Two Small Coins

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Mark 12:41-44 "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.'"

Think

Jesus sat down and watched people give money.

That is what the passage says he was doing. He picked a spot across from where the offerings went in, and he sat there and watched. Not to catch anybody. He just watched, and Mark tells us what he saw, which is that a lot of wealthy people put in large amounts.

Then a widow came.

In that world, being a widow was not a season of sadness. It was a category of poverty. No husband meant no income and almost no way to get one. She had two small copper coins, which Mark says were worth only a few cents. It was the smallest currency in circulation. There was no smaller thing she could have given except nothing.

Nobody in that courtyard noticed. There was no sound. Two of the smallest coins in existence dropping into a container after rich people had been throwing in handfuls would have made no impression on anybody.

Except one person who was watching on purpose.

Jesus calls the disciples over, which means he wanted this recorded. And he says something that should have made no sense to anybody standing there. "This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others."

More than all of them. Not more meaningfully. Not more sincerely. More.

Then he explains the accounting, and it is not the accounting anybody else in the building was using. They gave out of their wealth. She gave out of her poverty. They gave from what they had extra. She gave everything she had to live on.

God is not measuring the size of the gift. He is measuring the size of the gap between what you gave and what you had.

That should do two things to you at the same time, and both of them matter.

It should take the pressure off. You are not behind. You are not disqualified from being useful to God because somebody else has more to offer. The kid with the loud personality who can talk to anybody is not further along with God than you are. Different amount, same question.

And it should also raise the stakes, because this passage is not a story about a small gift. It is a story about a total one. She did not give a reasonable percentage. She put in everything.

So the question is not whether what you have is impressive. The question is whether you are giving out of your extra.

It is very possible to invite somebody to church out of your extra. To help when it costs you nothing. To be generous with the time you were not using anyway. That is not wrong, it is just not what Jesus stopped everything to point at.

And notice what she got out of it. She walked away with nothing and she never knew. She did not hear him say it. She had no idea the Son of God was sitting across the room, that he saw the whole thing, or that people would still be reading about her two thousand years later.

That is worth holding onto. The most important thing you do this month will probably go unnoticed by everybody around you.

It will not go unnoticed by him. He is sitting across from you, watching on purpose.

So what would it look like to give something that actually costs you this week?

Apply

Give something that costs you – On September 30 somebody will look at the size of the room. Nobody will count what it cost you to ask. The widow gave everything she had and walked away never knowing that the Son of God was sitting across the room watching on purpose. There is a cheap version of inviting, which is a text you send while doing something else, and an expensive one, which is asking out loud, face-to-face, where other people can hear you. Go for the expensive ask this week, without needing anyone to notice.

Pray

God, most of what I give you comes out of my extra, and I know the difference. Thank you that you are not measuring me against anybody else. Help me give you something that actually costs me this week, and help me not need anyone to notice. In Jesus' name. Amen.