You remember this story from your childhood. It was told in a certain way “She gave all that she had”. A lovely tale of how the poor have more faith than the wealthy. She shows up and depletes her treasury and the wealthy give out of their excess funds. It is a typical rendering and if you are in the lower levels of socio-economic circles you say “Go Lady Go!” This traditional rendering is reminiscent of many other stories in the scriptures where the fortunes (see Psalms 9, 12, 35, 69, 109, 140, Isaiah 41., Job 36., and many others) of the wealthy fall before the Divine in preference for the poor. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan put it this way, “Throughout Hebrew Bible, widows are special objects of God’s compassion… Their treatment was a measure of the justice or injustice of the society.”
We find Jesus observing the scene of the last week of his Earthly life in the Temple, of persons placing their offering in the offering. At play are many competing claims that will be explored in the preaching moment, but I will give you some hints. This story points to institutional and colonial injustice and is in direct contradiction of the teachings of the law and the prophets, not to mention the teachings of Jesus. All the while, Jesus chides the scribes for their wearing of long robes, expecting recognition and status for their job title. The crowd in the Temple that day loved Jesus seeing through the pomp and circumstance of the religious establishment who misses the point of caring for the needs of the most vulnerable of the culture. No one expects Rome to care two whit’s about the poor-they are the colonial power- but the collusion of the Temple Authorities’ and all their ancillary organizations are co-conspirators in the mix. And the mix is the marginalization of the poor at the expense of the scribes. Defiantly, it was a bad day to be a scribe! If they had only sent their long robes out to the dry cleaners that day, they would have been spared a moment of indignation brought on by their own greed!
The Last Week, What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem, Borg, Marcus J., Crossan, John Dominic., Harper One., NY, NY., 2006. pg. 74