THE WIDOW AT THE TREASURY

THE WIDOW AT THE TREASURY

Mark 12:41-44

Luke 21:1-4

        It is at least possible that some surprise may be created that we should include this account in the present series of articles. In it we see a woman and Jesus. The woman, however, is nameless, and we have no record of any word she uttered, and our Lord did not speak to her, but only about her. It would seem to be most likely that she did not know what He said concerning her. She simply passed along, and carried out the intention of her heart as she went through the Temple courts, and proceeded on her way in loneliness and absolute poverty. There seems to have been no contact between her and the Lord. Moreover, what He did say was said to His disciples, and apparently semi-privately, because we are told that He called His disciples to Him to say what He had to say.

        In this sense, then, the case is peculiar. Nevertheless, here we have the one woman of whom no record has been preserved except this, who evidently with absolute truth could have sung the lines from Frances Ripley Havergal's hymn:

"Take my silver and my gold,

Not a mite would I withhold."

        We have often sung that, and I am not saying untruthfully, but here is a case where it is the simple and actual truth concerning one woman.

        Mark tells us that our Lord was seated "over against the treasury." The treasury in the Temple courts was situated in the Court of the Women, which was flanked by the Court of the Gentiles. It occupied a vast space. In that one Court alone fifteen thousand worshippers could be accommodated, so great and vast was the Temple area. It was there that this thing took place. In that Court there were placed thirteen shopharoth, which means simply trumpet-shaped receptacles. As the people passed through the Court they placed their gifts in these receptacles. At the time many were doing so, and with the rest this woman passing along, placed her gift therein. Jesus sat watching, and the whole incident is the more arresting because it is the last but one recorded in the life of Jesus before He left the Temple, never to return to it again. The other was that of the coming of the Greeks, of which John gives us an account.

        It is important to observe carefully the attitude of our Lord by combining the stories of Mark and Luke. Mark immediately preceding his record of the incident says: "And in His teaching He said, Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and to have salutations in the market-places, and chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places at feasts; they which devour widows' houses, and for presence make long prayers; these shall receive greater condemnation. And He sat down over against the treasury, and beheld how the multitude cast money into the treasury; and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a poor widow."

        Having uttered the words of condemnation He evidently took up His position, and sat down where He could see the treasury.

        Luke records the same things as he writes: "And in the hearing of all the people He said unto His disciples, Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love salutations in the market-places, and chief seats at feasts; which devour widows' houses, and for a presence make long prayers; these shall receive greater condemnation. And He looked up, and saw the rich men that were casting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a certain poor widow."

        It will be observed that Marks says that sitting there Jesus "beheld," and the imperfect tense employed suggests not a passing glance, but careful watching.

        Luke says "He looked up, and saw." If we put the two things together we have a vivid picture of the attitude and action of our Lord. Let it be remembered that it took place at the close of a day in which He had been confronted with the criticism of the clever, cynical and sinister opposition of the religious rulers. It had been a day in which we see Him triumphing with august majesty over every attempt to entrap Him. But with weariness He sat, and Luke tells us that "He looked up." It is evident that sitting there, He had not at first been watching the passers-by, but looking down, probably in profound thought concerning the day through which He had passed. The last words He had spoken were those of denunciation of the false religious leaders who loved pre-eminence; and among others things He had uttered His severe indictment of them that they devoured widows' houses.

        Then, as Luke tells us, He looked up, and Mark tells us that He "beheld how they cast into the treasury." There is almost certainly a link between the final denunciation of hypocrisy in the persons of the rulers and the thought of the watching of Jesus. As He watched He saw the multitudes, and among them the rich who as they passed, "cast in much." The Greek word which we have rendered "much" is literally "many," that is, they cast in a handful of coins. Then He saw this one lone woman coming along in the crowd, garbed unquestionably as she inevitably would be in the habiliments of her lonely mourning and widowhood. As she passed, she also cast something into the treasury.

        We pause then to look at the woman. Very little is told about her, and yet what is told is very revealing. She cast in two mites, which is described as "all her living," and the word "living" there may be correctly rendered livelihood.

