Polar Opposites

Luke 21:2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.

Sometimes in life the contrasts between different people almost slaps you in the face. We in United States often don’t even notice the differences, or we note them and then move on. Unfortunately, the current climate of discourse forbids the moving on. When differences are noted, especially in one direction, then they must be acknowledged and atoned for. But unfortunately, no atonement is ever enough.

But humans have been divided since the beginning. Male and female, murderer and murdered, faithful and unfaithful, Jew and non-Jew. The list is endless. You see, the LORD made our brains to recognize differences so that we could tell who our parents were when knowing our parents in a crowd was essential. We needed our parents to care for us.

Life today is still about noticing the differences. We often call this branding. Android vs iPhone. Or it can be life and death. Snake vs rope. And seeing those differences can be very helpful as a Believer. We can see someone in need and reach out and meet the need. If we didn’t notice the differences, we wouldn’t see the need.

I love this very short story from Jesus’ life that Luke records in his Gospel. Jesus is standing beside the offering plate on Sunday morning and watching just how much people are putting into the plate. He then does a little math in his head and realizes that the rich people are giving proportionally a much smaller offering that a poor widow.

Now a poor widow is at the lower end of the social stratus of Jesus day. She has two strikes against her. She is a woman in a world that didn’t value women. This contrasts greatly with the role and status of women in Jesus’ life and the life of the early Church. Women were lifted to equals!

But to these self-righteous Jews, the cream of the crop, the one-percenters, this woman was not even worth a notice. And yet, this is the very person Jesus notices. She is a proportional giver. She gave one hundred percent! Very few people give everything. She did.

But not only is she poor by comparison, but she is also a widow. And in her day, a woman without a husband didn’t have any protection. She didn’t have a voice. She couldn’t have standing in court by herself. She was at the bottom.

But Jesus lifts her up above all those who seemingly have power. She is held up as an example.

Leave it all on the field. Give it all you have. This woman did. We can follow her example.