This month our blog has been written by Gordon Mackley...

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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.” (NIV)

 

This passage from Mark: 12:41-44, titled in NIV: ‘The Widow’s Offering’, is often used to encourage people to give more into the church coffers. We certainly do need to do this and in a world of rising costs, if we want our church to thrive, we need to continually reflect on our giving to it.

 

This interpretation is one which fits with our very individualistic modern society. This though, is very different to that of Jesus’ time. We first need to understand that the Law required money to be put into the Temple treasury to help poor people like the widow. She was under no legal obligation to give any. She should have been receiving money! However, the system was by this time totally corrupt, with the rich and powerful syphoning off money from the poorer in society.

 

That therefore was a justice issue in Jesus’ world about which he was commenting. What about our world now? According to bankers Credit Suisse and UBS, in 2022 the top ten wealthiest countries had 76% of the total wealth in the world (UK at number 5 in the list). The other 90% of countries had only 24% between them. Oxfam notes that this inequality contributes to the death of one person in the world every four seconds.

 

Those risking their lives on flimsy dinghies to get to the UK (and by varied means to other countries) are often described as ‘economic migrants,’ meant as a derogatory term. But with such wealth inequality, how surprised should we be that they wish to escape from the poorest countries to one of the richest?

 

That is not to say of course, that everyone in the UK is rich. The UK has the 9th most unequal incomes of 38 OECD countries (OECD, 2022). The top fifth get 36% of the country’s income and 63% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom fifth have only 8% of the income and only 0.5% of the wealth (Office for National Statistics) and the differences continue to widen.

 

As in Jesus’ time, this is a justice issue, as well as an economic one. As Christians we need to stand up for justice and advocate for a less unjust distribution of wealth both in our own country but also across the wider world.

 

Give me enough food to live on, neither too much nor too little. If I’m too full, I might get independent, saying, ‘God? Who needs him?’ If I’m poor, I might steal and dishonor the name of my God.” Proverbs 30:9 (MSG)

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