Pentecost 25 B: Seeing the Widow

Posted by DJL on Nov 9, 2018 in Dear Partner | 10 comments

Mark 12:38-34

Dear Partner in Preaching,

I do not know what to do with this widow. I am not even sure why Mark shares this story or what Jesus means when he draws the attention of his disciples to her.

Most regularly, interpreters over the years offer us two possibilities. She is either an example of incredible stewardship to inspire and motivate us or an example of uncaring exploitation meant to warn and anger us.

If the former, then Jesus invites us to imagine that it is not so much the gross amount we give that matters but what that amount means to us. This widow, unlike the scribes, does not give out of a desire to be noticed but rather because, recognizing that all she has comes from God and trusting God’s provision, she can do no other. In this case, the widow is a prime example of sacrificial stewardship, giving not from our excess but giving our all. If this is the interpretive direction we take, I think it’s important to be honest that this is an example few if any of us will emulate. While we may give a little more, even try to imagine that giving should be intentional and sacrificial rather than automatic and superficial, it’s incredibly unlikely that any of us will give all we have. So it is an example that may inspire, but may just as easy seem ridiculous and, if taken seriously, only condemn.

If we follow the latter interpretation, then Jesus draws attention to the widow as someone who gives too much. No one should expect her to contribute “all she has to live on,” especially when the scribes – those Jesus has just characterized as people who “devour widows’ houses” – and others of affluence find it so easy to contribute. They should take care of her, not expect or even accept her gift from her poverty. If this is the interpretive direction we pursue, then the passage serves as an indictment of the people and systems that favor the rich and prey upon the weak. While there is ample biblical evidence to support the assertion that God has particular regard for those who are poor, however, it’s difficult to get over the sense that in this passage at least, Jesus, whatever critique he may level at the Temple, nevertheless lifts her up not as victimized but laudable, as he compares her gift favorably to all others.

So there it is: having read various commentaries on these verses over the years, I honestly do not know which direction to go. I do not, that is, know what to make of this widow.

And perhaps the point. Or, if not the point, perhaps it is another way of hearing this parable. What if Jesus isn’t using her as an object lesson; what if Mark isn’t trying to derive from her story a theological argument. Perhaps the narrative point on which this passage turns isn’t the comparisons between her and others, or between her offering and that of others, but rather centers on the simple but notable fact that Jesus notices her. That, I think, is not a given. Note that Mark records that Jesus is watching “the crowd putting money into the treasury.” Moreover, “many rich people put in large sums.” Yet despite that fact that she is just one in a crowd, and that many people were putting in significantly larger sums, Jesus’ attention is given to, even fixed upon, the much smaller, if not paltry, offering of this woman.

And whatever it is that he wants his disciples to learn from her, perhaps the first lesson is simply to notice her. To see her. To acknowledge her person, her being, her plight, and her offering. She is not, in the end, an object lesson, but a person. Easily unseen, even invisible, yet worthy of Jesus’ attention, and ours.

So perhaps in our sermons this week, Dear Partner, we might ask who we are not seeing as we go about our daily lives. Who have we forgotten, ignored, overlooked, that God would invite us to notice, recognize, and honor? Similarly, who have we made into an issue or a cause when, first and foremost, they are people. Championing “the poor” is one thing; knowing the name and taking the time to care about, a specific person who has very little is another thing all together. Moreover, we might remind our folks that each of us, no matter what our status or wealth, has days – and some of us many – when we feel invisible, unremarkable, not worthy of attention. Yet Jesus also sees us, deems us worthy of God’s attention, and frees us to give the same compassionate regard to others.

I am writing on the 80^th anniversary of Kristallnacht – the night of “broken glass” – when the Nazi persecution of their Jewish neighbors began in deadly earnest. Clearly the problem was not that the Nazis didn’t notice the Jews living around them, but rather that they would not see them as genuine persons deserving love and respect, as kin in the larger human family, let alone as kindred children of God. Indeed, they saw them as opponents to be feared. When we do not notice people, we are apt to forget about or ignore them. That is a sin and a shame. When we do not see others as human – because we have been taught to fear or despise them – we are likely to treat them inhumanely, which is a sin, a shame, and a crime, as we’ve seen played out all to frequently in recent weeks.

Indeed, this penchant to not simply ignore others but to view them as fearful, even subhuman, seems increasingly prevalent. The migrant caravan, persons who have been incarcerated, those trapped in poverty, persons of a non-majority ethnicity or sexuality. Jesus sees them, just as Jesus sees us. That is perhaps both the command and the promise, both the law and the gospel, of this passage.

So I do not know what to do with this widow…. Which seems a problem, until I realize I am not called to do anything with her or even for her, at least not before I first see her – and all those like her today – as fellow children of God. And while that is hard – there are so many people that deserve being seen – it starts, I think, with God’s promise to see us, regard us, uplift us, and equip us as beloved children of God both called to and capable of seeing others as God’s children.

Blessings on your proclamation, Dear Partner. Your words make more of a difference than you imagine, as you help us see as God would have us see. And that is no small thing today.

Yours in Christ,
David