It was Tuesday afternoon.
It had been a bruising couple of days. So much had happened since He received the overwhelming adulation of the crowds two days before.

Yesterday He had stirred up the anger of the religious leaders of the day when He went into the temple and drove out the merchants, and overturned the tables of the money changers. Now, they were determined to kill Him.

Today, they have grilled him: first the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders challenged His authority; then the Pharisees and the Herodians tried “to catch Him in His words” with a trick question about whether they should pay taxes to Caesar; then the Sadducees had had a go; and finally, one of the scribes: “Which is the first commandment of all?” (finally, a sensible question).
All of which provoked Jesus to deliver His eight “woes” against the scribes and Pharisees, in His longest and severest condemnation yet.

It had all been exhausting. Time for a breather.
And then, like a breath of fresh air, we read how, while Jesus sat opposite the treasury:

He saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites[1], which make a quadrans. So, He called His disciples to Himself and said to them:
“Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”  (Mark 12:41-44 emph. mine)

A Puzzle

This passage always puzzled me.
If this poor widow gave “her whole livelihood”, what did she live on from then on?
Did she have any dependants back home? If so, how would she support them? It’s not as though there was any pension available to her back then.

Maybe you think I am being pedantic. Surely the point is that she acted in faith in giving so generously to the work of the Lord.

Fair enough. The Bible tells us, when we give, to do so “with liberality” (Rom 12:8).
Paul commended the churches in Macedonia that “in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality.” They gave, (he says), “according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing.”

Jesus Himself makes much of giving generously.
A saying of His, not recorded in the gospels but well known, was: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
Did He not tell the rich young ruler: “Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 10:21) – just as He commanded His other disciples to leave all and follow Him (Mark 1:16ff).

And, just a few days before His encounter with this widow who gave “all that she had, her whole livelihood”, He commends Mary for generously “wasting” (according to those looking on) a year’s worth of wages[2], when she broke a whole flask of costly perfume to anoint the head and feet of Jesus (Mark 14:3ff).
“Poor Mary! Almost wherever she looks, she meets angry glances, shocked disapproval. That the native language of love is lavishness these men do not seem to understand.” (William Hendriksen)

And yet, for all that, in any one of a number of sermons I have heard commending the widow who gave all to the “church”, I have never known the hearers, or even the preacher himself, to go home and give away to the church “all that they have, their whole livelihood.”

So, what is missing here?

Does the Bible encourage widows to give away their life savings to the church?

We need to understand that not all illustrations in Scripture, even good ones, are told us so that we do the same, at least not to the letter. A lot of confusion in interpreting the Bible is avoided by remembering that passages that are descriptive and not necessarily prescriptive.
For example, just a two days before this, Jesus rode a donkey through the busy streets of Jerusalem. But to “follow Jesus” does not mean I do everything He did and ride a donkey through the busy streets of Brisbane.

It is also worthwhile noting that, just before Jesus observed this poor widow putting her all into the offering at “church”, He had just delivered His longest and severest condemnation yet against the scribes and Pharisees. This is the immediate context, just before Mark records what the poor widow did (Mark 12:41ff): Jesus has just warned against the scribes and Pharisees “who devour widows’ houses” (v 40).

How did they “devour widows’ houses”?
Surely one way would’ve been to pressure them to giving away all that they had. We know (from Mark 7:8ff) that the “Pharisees and some of the scribes” taught that their hearers should forego supporting their needy parents and instead give their money to the “church”. But by so doing, Jesus said, they were disobeying the very Word of God.

Paul himself taught that: “if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim 5:8).
Further, we are commanded “as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10) – which is hardly possible, materially at least, if we have given away all that we have.
In order to provide we are told to “to work with your own hands” (1 Thes 5:11, Eph 4:28), that we may, not only supply for ourselves and “our own” but also “have something to give him who has need” (Eph 4:28).

Trusting God to provide

From the beginning of the Bible (eg. Abraham in Gen 13:8ff, 22:14 etc) to the end, believers are continually reminded to trust God to provide.
Jesus Himself made much of this, eg. in the Sermon on the Mount:

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matt 6:25f)

Obviously this was a big issue for any of those whom Jesus told to leave all and follow Him.
Yet, one way or another they, and Jesus, were provided for – whether by means of the occasional generous hospitality of those they met along the way, or by the regular support they received from various well-off women and “many others” (Luke 8:3).

But, of course these “many others” could only provide such ongoing support because they themselves had not given up all they had, but continued to “work with their own hands”.
Also, when it looked like Jesus was no longer with them, the disciples themselves could return to their former occupation (John 21:1-3).
Likewise, the apostle Paul himself frequently pursued his former occupation, “working with his own hands” (Acts 18:3, 20:34f, 1 Cor 4:12, 9:6, 1 Thes 2:9, 2 These 3:7f).

There were those in Thessalonica who, probably because they assumed the Lord’s Second Coming was imminent, downed tools to wait. No doubt they piously claimed they were just trusting God to provide.
But Paul will have none of it.

“We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly… For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all… Note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” (2 Thes 3:6-15)

So, yes, we are to trust the Lord to provide. But also, to “keep our powder dry”, as Cromwell is supposed to have told his troops.
Or as Proverbs 21:31 puts it: We know that in the end “deliverance is of the Lord”, but that does not absolve you of your responsibility to “prepare your horse for battle” – which, of course, you can’t do if you’ve given your horse away.

Trusting in the Lord does not absolve us from a responsibility to work with our own hands, and to use the resources He has given us so as to provide for ourselves and for those in need (cf Gal 2:10) – and yes, to support the gospel outreach of the church (Phil 4:14ff), as well as the church’s own ministry to the poor (1 Cor 16:1ff).

Back to the Widow and her two mites

So, what are we to make of the poor widow and her two mites?
All Jesus says is that “she put in more than all those who put in out of their abundance, for she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

He does not add (as He did for Mary three days before) something like: “She has done a good work, and wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

Were Jesus’ words meant as a commendation of this poor widow? Or a condemnation of the rich? Or both?

Or maybe (because of the immediate context) a condemnation of the Pharisees whose cruel teaching was “devouring widows’ houses”?

Yet, although it is not explicitly stated, I cannot but think He admired the simple faith and remarkable self-giving spirit of this poor woman. Though hers is not an example (whether wise or otherwise) we are told literally to follow (nor do I know anyone who has), we would do well to have her spirit.

Yes, we are to ensure we use the possessions God gives us wisely, neither foolishly throwing them away, nor spending them all on ourselves. But however we use our worldly possessions, one way or another, we are willingly to employ them all in the service of Christ.

[1] Literally, “two lepta”, equivalent we are told to a quarter (quadrans) of an assarius, itself 1/16th of a denarius which was a day’s wage. In terms of a “day’s wage” today, say $160, the widow put in $2.50.
[2] 300 denarii worth in John 12:5