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Have you ever wondered if growing up poor could somehow imbue you with deeper character? After all, there are plenty of rags-to-riches stories around to inspire us. And we do occasionally hear poverty romanticized as though growing up poor somehow makes us better people.

It's an interesting thought, but in reality, neither poverty nor plenty are, by themselves, guarantors of good character. Too often, in fact, poverty crushes the human spirit and robs us of the hope that makes us strive to succeed. Someone who experienced both poverty and plenty put it, "I've been rich and I've been poor, but I like rich better."

Well, certainly no one in the Bible was any more in hard times than the impoverished woman Jesus noticed as she dropped two small coins into the temple treasury box.

This widow was having a hard way to go. Without a husband, she was dependent on the capricious whims of charity. There is a painting of this impoverished woman by artist A. D. Rahm that pictures her dropping her coins with one hand while holding a child's hand with her other. Does that surprise you? It may; many of us naturally picture this woman as elderly. The Bible does not say that, however. She may have been a young woman with not only herself to feed, but small children as well. And if that is so, it then casts a different light on her story. Imagine what reasonable arguments might have run through her head as she debated what to do about the temple offering: Remember you have children to think of. Charity begins at home. Besides, what difference can the pittance you have make alongside the larger gifts? Let those who can afford it give. You have obligations right in your own household. Nobody expects you to give anyway.

But the fact is, she chose to give all she had. Jesus, who saw her make her tiny offering, instantly understood the powerful significance of what she had done, and pointed her action out to his disciples as an example of real sacrifice. And notice that he said that she had contributed "all she had to live on." We might wonder how Jesus knew that, for she in no way announced it, but somehow he did.

Jesus praised what she had done, but it is important to notice that Jesus did not in any way condemn the other givers for the size of their gifts; he simply made the point that the meaning of a gift is best measured by what is left after the gift is made.

In terms of buying power, the widow's offering was insignificant, but the devotion that motivated her gift was phenomenal. That kind of devotion has done more to help meet the needs of people throughout the centuries than cash alone could ever do.

Let us not kid ourselves, though. Without money, a lot of truly helpful things that have been done for people could never have been accomplished. Money has a very real power about it that is able to command goods and services to be where people who need them are. But let us not be naive either. Money, even when administered by compassionate and devoted people, sometimes ends up lining the pockets of people who don't need it. Money has the power to do good, but it also can buy corruption and pain.

The gift the widow gave to the temple treasury was not just two small copper coins. It was a gift of devotion and faith. By giving to the temple the only money she had -- the cost of her family's next meal -- she was expressing a devotion to God that is quite rare.

In his book about Mother Teresa, Malcolm Muggeridge tells about an Australian man who was so impressed with her work among the poorest of the poor in India that he gave her a large donation. But he also did more than that, for he said, "Money's outside of me ... I want to give something of me." And so he stayed a while and shaved the sick men, helped out around the hospital, and spent time talking with the sick and dying, sharing words of encouragement and cheer.1

The people whom Jesus saw in the temple making substantial contributions of cash were not wrong. But what they were giving, when it came out of a much larger abundance, was as the Australian said, outside of themselves. They had plenty left. The widow, who gave until she had nothing left, was giving of herself.

Well, who do you identify with in this story: Those who gave out of their abundance? The woman who gave sacrificially? The people who held back and gave nothing at all? For another perspective, try to think about this story from the point of view of the temple administrators. We are gathered here today as a church, and some of us are involved in its administration, so thinking about the story from that perspective should not be too hard.

As a church, we cannot function very long without money. We cannot do our part in keeping missionaries in many areas of the world and heat our own building without money. We can't do much local mission work without money, either, so we need some of those substantial gifts like those Jesus saw other people placing in the temple treasury.

But we also need the widow's gift. We need the kind of devotion that is self-giving and that is costly in the deeper sense of the word. We need the kind of devotion to God's causes that makes people willing to give of themselves. Otherwise the money is no good.