        It is difficult, and perhaps finally impossible to state in the terms of our own times the value of the gift intrinsically. Our translators say "two mites," that is, two perutahs. Of course, values now are different from what they were at that time. The one certain fact is, however, that the perutah was the smallest copper coin, and that two of them equaled a quadrans. The quadrans was one-ninety-sixth of a denarius. When we ask the value of a denarius, we learn that in our present currency it was worth two cents. Necessarily we cannot thus measure exactly with accuracy the value of the denarius, but the gift certainly reveals the appalling poverty of this woman. We are distinctly told that it was all she had. This woman had nothing else the moment upon which to depend for her very existence. She had no means put away, and these were the last two coins she possessed. Looking at her, then, we see a woman in abject poverty and living by faith at this point.

        But as we watch her act we recognize necessarily that she was a daughter of Israel, and a worshipper of the living God. That was why she was in the Temple courts at all. In spite of her condition, in spite of her abject loneliness, in spite of her appalling poverty, she still believed in the God of her fathers, and in her personal relationship to Him. This she expressed as she cast her gift into the treasury

        Jesus was watching. I do not think she saw Him. In all probability she did not know Him. She was one of the thronging crowds of worshippers, and yet remarkably separated from that crowd. She was a true worshipper of the God of her fathers, believing in Him, she realized her obligation to make her contribution in material things to that great and glorious Temple.

        All the gifts put into the treasury were divided between the priests and the poor. One wonders whether as she cast in the two mites, one was devoted to the priests and one to the poor, in her mind. Be that as it may, we see a recognition of responsibly in her worship. To the ordinary onlooker she was one of the crowd, and to herself unquestionably inconspicuous, probably hoping that she was unnoticed, wanting no one to see what she gave, but giving as a worshipper to God.

        Her gift was far more than a symbol of her attitude. It was the totality of her life, all her livelihood, all that she had. She would indeed have passed unnoticed and unknown but for those watching eyes of Jesus. He saw in her unquestionably a member of the elect remnant which had ever been true to the God of Israel in spite of the general failure and deflection of His People.

        We remember that Jesus was greeted as He came into the world by such; His Mother Mary was of that number, Joseph also. Simeon and Anna were of the elect souls, faithful and true in the midst of declension. This woman was, I repeat, of that company.

        Now we turn to consider carefully our Lord's words about her. Weary after the day of conflict, knowing the depth of the hostility stirred against Him, suffering not so much because they were hostile to Him, but because their hostility was reacting upon themselves for their own inevitable destruction, He saw the action of that woman. While saying they were awaiting the appearance of Elijah prior to the Messiah they having already putting to death John the Baptist were actively attempting to rid themselves of Jesus.

        We are arrested by the significance of one little word used by Mark in his account of the watching of Jesus. He says that He watched "How the multitude cast money into the treasury." We miss the whole point of the statement if we omit that word "how" in our thinking. It is not merely a statement that He beheld the fact that the multitude were casting in money; but He was watching how they were doing it. He was not so much concerned with what they gave as with how they gave it.

        He saw the rich casting in much. He saw one woman casting in all; and in each case He saw how they gave. Goethe tells us that Lavater once said he always watched the hands of people giving as he held the offertory plate before them; and he claimed that he was able to tell the kind of person from the way in which the hand was opened. Of course that may be a mythical account, but in this case it may be said that it was literally true. The Lord saw the hands, but behind them the attitude of the soul. We may say that He was not concerned to add up the collection, although He did this, too, presently in a remarkable way. But He saw what this woman gave, as undoubtedly He did in the case of all the rest; but it was the spirit of the giving that He was observing.

        Having done this He spoke to His disciples and in doing so He first appraised the giving, and then interpreted the reason or His appraisal.

        In appraising the gifts He held the balances in one hand, and in the one side of them He put all that was cast in that day, except the gifts of the woman. These He put into the other scale. Then He drew His disciples' attention to what He had seen, and declared that in the scales which He held, the gifts of the woman out-weighed the rest. We must carefully observe that He said she had cast in more than they all. That was much more than saying she had given more than anyone else that day. That would have been a remarkable and arresting thing; but what He said was that her gift amounted to more in the balances of heaven than all that had been put in by the whole crowd. He knew how much those money-chests contained as the result of the giving of the day. The incarnate eternal Son of God in human form knew without any question exactly the amount that would presently be found in those thirteen chests. He knew also that when the money was taken out there were two small coins, two mites, which almost certainly the collectors would hardly notice; and He declared that in value they outweighed all the rest. What an appraisal!

