The Smile of God on the Smallest of Good Deeds

Luke 21:1-4

by Dennis Gunderson

Read Luke 21:1-2.

Mark adds an interesting little detail, saying Mark 12:41:

And He sat down across from the treasury, and began observing how the multitude were putting money into the treasury.

Jesus sits down to watch the giving. Imagine it: someone sitting down in a high visibility spot so he can purposefully watch us go about the offering. Watching to see who puts in how much! I think wed call that pretty nosy. Of course, for our Lord Jesus, we don't have to worry about nosy, because He doesn't have to watch us now to know what we give; He knows whether He watches or not. And even if, back at this time, He was only relying on His human powers, He's still entitled to know.

But the One Who can watch with Divine powers of observation now or anytime, He was at the least, choosing to watch with limited human powers on the day we read of here; watching people present their offerings. He still watches that, you know. The Scriptures say the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, 2 Chron 16:9, but the God who sees all things watches some things with a special interest. Our giving is one of them. Even though it happens every week. Events of daily or weekly life to which we see no particular importance, He observes and sees as more significant than we think.

Now, you have to listen to me preach a long time to even hear one message on giving. So if you're visiting with us, this is unusual. We work our way through the gospel of Luke here Sunday mornings and today, we reach chapter 21. I find it interesting that, my first message upon returning to the GBC pulpit is about a widow. It came to pass on a day when Jesus was watching people, kind of like you or I might do at an airport. Ever do that? I wonder if some of His disciples were watching with Him, maybe commenting, Man, look at the haircut on that guy! (probably not, because uniformity was much more common then).

For however long He watched, of all that He saw in that time, the Holy Spirit decided that two sights that day were notable enough to write down for the remainder of human history to know about. Two sights: the enormous giving of the wealthy, who could easily afford a lot. And the miniscule giving of a widow, who could not easily afford to even give that little. And when you wonder if your smallest good deeds have ever had an influence, ask yourself, how much sacrificial giving do you suppose has been done since the time of this event, which was inspired by reading about this widow? I wonder how much high-impact giving has occurred as a result of reflecting on what Jesus had to say, merely pointing out this widow?

It all took place in the treasury. V 1 mentions the treasury, which was the name of a building annex to the temple, where there were 13 trumpet-shaped collection funnels or chutes. There was an inscription in the wall above each chute, telling how anything you dropped into this one or that one would be used. Here, you gave gifts in addition to and beyond your obligatory tithe. And the money you gave would slide down the chutes into large storage tanks where it was kept until the priests came to collect it for use on various expenses. One was for the temple tribute, one for supplies, one for building and repair materials, one for sacrificial animals, one for the poor, etc. We don't know anymore what all of the 13 were for but we know there were 13.

Mark 12 says Jesus saw many rich people dumping in large sums. There were many rich people even in Israel, a conquered nation under Roman rule, had lots of wealth. Can you imagine how many rich people there are in our prosperous, free country, not conquered by anything except their own lusts, and most of whom frequently complain about how bad the economy is while living in the best economic circumstances in world history and all of them just as observed by the God of heaven as Jesus observed these goings-on on this day!

I've read that the millionaires of America persons whose assets total a million dollars and up is now over a million people. A millionaire certainly qualifies as rich. We don't know how rich the people Jesus watched were, but we know where were at.

Now, if we had been there, observing the giving, how would we know how much was being put in by different ones? It probably would not have been difficult to tell. You could see the big sacks of coin being carried into the treasury annex. You could hear the loud, extended clanging for several seconds of heaps of coins tumbling down the shafts that would give it away: Ooh boy, did you hear that one? That was loud! That took awhile!

And there was the Treasury Clerks announcement! I am not making this up: when you entered this annex, you actually registered with a clerk what amount your gift was, and he wrote down in the ledger book that you gave $5,000. Then a fellow with a booming voice announced A donation from Greg Lang of $5,000 for the poor! And next, A gift of $2,000 from Larry Brown for building repairs.

Its true! That happened, and reliable Jewish history sources tell us it did. Did you notice, Matt 6:2 to not sound a trumpet, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets as they do! Some of them do it. Of course its ludicrous. Jesus taught explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount that our giving should not be with public fanfare. Most people just shy away from that even by nature. But on this day, even that is not what Jesus selects to draw attention to. For this is not a day to point out hypocrisy or arrogance; but to make note of an amazing act of sincerity and generosity.

