And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two lepta. And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them. For they all put in their gifts out of their abundance; but she, out of what she lacked, put in all that she had for living.”
Luke 21:1-4
Introduction
Here we have a scene taking place during the end of Jesus’ ministry. He is in Jerusalem and in the Temple where He had been teaching daily since driving out the money changers (Luke 19:47). There He observes people submitting their funds for use by the priests and takes the time to comment on a poor widow who has given two lepta. A lepta is roughly equivalent to one cent. It is the smallest denomination of coin in the Greek speaking world, and is worth very little.
A cent is such a small amount that only last year the US Treasury announced they would stop the production of pennies because the cost of manufacturing them is greater than the assigned value of a penny! But for this poor widow, two lepta was all she had to give, and because of her faithfulness and generous heart, her memory is forever inscribed in the holy text of scripture.
The gift of giving
2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that our generosity ought to come out of a desire to give rather than a perceived obligation. In fact, the verse concludes by saying God loves a cheerful giver. This stands in stark contrast to the Pharisees who “tithe of [their] mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but [they] neglect justice and the love of God.” (Luke 11:42)
Those who give out of obligation have a tendency to silo off the various parts of their lives. Church attendance is done because they are supposed to rather than because they want to. Acts of service are performed for the purpose of pressing a thumb on the scales of justice rather than because it is the loving thing to do. People who live this way often find themselves paying lip-service to God while actively pursuing the very same things unbelievers do. Money, fame, prestige, and earthly glory are all set as the targets while humility, generosity, and repentance are largely absent.
To find joy in giving requires us to have a heart in alignment with God’s heart. And the Lord has taught us “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)
Be generous as God is generous
Our God is a generous and giving God. When He created man, He did not do so with speech like He did with all the rest of creation. While He determined to create us by speech (Genesis 1:26), His final creative act was to form us out of what He had already made and then to breathe life into us (Genesis 2:7). Every other creature draws its own breath, while we uniquely drew His breath in the first man, Adam. By the very act of creation, God gave of Himself.
And God continues to give, with every good thing coming by His hand (James 1:17). When the only thing we deserve is death and destruction (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23), He continues to give us life in abundance. Every time you come inside from the cold, that is a gift from God and not a given. Every time you take a draught of water into a parched mouth, that is a gift from God and not a given. Every time you draw a breath, that breath is a wondrous gift from God. None of it is a given. I am reminded of G.K. Chesterton in his apologetic work Orthodoxy, he makes this beautiful point:
But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
God is active in each of the gifts He graciously gives us. From the rising of the sun to the very breath we draw, He is active in it all. This generosity is part of God’s holiness. His holiness, or His otherness, is what makes Him distinct. And since we ought to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16), we ought to be generous as He is generous.
And this generosity is not a generosity out of an abundance that feels no sense of loss. The Lord Jesus felt extraordinary loss when the Father turned His face away at the cross, bearing His wrath down upon the sinless One who cried out “why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:1). God may have blessed you with greater wealth than this widow who only had two lepta to give. If you are reading this, that is almost certainly the case. This is not a call to divest yourself of all earthly goods and to live a life of poverty. But it is a call to give generously and cheerfully of whatever God has blessed you with. Whether it is a little or it is much, there is something God has entrusted to you to bring Him glory and honor.
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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