MITES OF SORROWING WIDOWS

"It is estimated that if the widow's mite had been deposited at the "First National Bank, Jerusalem", to draw four percent interest semi-annually, the fund today would total $4,800,000,000,000,000,000,000. If a bank on earth could multiply the widow's mite to such an astronomical figure, think what treasures this dedicated woman will have in heaven where 'moth and rust doth not corrupt'."  - Author unknown

Following His final teaching in the Temple and withdrawing himself from the contentious mobs of men who were debating his words and who had rejected him, Jesus left the temple porches sorrowing only to behold a scene that would appease his heavy heart. As he seated himself  'over against the treasury' (Mark 12:41) He was afforded a view of the Court of the Women. Under the colonnades that surrounded this court were thirteen trumpet-shaped boxes into which various religious and charitable contributions were to be placed. Each of the trumpets bore an inscription that identified the object of the contributions placed therein. Daily temple sacrifices being concluded, Jesus observed as people gathered in the court with intent to pay their various offerings. Among the rich and affluent, desiring to be seen of men to be donating vast sums of money, Jesus spotted a poor widow, identified by her dress of mourning. One can only imagine the timidity with which she would have approached the donation boxes hoping against all hope that her scanty offering would not be seen for into the chest she dropped 'two mites', the smallest legal tender that could be given. Together, two mites are less than a farthing or about half a cent in American money. But this is all she had and yet by giving it away she had lived the law of sacrifice to the full because she had given her all.

What can we learn from the poor widow who had no income, no private health insurance, no single mother's pension or a family benefit allowance? Who had no protection of a male provider but yet had children to feed? Did she put her children's next meal at risk for the privilege of being found in the temple court donating the same as others? As any woman who has been an impoverished single mother would attest, parting with money for any reason is a nerve wrecking experience when you have children in your care. What then can we make of the window's sacrifice the day Jesus sat in the court of the Temple? It would be a correct assumption that the widow in question was someone who prized eternal life more than the riches of this life, valuing it even more than life itself. But could her small amount buy her such a priceless gift as eternal life? The message should be clear to us all - the sacrifice of the heart is far more valuable to God than any amount of money we contribute to His Kingdom for 'on the records kept by the angels of God in heaven, the meager gifts of faithful people far outweigh the ostentatiously bestowed largess of the rich who bestow their bounties to be seen of men; and that those who expend the Lord's money to build up his kingdom and further his interests should do so as though it all came from the mites of sorrowing widows' (Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 411).

The story of the impoverished widow stands in high contrast to that of a rich young ruler, a devout young man, who had kept the commandments all his life and who knelt in front of the Saviour and asked: "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" This is the question that was often asked of Jewish Rabbis in Jesus' time and Rabbis debated and discussed this question at great length. What the chosen people must do to gain eternal life was a dominant theme of discussion in all the Rabbinical schools and always the result of those discussions produced varying views and interpretations of the Mosaic and prophetic writings. If everyone had a different opinion of the matter, it is no wonder that the young ruler sought Jesus' view too. Despite his sincerity however, the way he addressed Jesus indicated that he believed that Jesus was only a great and good Rabbi and not the Messiah or Son of God that could give him the answer that would settle the matter once and for all. By saluting the Saviour as 'good Master' the young ruler acknowledged Him as more than a good Rabbi, whose wisdom was greater than all the rest but he avoided ascribing to him divine Messianic status. This is evident by the fact that 'there is no such thing in all of Jewish literature as addressing a Rabbi as good. It simply was not done in that day and there is no single instance of such an accolade in the whole of Talmud. Jesus, therefore, replied: "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God" Do not address me by the title good unless you acknowledge me as God....." (McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 301)


When Jesus answered that to obtain eternal life, one must keep the commandments, the young ruler knowing the commandments of so many Rabbinical schools asked "yes, but which?" . In other words, 'everyone says to keep the commandments but I need to know the particulars'. By pausing the question in the first place, clearly he is suspecting there is something that he is lacking. The Saviour, 'beholding him loved him' (Mark 10:21), knew immediately what this young man lacked and what was his path to eternal life: the commandment that he finds the most difficult to keep. When Jesus told him to sell all that he had and give the proceeds to the poor, He was not telling this young man that his riches were his problem, but his inability to obey the second great commandment, to love thy neighbour as thyself. This the young ruler proved to be true for he walked away disillusioned because he loved his riches more than he loved his fellowmen. How much could he have done for the impoverished widow had he liquidated his goods and sought her out to lighten her burdensome load! And this alone would have been enough to secure for himself treasures in heaven reserved for those who inherit eternal life.

Riches are never the problem, but rather the trust in riches that is found at the center of one's heart, as opposed to trust in God. Why should we trust in God more than in the riches of this life? Because the riches of this life have no place in an infinite realm. Because they come with an expiration date. Because they are fleeting and because they are corruptible. Amassing earthly wealth is futile only to have to relinquish it when the day comes that one's soul is required of God (Luke 12:20). As Hugh Nibley recounted: "I think of Hisham, the mightiest palace an Arab ever built, just outside of Jericho....the prince took twenty-seven years to build it, and it was going to be the finest palace in the world. It was the finest palace; it was magnificent....The night he was to enter it for the housewarming, there came a great earthquake. He had a heart attack and died, and the palace was completely destroyed. They were going to have this big housewarming, and everybody was to come. After twenty-seven years, poof, that's what happened (Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 2, Lecture 41, pp 5,6)."

