Beautiful giving!

Beautiful giving!

Luke 21: 1-4 “As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Recently a Pastor friend was given a jumper and a handbag that a neighbour didn’t want, ‘for the Church’.

I’ve been given second hand televisions that were made and sold by Noah’s family, second-hand underwear ‘for the poor people, Pastor’ and a painting of what appeared to be someone from the Simpsons. I’ve seen cheques given to the Church offerings from the wealthy to the closing amount of .33pence and having spent £200 to get to a Church to preach received a £5 ministry gift (not a great sermon apparently!)

It seems if you have it you don’t give it or you give it poorly. If you don’t have it but need it then you give what you don’t have and you do so richly.

That’s what is going on in the Temple.

Jesus saw it all.

The rich was saying ‘I don’t need this so God can have it’. They were not going to miss what they were giving.

Then the poor widow gave all she had, what she could not afford to give.

The cries of irresponsible giving are heard.

‘This is bad stewardship’.

Jesus sees and hears it all.

When we have given our all then we don’t have anything left. We are then relying on God for the next stage of our life.

As Jesus looks up, weary from the onslaught of navigating the many attempts of tripping him up, he sees an image of what will happen by the end of the week. He is about to give his all. He won’t have anything left when he does so. It will be complete surrender. The cross is always irresponsible. It is a place where you cannot afford to be. That’s where Jesus went for you and me. But before he did he looked up and saw a widow do just that. Total undiluted surrender of her life. She did not know that giving her all became the encouragement to the Son of God that day.

Beautiful giving!