For what Jesus is impressed with this day is not the giving of the rich. By that, He is totally unimpressed. Even though some of them probably impressed themselves with their own giving. And others, no doubt, gave a lot with a humble spirit and a thankfulness that they could give a lot. But He sees nothing striking or notable to point out to His disciples, in a rich person donating a lot. They have a lot! So what's the big deal if they give a lot?

Some of the wealthy givers in those times were quite impressed with themselves, and practiced large giving for the same reason they practiced public praying to be known for it, even to outdo one another for how much they were known for. In the 1st century, some of the rich had actually begun to compete in their giving, seeing who could get the bragging rights for giving the most, for being known among men as the most generous giver.

It got so out of hand that, a law had been enacted in Israel which said that gifts to the temple at any one time had to stay within a certain percentage of your income. A lot of preachers today would crave that problem person coming to their church! People competing about giving? Bring em on, some would say. Paul taught us to outdo one another in honor, but not to outdo one another in giving so that it would be known among us.

Its tough sometimes for the rich to grasp and swallow that its not enough that you merely give a great deal. God may not particularly smile on that at all. The rich need to regularly examine their motives in giving; for you can go through all the motions of what God requires and still not do anything which the Lord considers a good deed; we can even greatly displease the Lord while were giving. Take time to think about it, and many reasons will emerge as to why.

But the object lesson is this other person observed, v 2: He saw a certain poor widow and most of them were poor. Jesus view fixes on an inconspicuous lady; a widow. To talk about a widow was almost a synonym for the poorest of the poor. A widow had very few ways to earn money in 1st-century Judea and so normally lived on the edge of survival. As was customary in those times, this lady very likely wore clothing that would make her recognizable as a widow, even wearing a veil in such a way as would signify a life alone without a man.

She had no recourse to 401ks, no Social Security, no company pension continuing in the name of a deceased husband. She was just dirt poor. But she comes to the treasury, where you would not expect her to have any business. Anything given there was not mandatory, it was of the category called freewill offerings, which really meant voluntary offerings. And she picked out a chute for whatever service to the temple was on her heart to give to, and there dropped in two small copper coins.

Mark decides to tell us the monetary value of her gift they amount to a cent. I guess that makes each coin a half a cent? When you and I hear cent we think of a penny. Now, this is not our penny, certainly; but the idea gets across clearly: it was a really small gift. Not a lot of money by anyone's standard. The only other place this word for cent is used is Matt 5:26, where Jesus says you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent, which certainly sounds like Him saying, right down to the last little teeny bit.

Perhaps the widow was sad that she could only give so little. Perhaps she felt totally out of place with one rich giver after another passing by, unloading his sack of coins into the treasury, tumbling down the chutes. In this well-off crowd, she was out of her league. But she didn't let that prevent her. She may have been ashamed to have her offering announced. I feel certain that she was not at all wanting it announced, as impressing men is not what she was all about. I can see her trying to bypass the clerk altogether, but imagine if it was just the standard and usual practice, and so the treasury clerk softly said Mrs. Jeconiah gives one cent.

She could have easily talked herself right out of giving at all, for any number of reasons. I'm a widow, after all what do I have to give? What could God expect of me? It wouldn't amount to anything! It wouldn't make any difference? And she could have reasoned within herself, But giving it away could make a great deal of difference to me! I must guard every cent! I cant afford to let anything out of my hands that little bit could make the difference some day between life and starvation!

But she didn't talk herself out of it. Somehow, she talked herself into giving rather than out of giving. How many times have you talked yourself out of giving anything, since all you could give was going to be so little anyway? Why bother, right? Or so you figured. But as you read what Jesus said about her and her small gift, think then of how that small gift could have pleased the Lord.

More yet, she could have become bitter at God! She could have said, Lord, I had a husband and you took Him away. Now I'm destitute! Do I really owe the work of God anything at all? But she didn't go there either. She came to give something. The events of life did not alter her perspective on the fact that, I am a worshiper, a servant, a disciple, and my God is the benevolent King Who gives when He wills and takes away when He decides to. She remained an unquestioning worshiper.

Now, when it came to offerings, there was an exhortation in Ex 23:15, that none shall appear before Me empty-handed; but God had clarified that commandment in Deut 16:16-17, that this was meant for male heads of households who had an income for the family. But apparently even she did still did not want to come before God empty-handed. It was by choice. There is something pretty marvelous about that.

If you had been her acquaintance and knew what she was going down to the treasury to do, why, you might have tried to stop her and say My dear lady, who expects you to give? Nobody. Certainly not God. Why, the very fund for the poor is for people such as you to be a recipient of. But she still came and gave.

