Holy Week Reflections: Widow's Mite

(from www.lifeandwork.org)

Continuing our daily reflections from the Rev Roddy Hamilton

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.  But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Mark 12: 41-44

“See what I mean!”

Jesus is nodding towards the widow
Placing her tuppence in the treasury

“If you want to understand what was going on
In the temple cleansing,
Look no further than here:
It’s working in the wrong direction:
The temple should be giving to the poor,
Not extracting from them!”

Jesus is still hot from the table turning a day or so ago,
The anger rising in his eyes again
About the way religion had been twisted
And worked against those the kingdom was in favour of.

They had missed the point of being God’s People
And the kind of society God desires.

The widow is not about giving all you can give.
That’s too easy.
It is an example of how the institution doesn’t change
When it ought to be moving in the opposite direction.

Metanoia*.
That’s harder.

Cleanse religion.
Cleanse the church.
Cleanse the story.

If you see what I mean.

*Greek ‘repent’ which literally means ‘turn around’

Lord
Holy Lord

As the purple shadows fall
may we find ourselves
in a place charged with love.

A sharp kind of love
that dares face the future
and challenges the rumours
of power and fearfulness
with freedom and truth
unleashed with love that turns tables

A love found in the One
who is made all of light
and invites us onto the path
and the way of love
that will turn us round
Even as it breaks
And sets us free

Amen