SOULS LAID BARE

( To gain a complete understanding of the meditation that follows, a reading of the indicated scriptures will be most helpful)

Job 42: 1 – 6
Mark 12: 41 – 44

“Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, 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.’ Mark 12:43

What in the world was she thinking? What has taken her rational faculties hostage? What is it in human nature that makes some willing to sacrifice everything, even life itself?
To satisfy this inquiry, it will require more than anthropological research. Nor will a careful review of political ideology provide an incisive reason for the self-sacrificing action of any kind. However, our present inquiry into the behavior of this particular individual requires a survey from a higher elevation than anything that is of human understanding alone. It is, after all, the Master of Life who acclaims her action in giving away everything, even though this action may be perceived as detrimental to her future well being. Will there come a time, perhaps, as early as her next meal time, when she may well regret her decision?
This choice, according to Jesus, is undertaken to satisfy the urgency of her soul to contribute to the Temple Treasury.
Consider the dynamic in any person, that presents itself as being more important than the preservation of physical life. In that endeavor, it is not forbidden to us to listen at the door of this particular person’s life, to learn the secret of what is within her soul. To accomplish this, we will have to supplement the few facts recorded about her, with the use of our imaginations, upon which we implore the guidance of God’s Spirit.
It will be helpful for our present discussion to create a name for this Jewish lady, so from here on she shall be known to us as Elizabeth. The Hebrew name Elizabeth means “My God Is Bountiful.”  Even a cursory glance at the brief story lends itself to a conclusion that this is an appropriate name for her.

Elizabeth may well be one of those who reflects William Wordsworth’s description of newborns coming into this world, trailing the evidence of Heaven’s glory:

“The Soul that rises with us, our
life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of Glory do we come
From God, who is our Home.” (2)

However, unlike the newborns described by Wordsworth, who too soon lose the suggestion of Heaven’s likeness, Elizabeth is destined to reflect that quality throughout adulthood. Whether it is a natal characteristic of Elizabeth, or something born out of necessity to deal with life’s hard knocks, Elizabeth owns a unique and special relationship with God. So authentically beautiful is that attitude towards God that Jesus, the Master of Life, identifies it as a liberal investment of Heaven’s riches. It is evident that this lady proves every day that her God is bountiful! She can proudly claim her ancestry with David, the Psalm writer, who understood life in this way: “In the shelter of Your Presence, God, You hide me.” ( Psalm 31: 21).

The loneliness and the devastating pain of loss have left their scars upon her. Ask her whose hands are even now applying the balm required for slow-healing wounds. Scanty meals and insufficient resources are her constant companions. But not a worry for her, mind you, rather they are daily conversation pieces between her and the unseen Guest at every table. Elizabeth could never allow her inner life, for any reason, to sever ties with the personal love of God.

“Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, neither height nor depth, will separate her from the love of God.”
( Romans 8: 39).

Be assured that Elizabeth would never, in a thousand years, permit the slightest semblance of the attitude of her critics to come anywhere near her! That soulless rationality was a complete anathema to her! No dawn ever brought a need severe enough, and no twilight could bring unrest disturbing enough, for her to look anywhere but within the fortress of her soul, where her Bountiful God was faithfully on guard.

Do you suppose the soulless rationality of onlookers prompts Jesus’ comparison of the value of Elizabeth’s gift to all the others made that day? An inner life severed from the personal love of God is necessarily impersonal, legalistic, and abstract. A religion that becomes purely rationalistic becomes hostile to life. A soulless rationality will never inspire one soul to discover “the love so amazing so divine, that demands the soul, the life, the all.”

Present circumstances, in many ways, suggest that Western Christianity is falling into the shadows of this world’s eclipse. Now is the time for all those who preserve the glory of Heaven in their lives, to speak unabashedly of the same.
Let them daily live by their soul’s conviction that the greatest response they can make to the world’s brokenness and sorrow is to offer the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer To Follow This Meditation
Father, Job was confident that he knew everything possible to know about You. He listened to the voices of earthly wisdom expounding popular views of eternal things. He listened to soothsayers propound their personal conclusions about the way the human race should be. And Father, Job was confused!
But yet, we still have not learned the one essential lesson, that Job did in the end! It is not what all others have to say about God and eternal things that matter most! It is what one sees when he looks inside himself. This experience may well produce the vision of God heaping blessings upon one from His abundant store. Mere rational thoughts about God fall silent then, as Job’s did, and in their stead we will cry out: “I heard about You with the hearing of my ears, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.” (Job 42: 5)
Amen, So let it be.

Footnotes
1. Scripture references in this text are from the
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV of The
Holy Bible.
2. William Wordsworth. In INTIMATIONS OF
IMMORTALITY. Section v in “IMMORTAL
POEMS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE”.
Edited by Oscar Williams. First printing
July 1952.