Since the father offers us all that He has, we need to be willing to offer Him all that we have. It is the love of earthly riches as opposed to the riches of eternity that determines the course of one's destiny for 'eternal life can come to those only who put first in their lives the things of God's kingdom; who love the riches of eternity more than a handful of mortal pelf; who are willing to forsake all and follow Christ' (McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p. 303). Abraham was exceedingly rich but God did not ask Abraham to place his riches on the alter of sacrifice because his riches were not at the center of his heart, but Isaac was. And so he was asked to sacrifice Isaac and Abraham obeyed, because as much as Abraham loved Isaac, he loved God more. Each one of us is called upon to forsake a prized possession or ardent desire for the sake of the testing process for 'every man has his own Gethsemane' (McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 304).

It is a common Jewish proverb that not even in a dream could an elephant pass through the eye of a needle. Jesus used the figure of an equally gargantuan proportion, a camel, to stress the impossibility of a rich man entering into the kingdom of God. When his disciples were astonished by this declaration, Jesus elaborated:

"With men that trust in riches, it is impossible; but not impossible with men who trust in God and leave all for my sake, for with such all these things are possible" (JST Mark 10:26)

"We were in Canada. I was.....an attorney for an oil company and a manager of it. We were drilling wells and making money. I was at the moment up in the Canadian Rockies, way back from the highways. We were drilling there. Everything looked very prosperous. I woke very early one morning before daylight. I was troubled in my mind, and I didn't know the source or the reason for the trouble. And I began to pray, but didn't seem to get an answer. And I remembered that the Saviour was wont to go into the mountain tops frequently.....So thinking about this, I arose before daylight and went back up into the hills where I knew no one would be near. And when I got up on an advantageous point, I began to talk out loud. I was talking to God! Now, I do not mean that he was standing there listening to me or replying to me. But I mean from the center of my heart I was calling to him. 

Now my family were all in good health, all quite prosperous, and it looked as for myself that within a few days I would be a multi-millionaire. And yet, I was depressed. And up there on that mountain peak I said to him, 'O God, if what it seems is about to happen will happen, and if it is not to be for the best good of myself and my family and my friends, don't let it happen. Take it from me.' I said, 'Don't let it happen unless in your wisdom it is good for me'. Well, I left the mountains and came down to the camp. I got into my car and drove to the city of Edmonton. It was a Friday, and while I was driving I was thinking of what had happened. And I felt that there was something impending that I couldn't understand. When I arrived home, and after a bite to eat, I said to Sister Brown, 'I think I'll occupy the back bedroom because I'm afraid I'm not going to sleep'. Now I went in the bedroom alone and there, through the night, I had the most terrible battle with the powers of the adversary. I wanted to destroy myself. Not in the sense of suicide; but something within me was impelling me to wish that I could cease to be.......It was terrible. The blackness was so thick you could feel it. Sister Brown came in later in the night, toward morning in fact, wanting to know what was the matter. And when she closed the door, she said, 'What's in this room?' And I said, 'Nothing but the power of the devil is in this room'. And we knelt together by the bedside and prayed for release. We spent the night together, the balance of it. And in the morning I went down to my office. It was Saturday now and there was no one there. And in going into the office, I knelt by a cot and asked God for deliverance from the darkness that had enveloped me. And coming from somewhere, there was an element of peace, the kind of peace that rests on the souls of men when they make contact with God. And I called Sister Brown and said, 'Everything is all right, or is going to be!"

That night at 10.00 o'clock, October 1953 - the telephone rang. Sister Brown answered. She called me and said, 'Salt Lake's calling' and I wondered who could be calling me from that far away. I took the phone and said, 'Hello'. 'This is David O. McKay calling, The Lord wants you to give the balance of your life to Him and His Church. We are in a conference of the Church. The concluding session will be tomorrow afternoon. Can you get here?'  I told him I couldn't get there because there were no planes flying, but I would get there as soon as possible. I knew that a call had come. And the call came after this awful conflict with the adversary. And when he said, 'The Lord wants you to give the balance of your life to the Church', I knew that it meant giving up the money; it meant that I'd turn everything over to someone else and go to Salt Lake without monetary remuneration.

Since that time, I've been happier than ever before in my life. The men with whom I was associated have made millions. And yet, when one of them was in my office not long ago in Salt Lake, he said, 'I am worth at least seven million dollars. I would gladly give every dollar of it to you if you could give me what you have. I can't buy it with money, but I'd like to have what you have. What you have is peace of soul, and I cannot buy that with money'. (Hugh B. Brown, 'Eternal Progression', Address to the student body, Church College of Hawaii, 16 October 1964, pp 8-10)