The Poor Widow's Offering Series

A. W. Tozer, “Not by its size is my gift judged, but by how much of me there is in it. No man gives at all until he has given all! No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice”. Have we given everything to Jesus?

4) The contrast (38-40, 3:1-2). Mark 12:38-40: Jesus is in essence giving a contrast here. He points to the elaborateness of the teachers of the law-they look prominent and appear righteous with their flowing robes and important seats in the synagogue but consider this-they take advantage of poor widows-like the one you see coming to the treasury now.

So in highlighting the sacrifice of the poor widow Jesus is also calling attention to the shortcoming of the religious leaders. The religious leaders are concerning with taking while the poor widow is focused on giving.

“Devour widow’s homes”. This is understood to mean not just a literal home but also all the items of value therein. Matthew Henry’s commentary: “They devour widows' houses, get their estates into their hands, and then by some trick or other make them their own, or they live upon them, and eat up what they have; and widows are an easy prey to them, because they are apt to be deluded by their specious pretences: for a show they make long prayers, perhaps long prayers with the widows when they are in sorrow, as if they had not only a piteous but a pious concern for them, and thus endeavor to ingratiate themselves with them, and get their money and effects into their hands.”

These religious officials were missing the true definition of what it meant to be religious-James 1:26-27. Instead of taking advantage of poor widows they should’ve been helping them. But that’s where greed can take you. You want more and more and you don’t care who you hurt to get it. Greed and the love of money desensitize us to the needs and hurts of others and our only concern is gratifying self. As long as I have what I want that’s all that matters. Compare that with the attitude and behavior of the poor widow and we see the stark contrast.

Mark 13:1-2: Jesus is providing for us another contrast: the widow comes before the people probably dressed nowhere near as ornately as the temple yet her beautiful act of devotion will be remembered forever; unlike the temple-the beauty of which would last but for a few more years. Jesus draws attention to the widow while the disciples brought attention to the temple. No one would’ve considered the widow to be worth noticing but the temple would’ve been something everyone ooohed and awwwed over.

Sometimes our focus is on the wrong thing. Someone might not look like much on the outside but on the inside they have a heart of gold. A church might be the most aesthetically pleasing thing you’ve ever laid eyes on but that doesn’t mean the people who go there are pleasing to God. We may be more focused on how we look on the outside without giving much attention to our spiritual condition. What are we focused on? Is there a contrast between the outside and the inside?

Hopefully we all learned something from the poor widow’s offering today. Her pure and sincere devotion is an example to us all.