GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:43
The Tithe
There is a story about a wealthy man speaking before a business school class. He told the class about his poor background, describing how he dropped out of school because he did not have adequate clothes and began work as a shoeshine boy. He took the few coins he earned and invested them wisely. He told the class that his story described something anyone could do, so he challenged them to go out and make their fortunes from nothing, as he did.
After his presentation, he opened the session for questions, and there were many. Students asked whether he had a philosophy, whether he had a secret strategy, and how he recognized opportunities. One student stood, looked at the man, and simply challenged him to do it again. The guest was speechless. His eyes told the story. He was considering the challenge—could he do it again? Could he abandon everything, start from nothing, and repeat his climb to success, now that he had acquired wealth, status, and comfort?
Before beginning work on a translation of Mark’s Gospel this morning, I read James 5:1-6: “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.”
Then I turned to Mark 12:43: “And after calling his disciples, he said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those putting into the treasury.’”
I was struck by the contrast between the guest speaker, James’ rich people, and the poor, nameless widow whom Jesus observed casting two small copper coins into the treasury. Given the laws of the time, it is unlikely that she inherited any of her husband’s wealth. There was no “safety net” for widows; however, there were commands to care for them—commands that were apparently overlooked in this case. Without concern for where she would get her next meal or where she would spend the night, she cast her last two little copper coins, “lepta,” into the treasury, while others cast in their offerings from their abundance.
To teach the disciples—and me—a lesson about sacrificial giving, he pointed to the widow’s gift: given not from her abundance, but from her necessity. There is much talk of the “tithe” as a standard of giving; for this woman, the “tithe” was the full one hundred percent.
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