While he was teaching in the Temple, Jesus asked, “How is it that the religion scholars say that the Messiah is David’s ’son,’ when we all know that David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said,
   God said to my Master,
      “Sit here at my right hand
      until I put your enemies under your feet.”
“David here designates the Messiah ‘my Master’—so how can the Messiah also be his ’son’?”
   The large crowd was delighted with what they heard.
He continued teaching. “Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preening in the radiance of public flattery, basking in prominent positions, sitting at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they’ll pay for it in the end.”
Sitting across from the offering box, he was observing how the crowd tossed money in for the collection. Many of the rich were making large contributions. One poor widow came up and put in two small coins—a measly two cents. Jesus called his disciples over and said, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all.”
love this bit. I no longer feel shame for only giving a fiver a month to charity. Fact is – I can’t really afford to give anything(!) but I still haven’t stopped the direct debit, and hopefully God’ll not let me go hungry!
Sure rich people can give the odd few hundred pounds here and there – but if you’re not, it’s worth remembering even giving time/prayer/your talents is still giving ;-)
But Michael she gave everything she had!!!
I can\’t believe that she entrusted everything she had to those pompous, peacock-like religious leaders of the earlier part of the passage! It seems fool-hardy to me. If giving is for the good of the community, then how would she know that the money would be used wisely? If she expected to be cared for by that community, would her expectations be met? It\’s all very well saying \’God will provide\’, but he isn\’t providing so much as clean, safe water for the thousands who die daily for the want of it, so why would he provide for this lady, or for me in my safe, modern, Western life?
I\’m really struggling with ideas about money at the moment. How does one strike a balance between making wise decisions about planning for future needs/ insuring against risks and trusting God to provide? Please if anyone can shed light on this, could you let me know? This isn\’t just a hypothetical question for me right now!
Artiecls like this just make me want to visit your website even more.