Mark 12:41-44:  41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’

Perhaps you are like me and you have a cup on your dresser, or an ashtray or little slot in your car that holds loose change. Sometimes I utilize the coins in my container at home; I count out a dollar’s worth of quarters and put them in one pocket, I count a dollar’s worth of dimes and put them in another pocket, another collection of coins equaling a dollar in another pocket, and so on, until all four pockets of my jeans and all four of my coat pockets are filled with heavy units of one dollar and I walk down the street to Jim’s Foodmart to buy milk and perhaps bread, and annoy the heck out of whoever is working the checkout – especially with those dollar combinations that include a lot of nickels and pennies. Coins are easily lost in couches, or in the laundry. At our house a dime went through the wash probably a year ago and it still sits on the dryer – nobody has claimed this poor useless dime. It seems that nobody appreciates coins!

In our reading today we might conclude that Jesus appreciates coins. Sitting across from the place where the faithful would bring their offerings to the temple, he is watching the crowd making their contributions. One person stands out from the rest. It is a widow. She puts in two smalls coins – not even dimes, two copper coins called ‘mites’ in the older King James version – two coins that together equal a penny! But it is not the amount that was put in that gets Jesus’ attention – it is what was kept out. Jesus has a unique giving analysis - it doesn’t measure a gift by the amount given, but by what is kept for yourself. You see, most everyone else was giving “out of their abundance” – the amounts they were giving might have been quite significant, but they all had something leftover, an amount that they were not putting in but keeping for themselves. The widow, as Jesus points out to the disciples, had no leftovers. She gave “out of her poverty,” she put in everything she had; all that she had to live on.

For me this is a bit unnerving… put in everything I have! Leave nothing for my personal needs?! Most people, of course, do not give everything they have to their church or charity. And there are different levels of giving among those who are contributing to the treasury. In a typical church about 20% of the family units give almost 75% of the total giving, and up to 30% give nothing at all. And it seems like every church has one or two families who on their own represent about 15% of the total giving. But even those extremely wealthy or the 20% with the higher capacity for giving are not giving everything! So what do we do with Jesus’ giving analysis – an analysis that isn’t measuring how much we put in, but what we keep for ourselves?

Maybe there’s more to the story than what we first see. On the one hand, this story is about giving of our treasure, giving out of our poverty, giving to God’s work to care others’ needs; but it seems to me that Jesus has pulled his disciples aside to give attention to the widow’s giving not just to point out this upside down giving analysis and what true generosity looks like, but in order to offer a lesson on what true discipleship looks like. You see just a few verses back, in verses 30-31, Jesus says that being a disciple is all about loving God and loving your neighbor. Then in verses 38-40 he denounces the scribes who walk around in robes saying long prayers in order to get noticed, who have the best seats at the synagogue, who sit in places of honor at banquets, yet who devour widows’ houses. So Jesus pulls his disciples aside to point out the two coins the widow has given to the treasury as a sign of what she has first given in her heart – a sold-out faith and love toward God that holds nothing back. She gave more than others because she didn’t consider her two mites things to be grasped, but she emptied herself in faithful obedience to God. This is what discipleship looks like – a sold-out, nothing held back kind of faith. Let us not forget what is happening here though – this story is about a particular action – giving – and it’s about how this particular action is a sign of my discipleship.

God’s people have always offered their gifts to God, not because he needs them, but as a sign. Their gifts are a sign that they recognize that every blessing they have comes from God. The gifts we give are a sign of allegiance and devotion to him and his kingdom way, where the widow, the orphan, the poor and the alien are taken care of. These gifts are a sign of discipleship. In the Old Testament there is the concept of tithing, where the faithful give God the first fruits from the crop or the herd as a sign of their devotion to him. If the widow’s nothing-held-back giving is what discipleship looks like, what does tithing look like?

Jesus pointed out the widow’s giving of two small coins as a picture of the nothing-held-back devotion of discipleship. He also told the story to teach us that our actions are a sign of our discipleship. A discipleship that trusts in God and gives generously of all that we have been entrusted with – time, talents and treasures.

-René Johnson

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