41 Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money. 42 One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny.[a] 43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury. 44 All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.
Reflection
In the movie, Stranger than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman, the phrase “Little did he know” let Hoffman, playing an English professor, know that Ferrell might be telling the truth about hearing someone narrating his life.
Ferrell told his psychiatrist about the voice. She diagnosed it as schizophrenia and prescribed drugs. At Ferrell’s insistence that he wasn’t a schizoid she suggested he visit a literary expert.
Thus, Ferrell met the coffee-guzzling Hoffman.
After telling his story about a voice narrating Ferrell’s life, Hoffman dismissed him – until Ferrell uttered a phrase that the voice said, “Little did he know.” That got Hoffman’s attention and he told Ferrell that he teaches a whole seminar on “little did he know.” Needless to say, that phrase changed the day for Ferrell.
The Bible is loaded with phrases and catchwords that can also be life-changing and encouraging for us. One of my first wife’s favorite saying was found in Mark 14:8: “She did what she could.” Jesus used that phrase when he told those harshly rebuking the woman who’d just anointed Jesus with expensive perfume to leave her alone. It was really quite an extravagant display of love.
Sometimes, the two copper coins that the poor widow put in the collection, which we just read about in Mark 12, was enough. More than enough. Jesus tells us that doing what we can is enough, even if it is two small coins.
Unlike the rich men, who gave their spare change, the widow gave everything she had. And Jesus was very pleased.
| By Rick Reed |
For Pondering and Prayer
I really needed to hear these verses. For what ever reason, I stopped giving. I don’t know if it was because I’m now in New Jersey for half a year. But that changes now. I am going to give every week. It might just be a few copper coins. I know that it’s not the amount that counts.
Prayer: All precious God, help me to live like every day is Sunday. I want you to be real to me like you once were. Help us to love you even more. In your name. Amen.
