21 While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. 2 Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins.
3 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. 4 For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”
Luke 21:1-4
Dear God, you know that I’ve talked about this passage a lot in the past. Both privately and publicly through sermons and Sunday school lessons, I’ve used this woman as an example of someone who faithfully worshipped you through her selfless sacrifice and was seemingly never materially rewarded for it this side of death. But her reward was surely to be with you for eternity and to be namelessly remembered through the rest of history.
If I’m honest, I can look at my life and see that I still have some pretty good guardrails around how much of my personal comfort I sacrifice for the sake of others. Do I give? Yes. Do I try to give generously? Yes. Do I volunteer time to serve others? Yes. But there are limits. I give in a planned way. Even the spontaneous giving for tragedies like the floods that impacted our area this last summer was done within the parameters of what my wife and I had set aside for such an emergency. I made sure all of my own needs and even my wants were covered first. I wasn’t giving my mortgage money or my food money.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself. Maybe it’s okay to plan just so long as I am remembering that giving is part of the equation. And my wife and I certainly do give. And we volunteer. So we aren’t lost causes in this area. I suppose it’s just that this widow’s story is a challenge to me that, when I think I’ve given enough and I can stop now, I need to challenge that idea. When I start to get prideful in my nobility, I am humbled by the mere knowledge of her existence in the past and how Jesus loved and appreciated her.
Father, I’m just a nobody, but that’s okay. I’m just a guy that might never get noticed by anyone else, but you notice. Okay. That’s not true. A lot of people in our small town notice me and the work that I do. And sometimes I get prideful in that. I guess what I want to do in your sight is the stuff that no one else sees. I want to work, live, love, volunteer, and give as unto you and not as unto them. I want to worship you in my words, thoughts, and deeds. I want to not miss the opportunities to love that I know I miss every day. I want to give my utmost for your highest. Holy Spirit, help me to be that man today.
3 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. 2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. 3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. 4 A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. 5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. 6 A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. 7 A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. 8 A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. 15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.
16 I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt! 17 I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”
18 I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. 19 For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! 20 Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust. 21 For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth? 22 So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is our lot in life. And no one can bring us back to see what happens after we die.
Ecclesiastes 3
Dear God, let’s face it, most everyone over 40 knows the beginning of this song from The Byrds classic, “Turn, Turn, Turn.”
I could spend a lot of time talking about the different seasons in life, but I am actually drawn to two other parts of this chapter. First, verse 11: 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. I think my Mothers of the Bible and Fathers of the Bible series taught me that I will never be able to see what you are doing in the grand scope of things. My life is too short and my mind is too small. Naomi could never have seen that her path in life would lead to the lineage of Jesus (through Ruth and Boaz, to Obed, to Jesse, to David, to, ultimately, Jesus.) Hagar couldn’t have seen her suffering would lead to her freedom from slavery until much later in life. I can’t even figure out how taking a trip this week impacts the rest of my life. Almost nothing is known to me. And that’s okay. It’s just hard to learn to accept.
Then there is the part in verses 18-20: 18 I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. 19 For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! 20 Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust. I mentioned this the other day after I read the whole book at once and then prayed about my takeaways. Solomon (or the person writing from his perspective) has such a Solomon-centric, humancentric view of the world at this point, that he sees the only path as being self indulgence. Verses 12 and 13: 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. Verse 22a: 22 So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is our lot in life.
Whenever I think of the quiet sufferer who didn’t “live their best life now” (see Joel Osteen’s heresy) I think of the poor widow who put a couple of coins into the offering at the Temple. Jesus saw it and gathered his disciples around him to point it out and use it as a teachable moment. But there is no evidence that she ever knew he saw her. There is no evidence she ever had any more money when she died than she did that day. And there is no evidence that she ever knew that her act of worship and duty to you would be preserved as an example to billions of people over the millennia. So Solomon, I know you didn’t have her as an example yet when you wrote this, but she is my example. My life is not about me.
