This week I get curious about what was considered “the most quotable movie of all time.” Because there are certain movie quotes that work their way into our regular vocabulary, and we find ourselves applying them to all sorts of different situations. “Houston, we have a problem” is like that. “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” “Your mother was a hamster.”
So I got on Google and entered, “What is the most quoted movie of all time?” Anyone want to guess what popped up in nearly every list? That’s right. The Princess Bride. Even if you’ve never seen Princess Bride, you’ve probably heard someone quote it. There are so many great lines in The Princess Bride.
One character uses the word “Inconceivable” a lot. Even in situations that are pretty conceivable. Finally, one of the other characters calls him on it:
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
We do the same thing with a lot of Bible stories and verses. We can talk about “David and Goliath” and it becomes shorthand for any “underdog” story. Sometimes the reference actually is the opposite of the truth of the story. For example, a few years ago the Pointer Sisters name checked “Samson and Delilah” in a love song, and now everyone thinks Samson and Delilah is a great love story. Read Judges. Its not!
So this morning, we come to one of those famous stories—the story of the ”Widow’s Mite.” And it’s so familiar to us that it’s become shorthand for the virtues of sacrificial giving. We usually talk about her during a stewardship campaign or when we vote on the budge. But this morning, I want us to not just look at this familiar story, but also the context of it. We are going to look at the story, but also the backstory—what came before it. Then we’re going to look at the rest of the story—what comes after it. And when we do, we may wind up like Inigo Montoya in the “Princess Bride,” saying, “I do not think that means what you think it means.” So let’s dive in. This is Mark 12, starting in verse 41:
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.[f] 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Let’s pray…
Now, just to orient you to where we are in Mark, this is Tuesday of Holy Week. This is the point in the gospel where Mark slows down to a slow walk, when he’s been at warp speed for the entire gospel. We have 94 verses about the Tuesday of Holy Week, so we are in the middle of the day here. And Jesus leads his disciples to a place where they can watch all the people presenting their offerings at the Temple.
Now, there were these thirteen boxes in the Court of the Women (they put them there so women could give too!) They were called “Shofarot” or shofar chests, because they had a wide, trumpet shaped funnel at the top—like a shofar—that people threw their coins into, and then they would be collected in the box at the bottom.
So bringing in your offering was a pretty noisy deal. Typically, if you had a lot to give, you wanted people to know it, so you would drop your coins in one by one—clang, clang, clang.
[demonstrate with a handful of coins and the offering plate]
Side note—there’s a verse in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew where Jesus says, “When you give to the needy don’t announce it with trumpets like the hypocrites do.”
So in the middle of all that noise, a poor widow comes in and drops in two tiny coins. In the Greek here the word “poor” means “a beggar, destitute of wealth, influence, position and honor.”
So the sound goes from, CLANG… CLANG… CLANG… to… (dink)
Jesus points her out to the disciples and He’s like, “Guys, did you see that?” (or maybe, did you “hear” that?). Let’s read verse 43 and 44 again.
“Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.
44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
The word “abundance” – folks, that word means “leftovers”. After the rich paid all their bills, and spent money on the things they wanted, they still had money left over. Do you see what’s going here? God wasn’t first. They gave God what they had left over and it was still a lot. And then Jesus says this widow gives out of her “poverty”. The word describes “deficiency, less than what her wants required”. Jesus is telling us that the woman gives money that she really doesn’t have to give. All the money this widow has is not enough to pay her bills and yet she gives it to the synagogue. Why? The widow believes she has to do this to be blessed.
Growing up I don’t think I heard a teaching about the widow’s mite that did not take the widow and make her the standard by which all of us are to give when it comes to our giving.
“This poor widow woman came to the altar and gave her last mite. She did that for the Lord! What an example she is to the church! How can you not do the same?”
But here’s the question I want you to consider, and if you are following along on your listening guide you can fill in the blank:
Is this an example to follow or a tragedy to mourn?
The money the widow has isn’t enough to pay her rent. It isn’t enough to pay her utilities. It isn’t enough to buy groceries. And yet, she gives it because that’s what she has been taught to do by the religious leaders.
It “mite” not mean what you think it means. I want you to notice that Jesus doesn’t tall his disciples, “Go and do likewise.” Jesus doesn’t say about her what he did about the woman who anointed his feet with perfume—“This woman has done a beautiful thing.”
Let’s not just look at the story. Let’s look at the back story—what happened in the events leading up to this?
Let’s back up to verse 38.
