In 1987 Ronald Reagan delivered a speech in West Berlin which included the memorable line ‘Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’. Just over two years later, the Berlin Wall began to be demolished and in 1991 the USSR was dissolved. If someone asked you back then ‘who won the Cold War’ the answer would, unequivocally be ‘The United States’.
On Christmas Day this year, it will be thirty years since Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR and handed over to Boris Yeltsin as the President of Russia. Looking back over the last thirty years, if we were to ask ‘who won the cold war’ the answer would probably be ‘China’. Looking back over the time since World War II, we can now see that China was on a firm trajectory to being the world’s primary superpower, and that the United States, while still having the most formidable military strength, is rapidly being eclipsed by China in terms of economic influence and geopolitics.
Sorry for the history lesson, but there’s a point. This is the point: the way we understand events thirty years down the track is different to the way we understand events at the time. I’ll say it again, for emphasis. The way we understand events thirty years down the track is different to the way we understand events at the time.
The Gospel of Mark, which we have been reading for most of this year, was written soon after the destruction of the Temple which took place in 70CE. For the Jews of this era, the destruction of the Temple was a tragedy, and one which is still mourned today. It ended the era of sacrifices at the Temple, and began the era in which the home and synagogue became the heart of Jewish spiritual life.
For the fledgling Jesus movement, however, the destruction of the Temple was a sign. The Temple, and its cultic practices were clearly no longer needed. Jesus had been the final and ultimate sacrifice, Jesus had gone beyond the veil in the Holy of Holies, Jesus was the last and greatest High Priest, Jesus had opened up the way to God that previously had only been accessible via the Temple and its rituals. Clearly, to these early Christians, God had allowed the Temple to be destroyed, because it was surplus to requirements. It was no longer needed.
Every story, in every gospel, which involves Jesus and the Temple, or the Temple authorities, or even the authority of the Temple system as it applied amongst the Jewish people, needs to be set against this firm belief that the destruction of the Temple in 70CE was God’s will. All four gospels are written after the destruction of the Temple, and they all offer a story of Jesus through that prism, to people who already know that the Temple is gone.
The story that we heard today has traditionally been labelled the ‘the widow’s mite’. In 1525, the Tyndale bible used the word ‘mite’ because that was a small copper coin at the time – but the Greek word for the coins that the widow in the story places into the Temple treasury is lepton. Either way, two leptons or mites is a very small amount of money.
In the narrative, Jesus is hanging around the Temple precinct. Two days previously – on the day we call Palm Sunday – Jesus has entered Jerusalem riding a donkey and been proclaimed by the crown. The day before, Jesus has entered the Temple precinct and driven out all the market stalls and money changers. On the day of this story, which we’ll call Tuesday in Holy Week for convenience, Jesus is hanging around the Temple conducting public classes, and the Temple authorities are quite cranky and don’t want him there.
Mark’s Jesus has a bit to say about the corruption at the Temple. In the parable of the Wicked Tenants, he likens the Temple authorities to tenants in a vineyard who kill the owner’s son. He answers a question about coinage, by pointing out that everything belongs to God ‘render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s’. It’s a jab at the wealth of the Temple, among other things. Then, in our reading today, Jesus begins by denouncing the Scribes, who are part of the Temple elite, because they live a posh life and inflict harm on widows.
Then, one of those very widows appears. Many rich people have been putting money into the Treasury – probably some kind of a basin in a prominent place where offerings could be placed. But the widow only manages a couple of small coins.
When this story is retold, it is often framed as a contrast between two types of generosity – the widow’s, which is deeply sacrificial, and the rich people’s which doesn’t have much of an impact on them. You can probably think of times when this has applied to you. I can think of times when giving $20 to a charity or person in need has been a real stretch, and when I’ve barely noticed it. It’s a good thing to think about – what does real generosity look like for me in my circumstances?
But I think we should be careful, given the literary and historical context, not to read in Jesus’ words, praise for the widow. He is certainly not condemning her. But, given what we know about the animosity between Jesus and the Temple Authorities, and what we know about how the early church perceived the Temple, isn’t it possible that Jesus is outraged? Isn’t it possible that Jesus is directing his disciples’ attention to the widow and her offering not to hold her up as an example of generosity, but as an example of how the Temple exploited the religious devotion of the poor?
Is it actually just and right that this poor woman should give to the Temple what little she has to live on, when they own vast tracts of land, have access to enormous wealth and enjoy the patronage of both King Herod and his Roman puppet-masters? I don’t think it is right. I think the woman should have kept her two coins, instead of feeling an obligation to give them to the Temple. And, let me be clear, I don’t think we should use this story to talk about giving to our local church and its mission. I think the story of the widow at the Temple, and the Christian concept of tithing (or stewardship or planned giving), are not particularly connected at all.
We can say with confidence that the Temple during the time of Jesus was corrupt, that it was aligned with Herod, who was vile, and that Herod was propped up by the Roman Empire which were a despotic occupying oppressor. Jesus was opposed to the whole dang lot of them. So much so, that when the Temple was ultimately demolished in 70CE, the early believers were thrilled, and they wrote their stories about Jesus with this outcome in full view.
This then begs the question for us. What is the domination system of our day that, if we are to be the Body of Christ, we must resist? And, in resisting, what is the wholesome and hopeful alternative that we will offer?
When we look back in thirty years, what will we have wanted to achieve in this time, today? Will the victories we celebrate today still be seen as victories by then? Will today’s failures still seem like failures? And what about at the end of all things, when the whole of human history is brought into the light? When we look back over history with Jesus, the Lord of History, how will we view the great battle between light and darkness, and our place in it?
The Lord Be With You