What do you have here? You have a destitute widow them, one of them ones just discussed in verse 47. How could you not make that connection. Here is just a couple of sentences later an illustration of a poor widow who is being devoured by a religious system, her last two cents, her life she gives to this system, dutifully, along with everybody else, trying to live up to the system, trying to buy her salvation in an act of charity in a hope that it will earn her favor with God, she gives up her last two small copper coins…smallest coin, she dropped two of them in one of those 13 shofars. That was all, nothing is said about her attitude, nothing is said about her spirit, nothing said about whether she did it in desperation or devotion, whether she did it in legalism or love, it doesn’t say anything about that. The Lord doesn’t commend her, doesn’t make her an example, doesn’t validate what she did, doesn’t say it was a worthy spiritual act that greatly pleased Him. All He said was, this religious system is preying on widows, this cost her more than everyone else. She put in relatively, comparatively more than anyone. Yes, the religious leaders were devouring widows and the more desperate they became, the more they needed, they thought, to buy God’s blessing. Belittled by the establishment because they were thought to be in that state because of divine punishment, second-class women, they were defenseless, easily exploited and the system exploited them to the max. Took the last two cents of that poor woman and it was all, the end of verse 4 says, she had to live on, it was literally her life. She’ll go home and die.
Now Scripture is full of commands and instructions for the people of God to take care of widows, is it not? I wrote down about twenty of them here which I won’t take you through, but you can check a concordance, look up widows and find them. There are warnings all throughout Scripture to care for the poor, care for the widows, and do not abuse them. The real tragedy that struck our Lord was the abuse of widows taking place in the name of God in the temple, the temple of God. They had turned it into a den of robbers and they were robbing those who had the least. It is ugly exploitation of widows in the house of God in the name of God. Verse 2 says, “A certain poor widow,” penichros, poor but not ptochos, but then Jesus says in verse 3, this poor ptochos because once she gave up the last two coins, she went from penichros to ptochos, destitute, nothing. She gave up all her life, cost her…this religious system cost that widow her life. She’s going to go home and die. Do you get the picture? Jesus isn’t commending her, she’s a victim. He’s not proud of her. He’s not making her an example of sacrificial giving. This is an absurdity. He is observing the corruption of the system that is going to be destroyed under the leadership of these corrupt condemned leaders. They’re exploiting the most defenseless, the most impoverished. Jesus certainly is not saying she gave her last cent and that’s what you should do, of course not. He doesn’t want you to give up everything you’ve got and go home and die. He’s given us richly all things to enjoy. It says nothing about percentages, nothing about proportional giving, nothing about giving with the right spirit, nothing about the measure of the gift is what you have left, nothing about giving up everything and living on faith. That’s not here. He’s observing the false religion that preys on the weak and the desperate and the defenseless and holds out hope to the hopeless if they just give their money. I think Jesus was not happy. I think Jesus was angry. And that’s why He says in verse 6, “As for the things which you’re looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.” And the disciples say, “When’s it going to happen?” And He says, “It’s going to happen,” and He describes it in the remainder of the chapter.
Isn’t this obvious? If you saw a widow give her last two cents to some religious organization in the hope that she could purchase salvation or purchase blessing, or buy healing, or buy prosperity, you wouldn’t commend her, you’d want to stop her and you’d want to shut down that religious system that preys on the desperate. This act did not please our Lord. She’s simply been taught and she bought in to a system that destroyed her. No praise is given of her act or her attitude. She’s caught in the corruption of the system at the hands of those wretched leaders. She has given her last coins to a false religion. Jesus is angry. And that’s why He’ll destroy this den of robbers. Judgment came, 70 A.D., and it continues now on that temple, on that city, on that land until Jesus comes again.
You know, this continued to go on through history? For Martin Luther in the Reformation it was a Catholic Church abusing the poor that in his mind invalidated the whole system. They were building massive cathedrals. They were building St. Peter’s in Rome. They were building it from the money of the poor, destitute, impoverished people to whom they were selling indulgences to build St. Peter’s, promising the people that for money their sins would be forgiven. When it became so abusive, Luther reacted, the people reacted and you had a Protestant Reformation. I’ve been in cities around the world where I’ve talked with people in cathedrals and I’ve asked the question a number of places…Why are none of the cathedrals ever finished, why do they keep building them? And the answer is because the church can tax the people as long as construction is going on. Sometimes it goes on for a thousand years. The history of the Roman Catholic Church in the world is a history of massive unbelievable wealth at the top, out of the pockets of the destitute and the poor trying to buy their way into heaven.
In a perhaps more familiar role for some of us, the largest segment of givers to the Charismatic prosperity gospel preachers are single women, desperate for healing, desperate for money. Sometimes they’re promised money, health and the new one is a spouse…a man. That’s right, if they send in their money. So I say, woe to you who sell your miracle water and your miracle cloths that promise to heal the desperate if they send you their money. Woe to you wealthy self-indulgent preachers who become rich on the backs of the lonely poor, disillusioned diseased and desperate who are told to give you their money as an act of faith so that God is obligated to make them healthy and wealthy. Woe to you who indulge in ten thousand dollar a night hotel rooms, claim revelations from God, spend 112 thousand dollars a month on your private jet with money taken from the most desperate people. Woe to you, you will not escape judgment.
One person I read about this week worked for a five-star hotel, stole $400 thousand from the hotel. They tracked the employee down. Found him in a small dingy rented apartment in a slum with no car. When they asked where the money was, he had given it all to a prosperity preacher on the promise that it would be multiplied. This is not true religion, never has been. Listen to James 1:27, “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God to visit orphans and widows in their distress.” True religion does not abuse the poor. It ministers generously, graciously to their needs.
Isn’t it amazing? Of all the little things…of all the little things that could have been the trigger to set off the destruction of the temple, it was one illustration of an abused widow that our Lord puts on the pages of Scripture. Woe to you who abuse women, widows, the distressed, the downcast, the poor, the sick with your lying promises to get their money. That’s false and it will be destroyed.
Father, we hear this message and we know that it’s consistent with Your heart because You care for the downcast and the poor. Jesus came and He fed the crowds. Jesus came and He healed the sick. Jesus came and He poured out love and grace to all who would come to Him and said His burden is light, His yoke is easy…a contrast to the wicked false religious systems that prey on people, especially the defenseless and the destitute and the desperate and the hurting and the needy. Lord, would You bring that to an end and would You exalt Your true church and the true Christian faith. This we ask only for Your glory. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