But more than observe what you put in the offering, our Lord knows just as well, why you put it in. He also knows what a person wouldn't put in, or didn't put in, and why they didn't. He even watches for hypocrisy in giving. He has seen persons lie about how much they put in, Acts 5:1ff, so that the rest of us would be impressed. So, even if we know someone to be a regular giver; and our treasurer knows that someone is a consistently big giver! Still, Jesus knows the larger truth about that person. The rest of us may believe that someone is a cheerful giver when God knows they are far from that. For His method of accounting doesn't merely take into account the amounts. He has other criteria.

V 3 is where we start hearing how Jesus counts and measures. He says Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them. The question to ask is, what does more mean? V 4 defines more for us: for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.

They gave out of their surplus, that is, from an abundance of money. And so what they gave, they really did not need. They had more than enough for living and then some luxury. But in her case, she would not eat until she made more money. That is the best way to interpret all she had to live on some preachers exaggerate the verse and speak as though, alas, the poor widow was so sacrificial, she gave away her last cent ever and then went just home to die!

That is unlikely. If you give away your food money today its not likely you'll starve to death tonight; starvation takes longer than that. As hard as it was for widows to make money, she had found ways to make some, obviously: shed lived this long, and in the creativity of desperation, shed probably find ways to make more or even if she just survived as an object of charity herself. Even those who survive partly dependent on the giving of others will sometimes want to give something themselves to another, and we have examples of that even in this church.

What all she had to live on probably means is that she gave all that she had for the moment what she had to live on that day, until she earned more, at some menial job, housekeeping for one of the rich or some such thing. With Israel full of workers who labored hand-to-mouth, day by day making enough for their daily bread, to feed the family that night, this probably means she gave up her little money for that day and so ended up fasting that day.

But she didn't do it for men to see; she was not even intending for Jesus to see, sitting over there watching she didn't ask Him to sit there and watch. She did it before the Lord of heaven above. And so her humble offering was not something shed ever want announced, but Jesus saw to it and Luke the author saw to it that her giving has become an everlasting, shining example which millions of people have read of ever since! Don't you just bet that she's been everlastingly blushing, every time its brought up, that God has forever recorded her story and made her an example for the centuries! Wouldn't you be? But I guess that's just another way we submit to the rights of God to do as He wills with us, and even if He wants to draw attention to one of our good works, well, that's His prerogative so to do.

So she gave all she had to live on. Back to the commentary on the rich: they gave out of their surplus, their excess, their abundance. What they gave wasn't wrong to give. I don't find Jesus critical of their giving. Money is money, and it was at least useful and serviceable to the temple and the poor that they gave it. But Jesus point is that their giving did not cost much; it did not touch their living costs; it scarcely affected their ability to do anything they wanted to do!

They could still get whatever brand chariot they wanted and the best horses to pull it and hire some boy to drive it for them. They could still have one of the finest homes in town; they could still wear the best purple and make the wife happy with nothing but the best for her, too. They could still buy and wear the fine jewelry they liked. They could still eat at the finest places in town regularly.

So, to say she gave more, well, that depends on what the meaning of more is, right? And here's what more means. The amounts they gave, were quite possible for them to give, without love, without sacrifice, and without self-denial. But what she gave required massive sacrifice, love and self-denial. The way Jesus counts, it adds up this way:

~ It was more in proportion to her means. And so that meant:
~ there was more self-denial
~ there was more sacrifice
~ there was more sincerity
~ there was more love to Gods work
~ and that meant, it was more acceptable to God

And that's what makes her a useful example.

So what that she gave less actual money? Don't be shallow and think that is an accurate gauge for who's the big giver! Not at all! More dollars? So what? Putting that category aside, she has all the other givers beat in every other category. And all the categories where she's ahead count for a lot more. Picture someone who gave 1% of a million dollars, which would be $10,000 and would look really good. She gave 100% of today's money, the whole 2 cents she made that day when she never had anything in her pocket but that 2 cents.

The message is not hard to grasp and so no preacher need make it more complicated with fancy words: The Lord Jesus says that giving is real and impresses Him as reality when it costs the giver. He recognizes devotion not from what a person can do that impacts them only a little, but what they do when its a genuine sacrifice when it costs.

The core question that has to lead to is, do we give in a way that costs us? Or do we cut and run at the point where we meet any pains for serving God? Are we glad to serve Him right up to the point where there is any pain and then stop there? Do we always make sure, above all, that there is money to buy whatever it is we lust for most?

