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| mite box of the Lutheran Women's Missionary League |
Worth reading, here, except the Lutheran pastor featured in the story trims the force of the vignette about the poor widow in Mark 12:
"The message is clear right? Even if you can't pay your electric bill, God says give all you have. But Albertson, the Lutheran pastor, says that pastors often miss the story's meaning. Jesus wasn't telling people to give all they have to the church: He was condemning the financial corruption of the religious system of his day for exploiting the poor widow's generosity."
That is totally wrong. The conditions of discipleship are the same for everyone.
The poor widow demonstrates what is the quintessential Jesus follower, who doesn't worry about what she shall eat, or what she shall drink; nor yet for her body, what she shall put on. She is a contemporary who believes what Jesus believes: that she will be taken care of by God, not by mammon. And no doubt she was! Her offering was one of gratitude . . . and continued confidence! There is no suggestion in the pericope of the critique contained in the pericope before it. There is a connection in Mark's mind, the gospel author, but not in the story per se, not even in the way he presents it.
Yes, the critique of the rapacious expectations of the religious authorities is constitutive of the message of Jesus, but that does not absolve the disciple of Jesus from his duty:
"No one can be my disciple who does not say goodbye to everything that he owns." -- Luke 14:33
That poor widow was a Jesus follower, unlike the rest of them, unlike the rest of us.
