Mark 12:43 describes: “Then he [Jesus] called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury’”.
I would like to bring your attention to three significant things. First, the narrator describes that ‘Jesus called his disciples and said to them’. Here Jesus’ ‘calling’ is intended to teach the disciples some new lessons. While Jesus was sitting and observing people’s activity of putting offerings into the treasury, the disciples distance themselves from Jesus and they were engaged in their own business. The Greek expression ‘proskalesamenos’ (i.e., summoning, inviting) provides us an implicit clue about the distanced position of the disciples. Second, the woman gets all the ‘praising’ from Jesus as he reckons her activity with significance. Third, Jesus is ‘contrasting’ her activity with that of the activity of her male counterparts.
The lessons we learn from here are: first, Jesus measures not as the world measures; second, Jesus honors the dishonored poor-widow-woman whereas the honored rich men are dishonored; and third, the disciples learned a significant lesson from the life of the poor woman.
Prayer: God, as a disciple I desire to learn new lessons from you. We understand that you are a God who takes side with the needy, poor, widowed, and oppressed. Please lift me up so that I may be honored. Amen.
