All She Had

All is a small word. It’s a power word. When all is used in a sentence it means completely, totally or everything. In this text we intend to use every meaning-all of them. Hold the word all in mind as you read about Jesus.

Jesus spent time in the temple. It should not be a surprise to either of us. Years earlier, when asked why He had been missing 3 days; He replied to Mary and Joseph, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” In this account, Jesus was in the temple. He watched the people. Don’t lose track of the fact that He knew everything about them and all of the details of their lives. Jesus knew everything about the widow.

Unlike Jesus, we know little about the widow with two pennies.

Remember, as a widow, the monetary support her husband gave was gone. She had no income from since her husband died. Luke writes she was poor. We know that widows grieve. She may have been alone in life. We are not told if she had children. She had no income, and was likely alone most of the time. Still, she knew what to do. She went to the temple. Did she worship? Did she pray? What other reasons would a Jewish person have to be in the temple? And she gave all she had-Jesus saw her put her offering in the offering box.

She gave two small copper coins…

All she had to live on.

Let that sink in…all she had to live on.

 “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.”

Luke 21:1-4

At some point, she left the temple. Luke does not write of any interaction she may have had with Jesus. She may not have noticed Jesus watching. She put all the money she had in the offering box. She gave God all she had and walked out of the temple with no money. Would she be wondering what could come next? Was she trusting God to provide? Would she rely on her strength or God’s?

Wait. What does the episode of the widow teach us?

Does God see us? Is there any time God does not see us? Jesus watched her give her offering! He knew what would come next while the woman (and you and me) had no idea.

She gave all she had to live on. She had come to the temple. She put her trust in God. She had acknowledged God is sovereign. She gave all she had to live on. God saw.

Is the love of Jesus only for the widow who gave two small copper coins?

Is God able to care for us? Does God only see widows? It is possible that we are we so busy we forget this next truth?

 “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;”  Psalm 24:1

What do you think? Could we give God all we have? Would God see? Would God care for us as He cared for the widow? The words of Jesus give us the answer:

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

Matthew 6:25-27

We don’t know what happened to the widow. But don’t forget Jesus saw her. Could we surrender all to Jesus? He sees us too, Then there is this-the probability that our giving all to Jesus is a mistake is: zero.

All is a very small power word. The power is God’s.