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Your Two Cents Worth
I wonder what the crowd expected to hear from Jesus.
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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 fraction of a penny. 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." This passage begins "Jesus sat down." When a rabbi sat down in the temple, it meant he was getting ready to teach. In the passages just preceding this one, Jesus had already been teaching. Now he moves over near the place where the offerings were collected. I wonder what the crowd expected to hear from Jesus. Perhaps they thought he would praise the wealthy people. Maybe the wealthy people came up just at that time to showily drop their sacks of money into the collection basket in sight of Jesus. I don't know, but I imagine Jesus watching them and them smiling smugly at him as they deposit their offerings. So Jesus watches and doesn't say anything at first. Then an unobtrusive widow quietly approaches and slides two small coins, together worth less than a penny, into the collection. She's embarrassed. She does not look at Jesus but keeps her head down. In that society, a widow was at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Her self-worth may have been as small as her offering. But Jesus calls his disciples over. The object lesson has been shown, and now he will teach them. "The widow put in more than anyone," he says. What? If the poor widow were around today, we would perhaps urge her to apply for food stamps and budget carefully, rather than commend her for giving away her last dime. God's economy is so odd, isn't it? Why does Jesus say she gave more? I think it's not just about numbers. It's about trust. I often am tempted to wish I had more money so I could be more generous. But typically, the more you have, the harder it is to give it away. The rich people in this story gave a lot, but they didn't give sacrificially. They gave some of their excess. Their giving may have helped the temple, but it also built the house of their pride. To give a bit of your excess doesn't build your faith. To give sacrificially means to give away more than you think you can. There is not a number or even a percentage of your income where you can say, "Okay, here's where sacrifice begins." That's because giving is not about numbers. It's about your heart. What Jesus commends in this woman is what he calls each of us to: giving him all of ourselves. All of our trust. It's all his anyway. He gives us the ability to earn; he gives us life and breath. He provides and asks us to trust him by surrendering our whole self, including our finances, to him. |        
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