This lady’s lesson concerning her scant offering, described in one scant verse, Mark 12:42, has grabbed hold of me now for a couple of weeks. We eat, and pray that the calories will not hold. But we preach, and pray that the lessons will.
The commentaries say that her offering had the value of 1/64 of a day’s wage. Using rough math, based on a 10 hour day, her offering was equivalent to what a laborer would earn for 10 minutes of work. “Here, I’ll come pull weeds in your garden for 10 minutes. How much will you pay me?”
I would not be surprised to hear you say that it would not be worth your coming. The amount of the work would hold next to no value. It’s hardly worth measuring.
And so one could have said to this widow, your offering is not worth giving. It holds so little value that you may as well keep it yourself, not that it is of much value to you either. You can scarcely pay a bill or buy a vegetable with it. Maybe just throw it on the ground.
And then I thought, how long do I pray in the morning? Ten minutes. How much time do I spend in consideration of God and His Word? 1/64th of a day? And would you be surprised if God were to say, “don’t even bother, it’s of so little use, so little value, you may as well spend that time on yourself, or just throw it on the ground.”
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