Have you ever denied yourself specific comforts or desires, to instead using your dollars to advance the kingdom of God? Everyone has reasons and excuses why they don't give sacrificially not yet, is usually the way we fool ourselves. I will later. They really believe that and deceive themselves that way.

When I have more!
When the economy is better!
When there arent so many bills to pay!
When my kids are done college!
While they still have enough to spend on many of their own pleasures!
When I get a raise! Yes, but wont you say then that you have more taxes to pay?

Why give to God only IF you have some money left over, after you've done everything else you want to do? Isn't it obvious that, this kind of thinking will always result in you putting what you want ahead of what God calls for? Why not reverse that order? Why not give to God first, and then buy something you want if there's something left over to do that with? Yes, when you choose to sacrifice in your giving, you will find that you cant do some other things you'd like; you cant buy some items you'd love to have. So you'll feel it you will feel that you gave. But your desires and my desires for things are endless. We cant let those determine if we give.

We are a culture of runaway selfish lusts. What Haggai the prophet wrote in Hag 1 is being repeated in the churches of America as a rule. That prophet wrote:

Hag 1:2-11: Thus says the Lord of hosts, This people says, The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt. Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?

Being interpreted: We have a great ministry idea!, to which the people reply We cant afford that right now; yet why do we always have the money to afford whatever it is we want for ourselves?

Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways!

Being translated, think about what this says about you!

You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified, says the Lord.

You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.

Some truths to be gleaned from that:

~ To ever think that we don't have enough to give to God, while we are building our own estates, is lying to ourselves. Of course you do. You could at least start to decide to accumulate for yourselves at a slower rate!
~ To be fooled into such a mentality means we have not done much thinking about ourselves.
~ To refuse to repent of such thinking is to guarantee that we end up in a bondage pattern of never having enough. Its the succumbing to lusts and God giving us over to the discontentment of it
~ To refuse to repent of this is to ask God tempt God to make your life a frustrating circle of never seeming to get anywhere. Do you realize, God makes it turn out that way. Its a resultant punishment.
~ If we treat His gifts as though its ours, and treat it as though it all belongs to us, God can re-enforce the lesson that it is His, by taking it away from us.

But the fact is, He usually doesn't do that. He is so good, even to His enemies, He usually wont do that. He just lets you become one more of those evil and ungrateful men to whom He gives and gives, who return nothing to Him. And maybe, in fact, that's an even worse judgment, to be left with that kind of heart.

We are a nation with many Christians who get themselves tied up into so many financial obligations, that you have believers with considerable wealth but who can scarcely give. They've gotten themselves so tied up in financial knots and in all kinds of debt. No sooner do they get out of one debt than they start into another kind. Our poor are often no better what little they have, they waste. So they never make Gods work a priority.

But I am spending too much time on that. Here is what Jesus drew attention to: we are so prone to notice in the Word of God, how severely our God, judge of all, looks upon even some great deeds, when they proceed from self-righteousness or with desires to be seen of men! Let me encourage you by talking about how acceptably He smiles upon and praises the smallest deed of humble, sacrificial love! That is really what these verses are about!

The little contributions made to Christian work, which a laborer makes out of his scanty earnings, are more valued in Gods sight than the huge gift of the most wealthy. For Christ sees within it what we ought to be more concerned about: not what a man or woman has, but what the man or woman is. What does the gift reveal about you?

If her sacrificial giving did not go unnoticed by the Lord Jesus, then your sacrificial giving does not go unnoticed by the Lord Jesus. Tithing?? Forget tithing. 2 Cor 8:12: give according to the proportion of what you have. This is the Savior who says that a cup of cold water given to a little child does not go unnoticed.

That should teach us that what this story tells about the widows giving is every bit as true in all the other ways we can serve the Lord: God doesn't look so much on the quantity that we have as He does what were doing with it. For instance, in your witness its true: speak what you know. Preach as much of Christ as you know! Don't hold back because its just a little. Tell the little you know. In your worship it is true. You don't know much about how to worship? Worship as much as you know: don't hold back because it seems inadequate. In your praying it is true.

Its a good thing this applies in other realms. Because not a one of us is poor like this widow when it comes to money and offerings. We don't resemble her status at all in that regard. We all resemble the other parties in the story more, the wealthy givers; we all have discretionary money to spend. Money we can use as we wish. That can be a little troubling when it comes to figuring out how to apply this.

But we can offer service which costs us and find our love for God tried by that. And not just monetarily. That's possible in dozens of departments. Go give thought to what they are for you.