The Widow's Mite as Judgment Upon the Institution

24 Pentecost 27 B November 7, 2021
1 Kings 17:8-16 Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:24-28 Mark 12:38-44

Lectionary Link

Imagine being in Jesus Movement just after the year 70, and most of the leaders of the Jesus Movement being Jews who grew up in the Temple and synagogue traditions.

And now you have had to be dispersed from Jerusalem and the nearby countryside because the Roman army had crushed Jerusalem and demolished the beloved Temple, the central edifice of Jewish identity.

How would you interpret these events?  Is this the end of Judaism as we know it?  Is this the end of the priesthood of the Temple?  Are suddenly the sons of Levites, and the Sadducean branch of Judaism put out of business, and only become persons, formerly known as priests.  And as a priest, how could you know that you and future priests would never enter the Temple in Jerusalem again?  And there was only one Jerusalem and so the Temple could not be built in another location to keep the priesthood an ongoing tradition?

How would you interpret these events?  And when you gathered as a Jesus Movement in small gatherings in home, how would you channel the voice of the Risen Christ to provide some guidance for how to live forward into the future in a completely different world, and increasingly outside of Palestine, dispersed through the cities of the Roman Empire?

Our Scripture readings for today have some themes.  The biblical widow.  The heavenly and spiritual temple and priesthood.  And the judgment upon the institution known as the Temple.

I would be remiss in failing to note how the church in the lectionary choice of readings likes to misread this Gospel about the famous widow and the mite, her last copper coin which she puts into temple coffers.

We, in the church, place this reading in the fall when we are doing every member canvass, so we use the widow as an example of proportionate giving to inspire us all to get our pledge cards in for budget planning next year.  I don't need this reading to remind you to get your pledge cards in.  And the widow really gave more than the tithe of one tenth; we are told that she gave her all, therefore she gave proportionately more than the big wealthy donors to the temple.

There is a more ominous meaning of the widow and her mite, in these oracle words of Jesus recounted in the gatherings of those hearing the words of the Marcan Gospel.

The widow's mite is a judgment of the Risen Christ upon the Temple and the institutions which surrounded it.  It goes hand in hand with cleansing of the Temple by Jesus from the money changers.

The widow in the Bible is a recurring figure.  We are told that the Lord cares for the widow, but apparently patriarchal societies did not, except in singular cases like Elijah the prophet.  Women were so dependent upon fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons, as sponsors that if they lost such sponsorship, they were in dire situations.

The Temple as an institution which should be upholding the fact that the Lord God cares for the widows, apparently had no alms or support for this poor widow.  In fact, they had convinced this widow that it was her duty to give to the Temple rather than be an institution of care and welfare for her.  She in her desperation was casting all of her money to God through the Temple institution in hopes that the care of God for widows would somehow be made true for her.  Her last coin were thrown as a desperation prayer to God.

If we read this widow story in context, it is followed by the prediction of the end and destruction of the Temple.  So, the story of the widow is actually presented as a judgment upon the Temple institution for in part, not fulfilling its function to care for the widows.

God cares for the poor and the widow, and when any institution whether Temple, synagogue, church, school, congress, statehouse, takes no obligation for the poor and the least in society, then these institutions are under the judgment of God.  Our country's institution might be said to be under God's judgment today, because we have not taken enough care of the poor.  Our institutions, for the most part have become too devoted to making sure that people with the most of the world's resources can get more.  The widow's mite message is a severe judgment upon us today.

How did the Jesus Movement respond and understand the destruction of the Temple and the end of being able to inhabit their beloved homeland and holy place?

The Jesus Movement spiritualized Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple, and the priesthood.  This is no more evident than the Epistle to the Hebrews written in the times of the ending of life in Jerusalem centering on the Temple.

The Jesus Movement became for the Paul the new Israel,  Jerusalem became a heavenly city, the Temple became located a heavenly place where Jesus as the High Priest entered the heavenly holiest of Holies.

The irony of teaching Jesus as being a very physical incarnate, in the flesh being; it turns out that the Jesus Movement became more of a spiritualizing of the physical world and using the physical references of the Hebrew Scriptural themes in very spiritual ways.

The Jesus Movement became a spiritual movement, a movement of the beatitudes as a lifestyle spiritual martial arts to survive the times of living as an oppressed, secret and silent minority within the Roman Empire.

We do not really understand New Testament Christianity because we have always lived in Empire Christianity, as people of power within the majority who have not been persecuted for our faith.

But it is really the spirituality of the Risen Christ which is still the essential Christianity today.  Our Christian institutions are under judgment because our complicity with wealth and power Empires; the true religion of the Risen Christ is stealthy and like the effective unseen wind of the Spirit known in the effects of the poor being given hope and good news, the collection of the myriad deeds of kindness which for the most part are unseen and unrecognized.  The essence of Christ-likeness is less institutional and more personal when we through the power of God's Spirit act in kindness and goodness to overcome the evil of this world.  And the Empires of our world, institutionalize greed, which is not good for the poor and the widows.

Let us be very careful about over-identifying Christ with any government or institution unless they are taking care of the widow, the orphans, the sick, the poor, the prisoner, and the lonely.

The Risen Christ is doing an inside job on us today, so that we might bring kindness and love as people to influence our churches, governments, businesses, and all institutions so that in all our collective organizations we can prove that God loves and cares for the widows and all the needy people in our world.  Amen.