Reflecting on Mark's Gospel - Mark 12:41-44

Watching people make their offerings might today be considered an invasion of privacy, but that is exactly what Jesus does here. In something more reminiscent of my African experience when, in both Zimbabwe and Zambia, I have watched, and joined in, as everyone dances their way to the front and to the offertory plate, though the amount given tends to be relatively private. Here Jesus notices many rich people putting in large sums. Presumably there were also many whose offerings were more moderate in line with their means. But then the spotlight is turned on a poor widow who is only able to contribute a tiny amount. In monetary terms her offering is of very little value, but the gift is all she has, and so actually amounts to the most sacrificial giving possible. She has frequently been commended for her amazing generosity.

But is the point that Jesus is making rather different? Is this, in fact, a further attack on the demands of the Temple system? Is this, as Ched Myers (Binding the Strong Man)  suggests – a story of a widow being impoverished by her obligations to the temple cultus”? Myers further suggests that this has been “long mishandled as a quaint vignette about the superior piety of the poor.”

On this reading, the suggestion is that nobody should be put in such an unacceptable position. God surely cannot want this lady to give away the tiny and inadequate means of survival that she possesses. I wonder if there are situations in which we have unreasonable expectations of some others.

Her sacrifice may appear commendable, but it could rather be seen as foolhardy, and, whichever of those is the case, surely there is something deeply flawed in a system which requires this donation from such an impoverished widow. Perhaps Jesus is actually returning to the points he was trying to make when he chased away those who were selling and buying in the temple precincts and overturned the tables of the moneychangers. Perhaps this story is not about generosity, but about exploitation. As Myers points out – “the temple has robbed this woman of her very means of livelihood. Like the scribal class, it no longer protects widows, but exploits them.” I wonder if there are places where we should be challenging exploitation.