“It’s all or nothing” is a term often used when you’ve got nothing to lose. You sometimes hear stories of people down on their luck and they use their last few dollars to buy a lottery ticket and win first prize. It’s all or nothing. Or the boxer who is down on points in the final round and his only way to win is to go for the knockout punch. It’s all or nothing.
Today’s Gospel reading has a woman who has only 2 small copper coins to her name. It’s interesting that our reading highlights that she has 2 coins left. If she had just one and placed that in the offering bowl then it could be argued that she was simply fulfilling her duty to make an offering. But the fact that she has 2 means that she could have put one in for the temple and kept one for herself and perhaps purchased one last meal. But she doesn’t. After all, that would only have delayed the inevitable. One last meal and then what? Instead, she places her entire life into God’s mercy and gives God both. It’s all or nothing.
Why did Jesus point this woman out rather than the seeming generosity of the people who put in large sums of money? Isn’t that the way business works? Isn’t that the way churches succeed? When it comes to the end of the year and our budget is way behind, don’t we ask people to dig that little bit deeper? Yes it’s important for us to have a balanced budget but what Jesus is dealing with here is a lesson in faith rather than a lesson in finances and economics.
It would have been an impressive sight to see people in fine clothes tossing in large sums of money perhaps even announcing to everyone how much they gave. With all that pomp and ceremony who would notice the poor widow giving two small coins. In the midst of the thousands of dollars being offered – what would 2 small copper coins provide? Yet, Jesus notices and calls attention to this act of faith. Much like Jesus notices blind Bartimaeus midst all the cries of the crowd for him to be quiet. Much like Jesus notices Zacchaeus in the tree trying to get a peek at him and calls him down. Jesus calls his disciples together and says, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” It was all or nothing for her.
And that’s what faith is – relying on God when there is nothing else to rely on. When we have other things to hang on to our faith can seem irrelevant. Like the young man seeking eternal life who was asked to do likewise as this woman. Sell everything you have – give it all away – and you will have treasure in heaven. But he could not. His wealth was where he put his faith and he couldn’t let go and put his faith completely in God.
Jesus knows that these are not any two coins, but the woman’s last two coins. It was not the money she put in but her heart – her faith and trust in God to provide for her. She put in “All she had to live on,” What is really interesting is the original Greek word that is used here. In the Greek New Testament it says she put in her “bios”. It’s the word from which we get “biology,”. Jesus is telling us that the widow put her “life” into the temple treasury that day. It’s very similar to what Paul urges us in Romans Chapter 12: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Just as Christ gave his life for us, this is what the poor widow is doing. This is what God is asking us to do – not to sell everything – but to trust him with our lives – to give him our lives as Christ gave his life for us. This widow is giving her life for God. But this is not a lesson on giving. The rule for giving was to give a tithe – 10 percent. The woman did not give ten percent of her income. These were her last two coins.
And rather than keep one back, which would have been 5 times the required tithe, she offers both into the temple treasury. But the widow gave more than 100 percent. The widow trusts her life to God.
Facing an uncertain future, the widow reached out to God. She trusted in God by giving everything she had to God who gave everything for her. We, too, need to trust God as we face difficult times and uncertain futures. It’s easy to trust God when things are all going in our favour. We don’t know what happened to this poor widow. Did God provide for her out of the generosity of others – we don’t know. The rest of her story isn’t mentioned and Jesus doesn’t say that others provided for her. It’s a different lesson to when Peter announced we have given up everything to follow you and Jesus responds that God will reward hundredfold. No, there’s no mention of that here. We trust that the widow’s story turned out all right. But there is a chance that she did not survive in this lifetime. But whether she lived or died, she was God’s eternally.
Stories of faith in God in the Bible are not always romantic or heartwarming. This one certainly wasn’t. It doesn’t say that walking away from there she met a rich millionaire who cared for her for the rest of her life.
That’s not the point of the story. It’s about trusting God even when the future seems completely hopeless.
And it’s keeping on our trust in God when the future tuns out completely hopeless in this life. And let’s be honest, sometimes that happens to Christians.
Look at some other examples of faith. When Abraham was told by God to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him.
What would that do to Abraham’s future generations that God had promised him? And it was only at the point of Abraham about to come down with the knife that God pulls him back. Or the other poor widow in the Old Testament. The widow of Zarephath. She had enough food and water for one last meal for her and her son. And what does God do? He sends Elijah to her – not to initially help her but to push her faith by taking that one last meal for himself. Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink. And if that wasn’t uncaring enough –Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand, would you. The story concludes with God providing a never ending jar of flour and oil until the famine was over. But she didn’t know that at the time. Elijah didn’t say – give me your last portion of food and God will provide for you. No – her blessing came when she gave up her entire food stock to the man of God.
And the lesson here for us is that we are to keep trusting God even to the point of tipping over the edge. I know it would be fantastic if our bank balances were overflowing and we could do whatever we want without care how we are going to pay for it. But it is often when we don’t know if we’re going to make it to the end of the year that God surprises us. At the moment our Parish is undergoing a review. But this is not because we are worried about the future and we’re looking for ways to survive – like, maybe we could sell one of our churches and then all or money problems would be gone. No. We are undergoing this review because we believe we HAVE a future but we just need a little help to see what that is.
The widow in our text knew what her future was – maybe 2 meals left if meals cost one copper coin. The widow of Zarephath knew what her future was – one last meal for her and her son. But giving it all up to God, as both these widows did – as Abraham was prepared to do – meant that God was now in charge of their future. We don’t know what our future is but if we simply base it on the money we have in the bank then we can work it out quite economically. We might be able to extend it by cutting back here and cutting back there.
But if we hand over our future to God then we don’t know what our future is but we know that God has a plan and as St Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 – We are God’s masterpieces created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. So let us hand our future over to God and trust him even, and especially, when we have no idea what that future holds but we know who holds our future.
