Have we been misinterpreting Jesus' intentions regarding the Widow's Mite?

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Passage: Mark 12:40-44 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

One of my old friends from the University of Illinois, Brant Hansen, is now a Christian Radio talk show host, while working for CURE International (a Christian medical mission group). His Brant & Sheri Oddcast has a Christian radio version as well as a podcast version; I listen to his podcast version. It’s a blend of comedy and spiritual insights I enjoy a lot.

Towards the end of a recent podcast, starting at 12 minutes 20 seconds, he pointed out that we may been misinterpreting what Jesus was teaching with the Widow’s Mite incident.

Luke 21:1-4 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

We usually take this passage to mean, “We must give everything like that widow.” And sometimes unscrupulous people try to guilt trip people to give to their ministry even if they can’t afford to give, saying God will bless them if they do that.

However, just before that passage, Luke 20:45-47, he just warned against the religious leaders “who devour widows’ houses”.

So Brant pointed out, maybe Jesus was actually teaching people not to put a guilt trip on people to make them give when they cannot afford to give? There is also the principle of how Jesus scolded the religious leaders for telling the people that they should give to the ministry even to the detriment of supporting their parents (Mark 7:9-13)

So, a very interesting interpretation of this passage, which I had not thought about before. As I mentioned earlier, Brant works for CURE International and often does fundraising for them, so he admitted he may have used this passage in the wrong way as well.