The poor widow who gives all she has to the Temple treasury is not just a story of her selflessness, but in the context of Mark’s Gospel, it is also about the hypocrisy and greed of the religious elite. As you recall, we are towards the end of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus and His disciples are in Jerusalem and the events of His death are rapidly being set into motion. In this section, we have a string of encounters with different religious groups that are in strong opposition to Jesus and, ultimately, will lead to His Crucifixion. As much as we want to spend time on the widow in this passage, we cannot ignore the larger context of how this is not only a story of the generosity we all want to model, but it is also a story of greed and exploitation. If there is anything Jesus is really harsh about in this Gospel, it is just that – hypocrisy and not being true to your convictions.

While He is extremely harsh towards the religious elite here, this story is really an entrance for us all to think of the ways we are not true to our own convictions. This message is for us to consider how some things that are already set into motion in our lives might have some unjust structures we need to look at a little more closely. It might be in big ways – something we are doing that we know is wrong, and it might be in less obvious ways – maybe a family dynamic that is not bringing life and joy to others. Jesus’ critique of the scribes here is a critique of business as usual: the temple treasury needed to sustain the community, yet it had gotten out of hand with the unjust use of the money by those in leadership. Jesus is calling them to re-evaluate their practices and make sure that the most vulnerable in society (the widow) are receiving care.

Yet, the widow who gives everything cannot escape our admiration here, either. We do not have many details about her -- just that she had very little and gave it all. Our first reading also gives us a beautiful story about the prophet Elijah who had to rely on the hospitality of another poor widow for his own survival. Again, someone who risked her own welfare for another.  I am often in awe of the generosity of others who, themselves, do not have a lot. We have two beautiful examples this weekend in our readings of the most vulnerable being the most generous.
 
Our call from the readings this weekend is two-fold: may we recognize the places in our lives that need a critique of the 'business as usual', and may we have the grace to enter more deeply into the widows’ spirit of generosity. We may discover that these two are inseparable.