Mark 12:38-44

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus seems to be constantly working to get his message across to his bumbling disciples.¹ Consequently, the very simple and direct story of the widow’s mite feels appropriate. Mark tells what happens and then has Jesus comment on the contributions of the rich and the poor widow to underline the contrast between the gifts of each.² This tale has parallels both in Jewish literature and that of other cultures.³ So whether these events actually happened or Jesus simply told the story in a teaching moment, he obviously wanted to make a clear point about generosity.

Jesus’ attack on the scribes (“teachers of the law” in the NIV) is not just about their ambition or actions taken for show, but rather their fundamental misunderstanding of the faith. The condemnation of men who eat up the property of widows is an old one (see Isaiah 10:1-2). Wealthy women were obligated to offer hospitality to traveling teachers, which set the women up for abuse—though some commentators believe few were guilty of it.⁴ Even a few examples of it, however, were sufficient for Jesus to make the point that saying long prayers in public for the sake of appearance makes the acts of injustice particularly scandalous. A punishment more severe than that of others will await them since they use God’s name to cover their unjust actions.⁵

The story is similar to that of the poor widow’s encounter with the prophet Elijah, who asks for her last bit of food (see 1 Kings 17:8-16).⁶ In that passage, however, the widow, her son, and the prophet are all provided with adequate nourishment during the famine. In this story in Mark, the widow receives no such promise from Jesus, who does not even speak to her in the passage. Her sacrifice is made without any reassurance that she will be rescued from the risks she has voluntarily taken through her gift to the temple treasury. In that light, it is an amazing act of trust. Her behavior is consistent with Jesus’ call to his disciples to renounce everything, take up their cross, and follow him. It is the kind of extravagant generosity Jesus later demonstrates when he gives up his own life.

By Rev. Cathy Tamsberg, Minister of Outreach and Adult Education, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh

1.  Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Doubleday, 1997), 165.

2.  Pheme Perkins, “Reflections on the Gospel of Mark,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 682.

3.  A. E. Harvey, The New English Bible Companion to the New Testament (Oxford University Press, 1979), 187.

4. Ibid.

5.  Perkins, 682.

6.  Ibid, 683.