38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Friends, if you don’t remember anything else about this morning, please remember that the Bible wasn’t just thrown together. It is God’s inspired word. That means that the stories the gospel writers told, and the words they chose, and the order in which they put the events were all guided by the Holy Spirit. So it is not an accident that in verse 40 Jesus condemns the scribes for “devouring widow’s houses,” and then two verses later points out a widow to His disciples. We are supposed to see these two events together.
What did Jesus mean about the scribes devouring widow’s houses?
The Scribes and the Pharisees had convinced the people that they were the final authority concerning God’s Word. “Yes, we know that you have the Law, but we’re going to help you understand what the Law really means.” And for them, having God’s approval rigid observance. There was no such thing as overdoing it when it came to showing people you were following God, because that’s how you pleased God. So you prayed long prayers. You fasted until you starved. If the law said put tassels on the corners of your garments, the scribes and the Pharisees made sure their tassels dragged the ground. And when you gave, you gave everything. Jesus mocked them for dividing out the spices on their spice rack. Ten percent of mint, dill, and cumin. But it really wasn’t funny, because it established a religious system where it felt like you could never do enough to please God.
And so earlier in the gospel of Mark, Jesus laid into the religious teachers for teaching that someone could neglect providing for their aging parents by dedicating the money they would have used to take care of them to the temple instead.
9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, (Mark 7:9-12)
But the Old Testament was clear that people came first—especially the most vulnerable in the society. There are actually 29 verses in the Old Testament that deal specifically with how we take care of widows. God provided for and protected widows. He commanded Israelites not to harvest to the very edges of their fields, but to leave enough for orphans, immigrants, and widows to be able to provide for their families and still keep their dignity.
And so Jesus slams the religious leaders in Mark 12 because those who should have been taking care of the widows were literally eating them alive – taking all that they have because they had convinced them that they would be blessed by God if they made contributions to the Temple.
Several years ago a newspaper heard about a widow in a nursing home who had received a letter from a well known TV evangelist, encouraging her to send $200 to his ministry. In the letter, which actually had been sent to thousands of nursing home residents around the country, the evangelist promised blessings to anyone who made a contribution.
The widow’s family was so upset by this letter that they reached out to the investigative reporter, tracked down the evangelist and asked him specifically about the letter he had sent to this one widow in the nursing home. He replied that he had had a revelation from God specifically about this woman, and how she would be healed of her ailments if she took this step of faith. At which point the journalist asked, “Well, did the Holy Spirit tell you that she had been dead for six months?”
This is an extreme example, but I think to an extent we have all bought into this idea that we can earn God’s blessings through our behavior. The entire Jewish sacrificial system was based on this idea.
And that’s why what happens next is so crucial. Let’s wrap up by looking at the rest of the story:
Jump down to Mark 13, but make a quick little mental footnote here, and remember that the original text didn’t have chapter divisions. So there was no break between the widow putting her little copper coins into the temple treasury and what happens next. Here’s what happens next:
13 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
The disciples were in awe of the temple. And for good reason. The first century historian Josephus gave us a magnificent description of the temple:
"Now the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise either men's minds or their eyes; for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun's own rays. But this temple appeared to strangers, when they were coming to it at a distance, like a mountain covered with snow; for as to those parts of it that were not gilt, they were exceeding white. On its top it had spikes with sharp points, to prevent any pollution of it by birds sitting upon it. Of its stones, some of them were forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six in breadth. "
But as magnificent as the temple was, Jesus knew that its days were numbers. He told his disciples, you see these stones? 45 cubits—that’s about 68 feet long. 7 and a feet tall. But there was going to come a day when one stone would not be left on top of another.
Sure enough, in 70 AD, about 35 years after Jesus made this prediction, the Romans completely destroyed the temple. The same historian who wrote about its magnificence also wrote about its devastation:
"As the flames went upward, the Jews made a great clamor, such as so mighty an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it; and now they spared not their lives any longer, nor suffered anything to restrain their force, since that holy house was perishing...thus it was the holy house burnt down...Nor can one imagine any thing greater or more terrible than this noise; for there was at once a shout of the Roman Legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor of the seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword... the people under a great consternation, made sad moans at the calamity they were under...Yet was the misery itself more terrible than the disorder; for one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the Temple stood, was seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it."
Jesus saw this day coming. And I think it’s significant that when Jesus “came out of the Temple” at the beginning of Chapter 13, he never went back to it. And even though it would be another 35 years or so before the temple was destroyed, by the end of the week, the temple would be unnecessary. And this was the plan from the very beginning of Jesus ministry:
In John 2, the Scribes and the Pharisees wanted a sign from Jesus so he could establish his authority:
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Jesus replaced the temple. He replaced the need to offer sacrifices. He has paid it all.
