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Friday, April 19, 2013

The Pharisee and the Widow – Giving, Receiving, and the Lord’s Favor

Luke 20:45 - 21:4
Jesus is arriving in Jerusalem for the Passover. Still flush with the excitement that surrounded His entry into the city, He goes straight to the Temple to pray. Furious over the exploitation He sees there, Jesus challenges the religious leaders at their very seat of power. He throws out those who were fleecing pilgrims at crooked concession stands, which were charging shocking exchange rates and most likely paying kickbacks to the Temple leaders.

At this point, Jesus is standing again at the main Temple gate with His disciples. He is observing the "teachers of the law," strutting and swaggering in their expensive clothes, and reveling in the deference the crowd pays them. Both the "teachers" and the crowd concur that their ill-gotten gain is proof of God's favor.
Jesus is indignant about the shameless ways these religious elitists are lining their pockets on the backs of the poor, and then flaunting their riches in public. Critical to understanding the point Jesus is making is not only that God’s spokesmen are parading around in expensive robes. It’s also how much guilt these rich religious elite are heaping upon themselves by the methods they are using to acquire their wealth. Their costly attire, their social status was purchased, in part, with money stolen from widows who were helpless against them.

Jesus turns to His disciples, and to those within the sound of His voice, warns them about the consequences of such injustice. He declares that these leaders are not only very mistaken about their standing with God and the people, but that they will also be severely punished.
Then the scene continues to unfold before them. Jesus observes a poor widow digging deeply into her purse. Slowly she takes her hand out, and places her last two small copper coins in the collection plate. It is conceivable that this particular widow's poverty is attributable to the greed of the powerful "teachers of the law," whom Jesus has just passed judgment on.

If true, Jesus could very well be suggesting that the most significant part of this story is not that she gave everything. He could be pointing to a deeper theological issue. In spite of the economic injury she has suffered at the hands of the most important members of the Temple, she still gives everything she has in the offering. This poor, powerless widow understands the principle behind giving. She refused to be vindictive! She refused to be a victim! In her mind, she was not giving to the "teachers of the law," or even to the Temple. She was giving to God Himself.
In this story, Jesus offers to us two snapshots of people of faith. In the first picture, we see a picture of pride, power, and presumption. In the second photo, we witness absolute loyalty and giving to God without regard to personal injury – even when the oppressor seems to be the Church itself.

The dynamics of economic exploitation can be found today. Take elderly widows, for example. These widows have given, because of their compassion and generosity, to causes that have sent them heart-wrenching letters. A substantial share of their donor base is home-bound widows, most of whom live on fixed incomes. Then those organizations sell the addresses of those who have given to them to additional “ministries” who, in turn, send them their letters. Once in their databases, the widow’s addresses are not easily deleted.[i] These dear women continue to receive scores of letters per month, even after they have almost nothing left. And yet they continue to give what little they have to God.
Jesus warns that those who engage in practices that exploit people economically "will be punished most severely." Exploitation is most often not what we do it’s what we don’t do. It can be agreeing with policies that favor the rich to the detriment of the poor; keeping silent when we know employees are being ill-used; or supporting government programs that knowingly keep people in permanent dependency.

What about you and me?
How often do we withhold our tithes and offerings over disagreements over how the money is being spent or personality clashes with or character flaws in our church leaders?
How often do we excuse not giving God our tithes and offerings because we don't have enough money?


[i] An 85 year-old woman in my church had asked me to visit her in her apartment. I had to clear mail off a chair to be able to sit, and she seemed disoriented. I asked her if she was alright, and she told me she didn’t know what to do about all her mail. We discovered that over 100 different Christian organizations were sending her monthly letters requesting money. It took more than two years of letter writing and telephone calls to stop them from coming.

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