This morning I want you to open your Bible to the twenty-first chapter of the gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 21. And I want to read this somewhat familiar portion of Scripture to you, to establish it in your mind. And then we’re going to look at it, I trust, in a beneficial way. Luke 21 and verse 1.
Speaking of Jesus, the text says, “And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a certain poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, for they all out of their surplus put into the offering, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.’”
Now, if you are beginning to say to yourself, “Here goes another message on sacrificial giving,” you might be right to expect that because that is the universal application of this text. It is always used to tell us we ought to give the way this widow gave.
But let’s back up a little bit before we look at the actual interpretation and remind ourselves where we are. This is Wednesday of Passion Week. This is the final week of our Lord’s life. On Monday He entered the city. On Tuesday He cleansed the temple. All day Wednesday He has been teaching the multitudes in the temple area and has been confronted by the false religious leaders of Judaism who have endeavored to trap Him in His words so that they might have some cause to have Him executed. He has silenced them every time with His answer, thwarted them every time with His answer, so that they’re going to have to lie and fabricate a reason for the Romans to execute Him on Friday. They’re done asking questions. It’s over. At this point on this Wednesday after a long day of teaching, He no longer addresses the crowd, the fickle crowd that hailed Him as Messiah and will cry for His blood not too long after this Wednesday. He has no more to say to the crowds in general. He has no more to say to the false religious leaders. He has denounced them and given them His last invitation and given His last invitation to the crowds as well.
In fact, follow the flow here because in chapter 21, starting in verse 5, the theme is judgment. The time of invitation is over. The ministry of our Lord in these three years has come to its end. No more gospel invitations. No more clarifications to the crowds and to the leaders. He’s finished. And their final assessment is that He is not the Messiah they wanted, and they reject Him, leaders and people. And so, starting in verse 5 comes a long message on destruction, judgment…judgment that will come in 70 A.D. with the destruction of the temple and the city and the nation Israel and a judgment of God beginning in 70 A.D. that will stretch all the way until the return of Jesus Christ through all these 2,000 years and until our Lord comes. In fact, the last words of chapter 20 are clearly words of judgment, “Beware of the scribes,” warning the people about how dangerous they are. And you remember that Luke only gives us a couple of verses regarding our Lord’s warning concerning the scribes and the Pharisees. Matthew gives us the full account of His message on the danger of these false religious leaders, it’s chapter 23 verses 1 through 39. He has pronounced judgment on the leaders and therefore judgment on the nation for following those leaders, and rejecting Him.
So between the condemnation of the false leaders, and the pronunciation of judgment that will last and has lasted two thousand years until Jesus comes, is this little vignette about a widow dropping two copper pennies into an offering receptacle in the temple. The question is, what does this have to do with anything? How does this fit? Why does Jesus inject this moment of reflection on a widow giving an offering in the temple into this section between a diatribe against false leaders and all the people that follow them, and a pronunciation of judgment on the temple, on the city and on the nation and a judgment that will last until the Second Coming? Why is this here?
Universally commentators tell us that our Lord is giving us a little glimpse of true worship in the middle of the false worship that dominates the temple. They tell us that it’s a beautiful little story in the midst of ugliness. A little light in the midst of darkness, an illustration of giving till it hurts, contrasted with the selfishness of the spiritual leaders. This is the traditional, this is the universal explanation of this passage. In fact, scholars agree that this is a lesson on giving, but interestingly enough they can’t agree what the lesson is. And if you were to go through say 25 or 30 or 50 or 100 commentators on this passage, they would suggest many lessons. They don’t all agree. Here are the options, or some of it.
One, Jesus is teaching that the measure of a gift is not how much you give but how much you have after you give. But that’s the measure of the gift. The measure is not the amount of the gift, but the amount left over. And that’s the lesson the Lord is trying to teach us and many have waxed eloquent on that lesson.
Another option, a second one is that the true measure is the self-denial involved, the cost to the individual which is a just another way to say the first one. But that the percentage given is really what the issue is relative to one’s expression of self-denial in that percentage. Obviously, the woman gave the highest percentage…everything. So it’s about the percentage you give.
Third possibility also related to the other two, is that the true measure of any gift is the attitude with which you give it. Is it selfless? Humble? Surrender? Expressing love for God, devotion to God and trust in God? The widow, we are told, had the least left behind, gave the highest percentage and must have had the best attitude.
Fourthly, and this is another option that some have suggested, that the gift that truly pleases God is when you give everything and take a vow of poverty. And all of these and combinations of all of these are defended by virtually all those who write on this text. Teachers have waxed eloquent on all of them.
Now at this point I will confess to you, in spite of the popularity of these views, in spite of the universality of these views, none of these explanations makes any sense to me….none. In fact, all of those interpretations are imposed on the text and you know how I feel about imposing things on the Bible text….not good. You say, “Why do you say they’re imposed?” Because Jesus never made any of those points. Jesus never said anything about what’s left behind, what percentage, what attitude, or do the same and give everything. He didn’t. Jesus never makes any of those points. He does not say the rich gave relatively too little, they had too much left over. He doesn’t say the rich gave too low a percent. He doesn’t say the widow gave the right amount. He doesn’t say the rich had a bad attitude and the widow had a good attitude, or good spirit. He doesn’t say that. In fact, He doesn’t say anything about their giving except that she gave more than everybody. He doesn’t say why or with what attitude, or whether she should have, or shouldn’t have, or they should have, or shouldn’t have. Her outward action is all that you see. It is no more or less good, bad, indifferent, humble, proud, selfish, unselfish than anybody else’s act. There is no judgment made on her act as to its true character. There is nothing said about her attitude or her spirit. She could be acting out a devotion. She could be acting out of love. She could be acting out of guilt. She could be acting out of fear. We don’t know because Jesus doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t say anything about the rich, doesn’t say anything about the widow, doesn’t draw any conclusions, doesn’t develop any principles, doesn’t command anything, doesn’t define anything. Why? Because none of that matters.
The only thing I can conclude is if Jesus wanted to say any of that here, He could have said it. If He wanted to say, “Now you need to give like the widow, she had a good attitude and she gave a maximum percentage and what she had left behind was little. This is the kind of sacrificial giving that we’re after.” He doesn’t say that. Doesn’t say anything. The story then is not designed to teach any of those things. It’s not designed to teach us about percentages, about how much you have left over, about attitudes. It’s not designed to teach anything about giving. If there is one thing apparent here, and this is the bottom line, if there is one thing apparent, it is that she gave everything. So if there’s one lesson that would be obvious and wouldn’t need to be stated, it is that God expects you to give 100 percent of what you have.
That’s ridiculous. That’s ridiculous. That’s irresponsible. That’s foolish. It’s not designed to talk about the principles of giving. There’s only one comment that Jesus makes, she gave with her two copper coins relatively a great deal more than all the others because all the others gave out of their surplus, which means they had some left. She gave out of her poverty all she had to live on. That’s all there is. No comment that the Lord appreciated her. No comment that the Lord loved her, commended her. No comment that she was now in the Kingdom of God. No invitation to the disciples to reach in to their little money bags and go up there and throw in everything they had because it was good enough for the widow, it should be good enough for the disciples of Jesus. And if she was truly spiritual, they should be truly spiritual as well.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