Father, we are on an interesting journey through Ecclesiastes. It’s a little like Job where you have a lot of people talking and saying the wrong things, including Job. Taken out of context, this could be a dangerous book. But for me the message of peace is found in 3:11: 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I trust you with eternity. I trust you with my life. I trust you with my wife’s and children’s lives. My wife and I prayed for a cousin who is getting married today. I trust you with their lives as well. Be God. Don’t let one thing slip from your notice. And use every struggle to refine all of us into your children.
I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Mark 12:38-44
Jesus also taught: “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be more severely punished.” Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”
Dear God, I think one of the biggest obstacles for people as we try to read the Bible is the same obstacle we have when we read a text from a friend–tone of voice can be everything. This story about the widow is a great example. I’ve read it countless times. Most Christians are familiar with it. If I say the words “The Widow’s Mite” to a group of Christians, they immediately know what I mean. But how much do we miss in this story?
Several years ago, I had a revelation from you that this widow likely never knew that Jesus saw her faithfulness that day, and she likely went home that day as poor as she was when the day started. She likely died however many years later as poor as she was when she dropped in those coins. There was no monetary reward for her faithfulness. There was provision from you. There was peace. And there was the immortality of me even knowing about her 2,000 years later. But here were no earthly riches for her.
So that’s a pretty good revelation. But then I read Fred Smith’s blog post this morning, and he pointed out another aspect of this story. Because of story headings, chapter breaks, and verses that translators of the Bible have given us so that we can more easily find things, we often make the mistake of separating stories in the middle. This one is an example.
Fred pointed out that Mark tells us two stories back to back. Jesus has just finished a rant about the Pharisees taking from widows (among others) and then he goes over to the offerings and seems to wait for a widow to come by to make his point. Fred mentioned that this widow was giving to the very group that Jesus said had held her down and even taken from her. This add even another layer to this story. How do I keep myself from being a Pharisee that 1.) takes advantage of widows and 2.) doesn’t squander the offerings the give to you?
I’m in a unique position as the director of a nonprofit that takes donations from hundreds of people each year, including some widows. This story is not just a reminder for me to be a giver of my personal resources, but also reminds me to make sure I am being fair to and loving each donor and then using their donations to reach out and help everyone we can.
Father, help me to hear your voice when I read my Bible. Help me to hear your tone of voice in the words. Reveal to me the things I’ve missed over the years. Help me to break away from the erroneous teaching that has been accidentally (or perhaps intentionally) passed down from each preceding generation. Love through me, and help me to decrease so that you will increase. Of course, the ultimate goal for my life is that you will use it however you need to so that you kingdom will come and your will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”[
Dear God, I think this story needs an example. What does this look like in real life? What does it mean?
One of my favorite Bible stories is of Jesus sitting in the synagogue watching the people come in. He sees different ones dropping money in the offering, but the one he singles our to his disciples is the poor widow who gave sacrificially. The thing I find remarkable about this story is that this widow left the synagogue that day never realizing that Jesus had used her as an example to his disciples, that it would be recorded by one of them, and that I would be reading the story nearly two thousand years later. In fact, that day, when she got back to her home, she was as poor as when she started and there is zero evidence that her lot in life ever changed.
This widow is a mustard seed. She is yeast. Unbeknownst to her, she is a living example of sacrificial giving and being willing to lay her needs aside because of her worship of you. She has been used in countless sermons and Bible studies. The story has been told on television shows and in movies. And she never knew.
Father, I think that sometimes I try to see what my seed and yeast are turning into, but, once again, you have me on a need-to-know basis, and I don’t need to know. You are calling me to be like this widow—faithfully ignorant of the impact my life is having. So help me to turn loose of my need to be noticed, appreciated, and admired. Help me to turn loose of my need to leave a legacy and simply find the joy and peace that comes from faithful service and sacrifice to you.
Emails to God 