Mark 12:43 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 12:43

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‘This poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury.’ Now that is a very wonderful thing to say. The question is, is it a commendation? There is a view which has arisen comparatively recently. It is not represented in the long history of Reformed commentators and preachers on this passage. It is a newish view, and it says this: this is not a commendation of the widow and her two mites. It is held by evangelical people, Bible believing people. What this passage is all about, says this new view, is the righteous indignation of Christ. It is a reflection of the anger of Christ against the false religious system, which the Jewish church had become. In these verses we are to see the indignation of the Lord that a poor widow has been so brainwashed that she will put in all living. It is angry with the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, for laying the burdens of Christian duty upon people without any saving light, without any understanding of the proper stewardship of their goods. Here is a poor, superstitious Jewish lady giving her all. So it is not commendation, just a denunciation of the system. That view is pretty amazing. Everyone who has gone before, it says, has got it wrong. Poor Matthew Henry, poor Calvin, poor everyone, because everyone else in the history of the Christian church thinks that, unquestionably, undoubtedly, the Saviour commends the woman, and of course he does; it is inescapable. This poor widow has contributed more than everyone else, says Christ, but she hasn’t. She has put in a tiny fraction of a denarius. They have put in many. A denarius would probably be worth today, it is thought, in earning terms, about £90. From their plenty, they've given much. No, says the Saviour, her fraction of a denarius is worth more. But it isn't, unless he is commending her sacrificial spirit. Only if it's given out of a sacrificial spirit does it deserve, in the mind of Christ, to be rated more highly than the vastly greater amount given by others. It has to be a commendation. Now as soon as you see it as a commendation, it has much richer lessons, and much better lessons. If you see it not as a commendation, but simply as a denunciation of the rottenness of the clergy of the day, and their system, then the only pastoral lesson you can draw from it is this: we must be indignant against false religion. Well, that is a valid lesson; that is a good lesson, but it's the only one you've got. If you see it as a commendation – which it undoubtedly is – then you’ve got far more application. All her living was the Lord's. She gave it all. She may not have been right to leave herself without sustenance, but perhaps ‘all her living for the day’ is a fair way to interpret it. She gave all she had for that day. It was her fast day, perhaps. She made it her fast day, and she gave all.

Application

The Scripture teaches us we have got to be responsible. You earn so much money. You've got to keep a home; you've got to keep your family; you've got to keep that family properly. You've got expenses. You've got things that you have got a purchase – of course you have. They are all necessary to you. But the lesson of the woman who gave her living and was commended for it, is this: ‘I see everything I have, and everything I possess, and everything I'm paid, as the Lord's. I am a steward of it.’

Now if I the think like that – all my substance and my resources belong to the Lord – how much more careful I will be in the spending of it! I won't buy that super-expensive version of whatever I need; I’ll buy the more reasonable one. Maybe I won't buy the cheapest, because I may legitimately reason that will break down first, or wear out first, or give way in some manner. But I will be sensible and responsible with all my means. I won't buy that thing or pay for that thing which is just self-indulgent, just for me. It's greed; it’s an embellishment. It's purchased to be seen, to be noticed. It is to make me feel a bit superior. It is to signal my station in life. Because it's the Lord's money, I'm responsible to him.

We ask, how should I be helping the gospel? What should I be stewarding to the Lord? If I see all my substance as his, it helps greatly. It helps me not to love money, and substance. Are you tempted to love money, and possessions? See it as the Lord's. It will deliver you marvellously from inordinate affection of substance and money and things, and gloating over them, and keeping them because you must have so much. Yes you have got to pay for your home, your family, for some measure of security into the future. But be careful. We are entirely to the Lord.

If everything is the Lord's, it also helps you to avoid the subtle temptation to equate wealth with worth. That’s a temptation. The upper and middle classes of olden times did this, as they say, ‘big time’. It is how they thought. ‘Because I am substantial, I am better than.’ That was the old class system. You may be tempted that way today. Because the Lord has provided you with substance, the devil comes and whispers – though you won't articulate this – ‘You're better.’ No, I'm not. I'm a sinful man, sinful woman, struggling every day against sin, seeking humility.

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Mark 12:43 Commentary and Bible Study