The Widow’s Offering

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

In Jesus’ time, the outermost court of the Temple was the Court of the Gentiles (where non-Jews were allowed to go no further). From there, one could go up a flight of stairs into the Court of Women (where Jewish women were allowed to go no further). One more level up was the Inner Court (for Jewish men only). In the Court of Women, there were thirteen offering chests, where people who came to worship God could place their offerings. The openings of the chests were shaped like trumpets, and the coins would make a sound as they rolled into the box. Jesus paid close attention to the offerings, but He wasn’t counting the money; He was observing the intentions of the people as they gave.

In this passage, though the poor widow put in two small coins—the smallest Jewish copper coins of the time—in the Lord’s eyes, her offering was “more than all the others.” People look at how much is “put into the treasury,” but the Lord looks at how much a person has left over. This is because God wants to gain the person, not just what they have. If a person gives everything they own to God but holds back their own self, God still has gained nothing from that person. This widow could have kept one of the coins for herself, but she didn’t. She “put in all she had to live on,” because she completely entrusted herself to God, believing that He would be responsible for providing for her life. This is the kind of simple obedience and faith that God desires to receive from a person.

(Edited and compiled based on the Chinese Union Version Bible and Comprehensive Biblical Interpretation)