MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 12:41-44

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THIS ACCOUNT of the giving of the widow woman is a very moving story, but full of deep instruction. It is easy often to feel the story without actually searching out the truths Jesus lifts out of this history.

The first important lesson is in the fact that Jesus was watching and taking note of all that was going on in the giving of people in the temple. His watching took in not only the outward actions, but discerned the intent of the heart. How searching this is on the one hand and how comforting it is on the other. It is searching to be reminded that we can't deceive the Lord, and pretend to be better than we are. It was easy enough for the people giving to the treasury to deceive the temple authorities and people watching into supposing their giving was with a good heart, but they could not deceive Jesus who saw all the motives behind their giving. Their giving though large in monetary terms, was practically useless in the eyes of God.

The comforting thing is that Jesus saw into the heart of this poor woman. She came as secretly as possible because she felt that people would despise her gift as being practically worthless, and despise her in consequence. But Jesus saw things differently. Jesus saw the sacrifice this very small gift entailed for the giver. He saw the love behind the gift which welcomed the sacrifice in the giving of it. He saw the hunger the woman would suffer for the rest of day, and perhaps longer. Though the woman was despised by others and the Jewish authorities yet she was approved, commended and loved by God. In the light of eternity and real good the woman was blessed where as the rich givers had little or no blessing whatsoever.

The important thing in our giving is not so much the amount, but the spirit in which we give. The important thing is the state of our hearts as we give, and why we give. Although the members of the crowd placed a great deal of money into the Lord's treasury, it was given from the wrong reasons. They no doubt gave their money as the duty they were required to do under their religion. It became a work they performed by which they gained the approval of the rulers of the temple, and not doubt they felt that they were meriting God's favour as well. They did it, no doubt, to feel good inside with the thought that they were thus good religious people and of good standing in their religion, and really worth something. They no doubt did it to gain some glory from men. They may have given it out of duty but reluctantly wishing that they could avoid giving if they could find some means of retaining their status in the community. In each person it could be some or more of these reasons.

If their hearts had been right with God. If they had loved God as this widow woman did, then their giving would have been done more secretly so that only God would know, and so that they would not receive any praise from others, or gain any glory for themselves from the community. If they had loved God as this widow woman evidently did, their offering would have been much much more, and comparable to the sacrifice of the widow's offering. In fact their offering touched them very little and did not involve any sacrifice.

In contrast the widow gave to such an extent that she caused herself real sacrifice and want, and her family as well, though the passage seems to suggest that she was alone in the world. She gave because love for God constrained her, and she wanted in some way to express her love. She gave with a real sense of trust in God, that although that day she would go hungry because of her giving, God would not let her down and would provide, but if he did not then she would still praise him for his love.

Such giving comes only from a deep sense of God's love to us in Christ, where we have appreciated our great debt to God because of our sins, where we have appreciated how much we deserve God's just judgement and retribution, so appreciating the wondrous sacrificial love of God towards us in that he gave his one and only well beloved Son as a propitiation for our sins. We love God when we appreciate that God, in his great love for us sinners, visited all the debt of our sin upon Jesus, poured out his just judgement upon him in our place, so that we might be freely forgiven and eternally accounted just in his eyes, and be made heirs of his everlasting glory.

If we are to be givers then we have to be great lovers of Jesus. If we are to be great lovers of Jesus, then we must keep ever fresh in our minds and hearts that Jesus is the lover of our souls, and keep alive the appreciation of what that loving us cost him in suffering death and hell for us.