Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday’s message Religious Show Versus Religious Reality
(Luke 20:41—21:4):
Luke 21:1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men
casting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And he saw also a certain poor widow
casting in thither two mites. 3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that
this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4 For all these have of their
abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in
all the living that she had.
Luke records that after the season of controversy and verbal
sparring in temple, Jesus looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts
into the treasury (21:1).
The historians tell us that at this time the “treasury [gazophylakion]” was a section of the
temple in what was called the court of the women where there were thirteen trumpet-shaped
offering boxes where worshippers would make contributions as an act of piety to
support the temple services.
Luke mentions first, in particular, that Jesus saw the rich
casting their gifts into these offering boxes.
The moment we hear the title “the rich” an internal alarm sounds, for
Jesus has taught about the dangers of riches.
Recall his account of the deaths of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16
and the sorrowful turning away from discipleship of the rich young ruler in
Luke 18, where Jesus taught: “How hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a
needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”
(18:24b-25).
Next, Luke adds that Jesus also saw “a certain poor widow
casting in thither two mites” (v. 2). There
are several things we should observe in this brief verse. Luke’s adjective here for poor is penichra, and it is only used here in
the NT. It refers to a state of extreme
and destitute poverty. In the first
century, marriage and family were a social safety net. Leon Morris observes: “A widow had few ways of earning money in
first century Judea and normally found life very difficult. A poor widow is thus almost proverbial for
the poorest of the poor” (Luke, p.
294).
She gives two “mites.”
The Greek word is lepta and it
refers to a Jewish copper coin (the only reference to Jewish coins in the NT)
that were of exceedingly small value. In
a commentary I read which was published in the 1970s it said the value of the
coin was about a tenth of a penny.
Nowadays I’m guessing we might say it was worth a hundredth of a penny!
When we were living in Hungary just after communism, the
currency was called the forint and
they had a smaller coin called the filler
which due to inflation was almost worthless and has now passed out of
circulation. It was minted in such light
and thin metal so that it seemed almost to float from your hand! I imagine that the “mite” was like that. There are some early Jewish sources that
might indicate that two lepta or two
mites were considered the least amount that one could contribute to the
treasury.
What a contrast: Here
are rich men giving much apparently to the temple treasury and here is a poor
widow giving what seems to be little to the same treasury.
But this is not how Jesus sees things. Remember, man looks at the outward appearance
but God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
So, in v. 3 Jesus declares that this widow has given more
than all (v. 3). He explains in v. 4
that the other contributors gave out of their abundance, while this widow out
of her “penury” or poverty gave all her living (bios), all that she had.
If Bill Gates were to visit our church, and he placed a check
for $10,000 in the offering plate that would be a very large gift, but in
comparison to his wealth it would be minuscule.
At the same time if a poor widow who worked at a fast food restaurant
for minimum wage and who barely scraped by week to week wrote a tithe check for
the last $25 in her checking account so that she might have the privilege of
supporting her Lord’s work through his church there would be no contest as to
who had given the most. This is why we
can never judge generosity of stewardship by quantity, but it must always be
seen by quality.
You can give much and in very public ways to support religious
endeavors. But if you give only of your
abundance, of your fiscal leftovers, what does this say of your heart? Think again of Jesus’ praise of the
widow. What is it that he finds so
praiseworthy of her? She gave of out of
poverty everything she had. She lived a
life of complete and total dependence upon the Lord for her day to day
existence. Hers was not a “wax museum
spirituality.” This is a model of
genuine discipleship that Jesus finds praiseworthy. May we have the grace to follow him in like manner.
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
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