Read
A Widow's Offering
(Mark 12.41-44)
1Jesus looked up and saw some rich people tossing their gifts into the offering box. 2He also saw a poor widow putting in a few cents. 3And he said, “I tell you that this poor woman has put in more than all the others. 4Everyone else gave what they didn't need. But she is very poor and gave everything she had.”
Reflect
We’re always trying to determine what counts and what doesn’t. It isn’t big enough or important enough, it’s not the right colour or fit. It wasn’t in time. It’s always about measuring up to some standard or using ‘the count’ to demonstrate where we are in the so called pecking order.
But Christ introduces a new measurement standard in the New Testament. The idea that small numbers count more than big ones is mind blowing. It is especially troubling when we are bombarded with messages telling us something different and our culture is centred on the idea that the larger the count the better.
Accumulated wealth, the demonstration of it for our edification and use of it for personal gratification have become standards to which most of us have been coerced into buying into at least to some degree.
The message Christ delivers here is crystal clear, “Everyone else gave what they didn’t need. But she is very poor and gave everything she had.”
A multi-level marketing scheme, often running through church circles, propositions you with the idea, “think of how much more good you can do if you had a lot more”. At the same time they are showing you the homes, cars and vacations that can come with it. I may be simple, but there appears to be a large disconnect with Jesus’ message to the rich people.
The true cost, the heart, the circumstance, the relationship, not the mathematical evaluation determined the value of the offering.
At best the rich people prided themselves in giving what essentially they would have put out in a garage sale while the widow “gave everything she had.”
Respond
Father, we confess our need for you. And we look for your strength, as well as your prompting, in our struggle to avoid the temptations of simple counts and the search for expressions of our love for you.
Laurie Cook
Laurie has had a successful career in retail management and consulting. He has served on the Board of World Relief Canada and later became President. He was a founding Chair of the Integral Alliance, an international alliance of Christian Relief and Development agencies and has served on the Board of Canadian Council of Christian Charities. Laurie is an avid cyclist and is married with three adult boys.