassidy.]
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