Jesus and Women – The Widow’s Mite

Jesus and Women – The Widow’s Mite.

“While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. ‘Let me tell you the truth,’ Jesus said, ‘this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. 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).

(Two parallel accounts are found in Mark 12 and Luke 21).

Jesus never wasted a teachable moment as He walked through His daily life with His disciples. Here we find them in the Temple Court where the collection boxes were placed: seven boxes for the Temple taxes, and six boxes for the freewill offerings. Jesus noticed the wealthy givers who would put a lot of money in the boxes, and He wasn’t at all impressed. They gave only a small portion out of their surplus money. Their offerings didn’t inconvenience them in the least, because they had so much money left over. Their lack of sacrifice probably reflected the level of their piety in terms of their relationship to God. Then Jesus noticed a poverty-stricken widow, with no means of support, drop two small copper coins. Each of these “mites” was only worth about one-eighth of a cent, the smallest of all the coins in circulation. Yet Jesus was most impressed with the sacrificial offering of that widow. She gave all she had, her life savings, with no way of knowing where her next bit of money would come from. She was actually more generous than those wealthy givers. Out of her religious piety, she displayed the generosity that Jesus loved. She gave till it hurt, she gave sacrificially, in a way that would make an impact on her life. Jesus saw here in the Temple an opportunity to point out an object lesson to His disciples. Jesus, the Master Teacher, taught in a classroom without walls. The natural world of daily life was His classroom, and His followers were His students.