We need the kind of devotion Jean Stassel has. Mrs. Stassel is a talented woman with a college education. She did her graduate work at Alaska University. One of the most consuming efforts of her life these days, however, is the volunteer work she does at Alaska's Jesse Lee Home, a United Methodist institution for children aged six to fifteen who need a stable group-home environment. Mrs. Stassel gives her time there because she knows that troubled children need extra attention. She also works hard to bring the needs of native Alaskan children before the state legislature to improve the state policies.

Here is something Stassel said:

This I believe: Each individual, as a child of God, has great value. Therefore each one with a special need must be listened to -- actively and with empathy. To such persons I hope to make myself available.2


Someone once asked this woman, "Why don't you accept a paying job instead of just giving yourself away?" Her reply: "I'm not in the labor market because what I want to give doesn't draw a salary."

That's devotion, and our church needs it as much as we need money.

But let's return to the scripture. The passage includes not only the poor widow's story but also some words Jesus spoke right before his visit to the temple. He warned his audience to beware of scribes who "devour widow's houses." Exactly how the scribes were able to deprive widows of their property is not stated, but we know that people sometimes use the law to make unreasonable profits at the expense of others. We also know about foreclosures and sheriff's sales. Some are appropriate, but there are always some people who are scheming and scamming to devour the houses and savings of anyone they can.

I think it's no accident that Mark placed these warnings from Jesus immediately before the poor widow incident. She may well have been one of those widows who fell victim to some unscrupulous scribe. She may have lost what little property her deceased husband's estate held. But if that was the case, she did not let her victim status prevent her from also being a giver.

We can imagine others who might have said, "I can't give anything to the temple this year; I've lost too much in bad investments." Or "My business isn't doing well this year." Or "The bank has ripped me off." The widow, however, refused to use the "I've been a victim" excuse, reasonable though it seems. She came and she gave.

There is one other thing to notice about the story -- its placement in the Gospel of Mark. This is the very last event Mark reports from Jesus' public ministry. The gospel account continues, but the rest of the conversations Mark records are between Jesus and his disciples. Mark has closed this section of the public ministry with Jesus' words of praise for the widow: "She has put in everything she had."

That is a powerful statement of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Jesus was not praising poverty nor was he saying that everyone should contribute everything they have. He was praising the attitude that comes in trust to God and says, "I recognize my emptiness but give what I can anyway. Then I come to you in trust to be filled."

This incident took place during the final week of Jesus' life. He visited the temple and saw the widow make her gift on Tuesday or Wednesday; on Friday he died on the cross. It is clear that Jesus knew before he even started for Jerusalem what was going to happen when he got there. All that surely weighed heavily on him. We can imagine him sitting wearily near the temple treasury, perhaps wondering about the goodness in the human heart.

What he saw happening may have cheered him a little. He saw a lot of people putting money in the treasury. Some gave large amounts, some smaller, but most were probably trying to be faithful and were giving gifts as acts of worship.

Then he saw the widow drop in her two coins. Perhaps the sight of her devotion was one thing that encouraged Jesus during his final hours before the cross.

There is an old story from the days when church budgets were publicly subscribed in Sunday morning worship. In a certain church, the pastor started by asking who would make a $1,000 pledge. Those willing and able to do so stood, and a secretary took down their names. The congregation applauded. Next, the pastor asked who would pledge $900. Some stood and were applauded. And so it continued until the figure was lowered to the smallest amount. By then almost everyone present had pledged something. As the preacher was about to close, an old woman, known to have almost nothing to her name, came down the aisle, placed a few dollars in the pastor's hand and then returned to her seat. There was no applause, but when the pastor looked at the money, he knew she had given all she had. Finally he said to the assembled, "I think I hear applause from the nail-scarred hands."

The devotion of that woman, like the devotion of the poor woman in the temple, is a worthy gift, and we should each, according to what God has given us, emulate their spirit and attitude. For some of us, it will mean giving substantial financial gifts. For others, not as much. But for all, it should involve, in some meaningful and possibly costly way, a giving of our ourselves.


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1.ÊMalcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God (San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 1986).

2.ÊMarjorie Vandervelde, "Volunteer Gives Herself," Stewardship (Parish Publications), April 1988, p. 4.