GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:42
Two Lepta
On a recent walk, I happened upon a penny. It had apparently been lying in the road for some time, because it appeared that many tires had rolled over it. Abraham Lincoln’s image was still visible, though it had many scars. The “one cent” designation was still visible, so I suppose it would still be usable.
Employees at the Philadelphia Mint struck the last U.S. penny on November 12, 2025, because it cost 3.69 cents to produce each one-cent coin. Pennies remain legal tender and will stay in circulation; the Federal Reserve continues to recirculate existing stock. Citing a penny shortage, one merchant said that prices would always be rounded in the customer’s favor—so a sale of $1.53 would be rounded down to $1.50. Other merchants round in their favor, so a sale of $1.53 becomes $1.55—just a few small copper coins.
My recovery of the scuffed-up penny called to mind Jesus’ observation of people casting money into the treasury boxes in the Court of the Women in the temple. There were the wealthy donors who cast large sums of money into the treasuries. “And one poor widow came and put in two lepta, which is a kodrantes.” (Mark 12:42) In three words, Mark presents a vivid picture of her desolation: she was alone, she was a widow, and she was poor. Yet she cast in two small copper coins worth 1/64 of a denarius, a single day’s wage. If the current average daily wage is roughly $168, this widow’s two coins would have amounted to approximately $2.62. The two lepta were equal to about one handful of flour at the time.
Little is known about this woman, but something set her apart from the wealthy—her haggard appearance? Her clothes? Her bearing? Even Luke adds little to her description. (Luke 21:2) There is no indication as to which of the thirteen treasury boxes she cast her coins into. Jesus had previously described wealthy men who preyed on the poor, devouring even their houses and leaving them destitute. She may have been a street beggar.
Whatever this woman’s condition, her devotion to Yahweh found expression in action: she “put in two lepta.” It seems legitimate to ask, based on this story, how my own devotion to the Father finds practical expression.
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