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| Scripture: Mark 12: 41-44; Luke 21:1-4
Key text: "And he called his disciples to him and said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.'" Truth to reflect on: The wisdom of the world says that the people that give the most are the most valuable. The wisdom of God in Christ says that giving is as much about the heart of the giver as it is about the gift itself.  Artist: Shaun Fox. Reflection by Brett Westervelt The last shall be first. To live you must die. Love your enemies. Jesus always seems to be flipping things on their heads, pulling out from under us the things we hold to be self-evident. His comments to His disciples about a widow and her offering are no different, painting the stark contrast between our values and God's, between His kingdom and our own. Here is a poor, husbandless woman bringing her offering to the temple's treasury. She gave practically nothing that day - two small copper coins, a rounding error really, an amount likely dwarfed by that in the temple's give a penny take a penny tray - and yet to Jesus she had put in more than anyone else. I wonder what one of the rich people that had given a lot of money that day would have said had they overheard Jesus. Alright Jesus, this woman gave everything she had, that really is amazing. But I did give a lot today, a huge sum of money for the work of God. Is my gift not good enough? What am I supposed to do, give every last cent of my personal worth? What's the temple even going to do with all of that money, cover more things in gold, purchase bigger lamp stands? Hasn't God blessed me with money so that I can take care of my family and put food on the table, among other things? These remarks being hypothetical, I'm not sure how Jesus would have responded. I wonder, though, if His aim was not to degrade the large, seen offerings of the wealthy so much as to make seen the so-small-it-was-hardly-noticeable gift of the widow. My initial response is, wow what is Jesus telling me I need to do? But perhaps that's not the point. Maybe Jesus wasn't trying to get people to feel bad about what they had given and coax some more out of them; maybe He was trying to get them to notice the widow. Here is a woman that was completely destitute, without a husband to provide for her and because of cultural norms, likely not able to go get a job and provide for herself. Not much in the world's eyes, but in Jesus' eyes a beautiful woman, worthy of honor and respect, a woman who gave the kind of gift that people should be talking about. Maybe a take away in this for us living in Austin in 2008 is that we need to pay a lot more attention to the less fortunate in our city - to see the value in who they are and what they have to give. I think, though, that as with most of Jesus' teachings, the physical example here points also at a deeper spiritual lesson. There are times and aspects of my life in which I feel like I have nothing left to give. We all have these areas - places where we feel completely emotionally drained and don't have room for one more conversation, where our schedule is completely full and we don't have a second to spare, where we don't have a lot of money to give regardless of how good the cause. In these ways and seasons, Jesus' words about the widow are a word to us that these instances where we have little left to give are moments when in many ways we can give the most because they're the moments when giving anything is giving everything. Maybe these tiny gifts won't make much of an impact in and of themselves, but the heart behind these gifts - the one that simultaneously gives both the first portion and the last - is the kind of heart that can change a city. Application Questions:
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