Mark 12:38-44
In the course of his teaching Jesus said to the crowds, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation.”
He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
This passage of the gospel comes at the end of Jesus’ public ministry and introduces the account of the Lord’s passion and death. In a way, it sums up everything that has come before. Throughout the gospel to this point, Jesus has decried the falseness of religious people who act outwardly as though God were important in their lives but in their hearts suffer from pride and arrogance. He repeatedly has taught that those who are small in the eyes of the world are great in the eyes of God. In Jesus’ attack on the scribes and his praise of the widow, the passage encapsulates Jesus’ teaching. Moreover, the widow’s willingness to surrender everything she has for God anticipates Jesus’ own sacrifice and willingness to suffer for loss of everything to achieve God’s purpose.
A side note is worth considering. Christians rightly have seen in the widow’s sacrifice something estimable. After all, her heart taught her to give completely and trust that God would provide. But it is possible that the passage has another lesson to teach. The wealthy with great fanfare give fortunes of donations to the Temple without eating into their capital. It is at least possible that their example led the widow to do something imprudent, to give all she had to survive, and a part of the corruption of the wealthy was their leading the widow to do something which injured her.