        We pause a moment to think of this appraisement as being in a sense literally true. All the gifts which they had cast in were presently made use of, some devoted to the poor and some devoted to the priests. The Temple treasury was really a wealthy thing. When presently Pompey came, he found, using our coinage as expressing value, three million dollars stored away in riches. We ask what became of these gifts, and we cannot answer. We do know, however, what became of these two mites. The appraisement of Jesus lifted them into a realm of active value which through the centuries which have followed, produced an amount which would out-weigh all that was put into the treasury that day.

        Thus He took the two sacred and sacramental mites, the copper coins, and kissed them into the infinite and multiplied gold of the sanctuary of God. Herein a great principle is revealed. When Mary anointed His feet He declared that what she had done should be told in all the world as a memorial of her. So it has been. That alabaster cruse of ointment has inspired the giving of untold wealth, consecrated to Him. So with the gift of this woman, who had slipped away from sight unnoticed, but great in heart and loyalty and devotion. Her gift became the inspiration of a new and multiplying value of giving.

        It was immediately connected with this appraisal our Lord gave His reason for making it, as He compared the underlying motive of the giving in each case. They cast in of their "superfluity." She put in "all her living." The difference is the difference between "superfluity" and sacrifice.

        Superfluity refers to something which is easily spared, in all probability never missed. Such giving was, therefore, a gesture of formalism a conforming to a ritual, a doing of the supposedly correct thing. Jesus, with fine, infinite, and appalling scorn, gathered up all such gifts, and said, "superfluity." On the other hand He selected the two mites of the widow, which constituted all her living. The principle behind her giving was that she was enduring "as seeing Him Who is invisible." Her action was her response to her belief in God, and the carrying out of the deep feeling that such vision had produced. She only had two mites. By the traditional law of the time no one was allowed to cast into those chests less than two mites. She possessed that amount. She had on the material level enough to do the smallest thing that she was permitted to do. Human wisdom would have declared that if that were all she possessed, prudence would demand that she certainly had better keep them. But her vision of God, her faith in God. and her emotion toward God demanded that she devote it to Him.

        In the Old Testament Scriptures over and over again it is declared of some offering provided for, that it created "a sweet savor" unto God. What this woman on that day did created a sweet savor to Christ.

        Following the chronological sequence, in an examination of the narratives of the evangelists we find that our Lord immediately afterwards uttered His eight-fold Woe against the Pharisees. Then the disciples as they were leaving the Temple, drew His attention to its glory, and the beauty of the stones. Whereas our Lord told them that all that was nothing, and that the time was coming when one stone should not be left upon another, this little narrative of the woman shows us that in the midst of all the terrible failure of the nation as centralized in that Temple, He had something which was a sweet savor. It was that of this one lonely soul, who without compromise, without halting, had devoted everything to the God of her fathers.

        The whole account is its own vindication to its place in the series we have been considering. As we said at the beginning, we have no record of any word our Lord spoke to her at the time. It is probable that she knew nothing about it. But the thing He said was so significant, and the comparison between the two conceptions of life manifested in the gifts placed in the treasury, warrants our consideration of the account.

        It is inevitable that we should remind ourselves of the great facts revealed, and their perpetual value. He is still watching. It may be that someone is lost in the crowd, but everyone is seen by Him. As He watches He sees the gift which is supposed to be the sacramental symbol of our attitude. What a great thing it would be if all the rivers in the House of God for ever kept this in mind.

        Moreover thus still watching, He still registers according not to amount, but to the motive that prompts the giving.

        In the case of this woman no provision was made for the next day. By all the standards of human wisdom it was an unwise action; but by the standards of eternity it was of the essence of wisdom. She had no other livelihood. Nevertheless to the God of her fathers she must leave the future, and acting in the present, devote that which was a symbol of her faith and her devotion. In the measure in which we act in the spirit of this unknown and poverty-stricken widow, we shall reach the Divine appraisement, which will describe our action as other than the devotion of excess, being sacrificial, and so reaching the highest possible level.