The Widow's Might

This is not from a prompt, but from some thoughts I had after Sunday school and worship last week. I stole the title from our pastor, Dr. Bob Ledbetter, but I have a different take on it.

The story is pretty familiar, especially when churches talk about money. In Mark 12, Jesus watches rich people donate vast sums to the temple treasury. Then, he sees a widow donate two small coins (the King James version calls them "mites"), and Jesus says that the widow donated more than all the others, because those were her last two coins, all she had to live on.

Often, this story is used to illustrate the wisdom in trusting God with everything. That was the might (not just "mite") of the widow, Dr. Ledbetter referred to in his sermon this week.

I think trusting God is a good thing, and this passage seems a pretty good fit for that message.

Still, I think there's something more here, another way to look at the story.

 

In Mark's Gospel, just before Jesus and the apostles sit watching people donating to the treasury, Jesus strongly condemns the scribes and Pharisees who love to be greeted with respect but "devour widow's houses." And then they sit outside the temple and watch a widow give everything she had, and then walk away.

How did she manage to leave the temple without someone helping her? It's like she's invisible to everyone but Jesus. In a way, she was.

What MIGHT have happened is one of the rich people dropping money in the treasury gave the widow a little money to help her get through the week, or maybe found a way to help her more permanently

What MIGHT have happened is that someone in charge of the treasury would see the widow, reach into the coffers, and give her some help.

What MIGHT have happened is that the people might have been more interested in helping someone who needed help rather than try to impress God and everyone else with their holiness.

And I wonder if Jesus's condemnation of the scribes and Jesus's praise of the widow aren't related.

I wonder if Jesus is saying that God really doesn't pay much attention to how well-respected and well-liked and affluent you are, so don't waste your time trying to impress God with your virtues or morals. God is too busy paying attention to the people that everyone else ignores.

And maybe Jesus is saying we should put our attention where God does.

A week ago Saturday, we had a tutoring session at our church. A young lady needed help in college algebra, and, me having a doctorate in physics, it seemed like I was a good candidate to help her. As it turns out, she needed help with a technique called "synthetic division," which I don't think I've ever seen before.(*)

To be honest, I was a little resentful at first. I mean, I like being the guy who knows stuff. I like being SEEN as the guy who knows stuff.

But I forced myself to let it go. It didn't take much time, but it did take some effort. I asked the others if anyone knew what synthetic division was.

My daughter knew just what synthetic division is and jumped right in, helping the young lady understand it.

By my stepping back, my daughter got a nice boost of confidence and the young lady got the help she needed.

Actually, I got rewarded as well. I learned something new, some very clever math, and that is like chocolate to me.

It would have been a shame if we all left the church with no one getting the help they needed.

It would be a shame if that happened any time.

(*) If you're a math type my age or older, synthetic division is a shortcut for long division of polynomials. It's useful in factoring polynomials. It's actually very clever.

 
Copyright 2012. Timothy H. Ruppel. All rights reserved.

This work by Timothy H. Ruppel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.