In God We Trust, Pt4: The Widow's Might

February 2, 2019           NOTES NOT EDITED
Giving Series, Pt. 4 “The Widow’s Mite Might

Luke 21:1-4; 2Cor. 9:1-15

SIS – The true measure of our giving is not how much we give away, but how much we keep.

You know, there’s a fine line between being “cheap,” and being frugal.  A few years ago, two men devised a contest to write a book.  They asked for people to send in their best, “cheapskate” stories.  Here’s one about a FRUGAL AUNT.

I have a dear old aunt. She experienced the Second World War and knows how to be frugal. It is second nature to her. At her latest birthday, she got a couple of boxes of chocolate. A week later I visited her. She had a bowl of hazelnuts sitting on the kitchen table. I enjoyed the hazelnuts as we visited. During my visit, we had a piece of chocolate. My aunt took one bite of the chocolate rolling it around in her mouth and then, she took out the hazelnut inside and placed it in the bowl. “I don’t like hazelnuts, but it would be a waste just to throw them out”

There is indeed a fine line between “frugal” and “cheap.”

This morning I want read a story about a Widow who was not a “cheapskate,” but in fact, one of the “mightiest” persons in the Bible.  This person did something so mighty that it impressed even Jesus Christ.  Let’s read that story (Lk. 21:1-4)

Scholars refer to this as the story of the Widow’s Mite – spelled m-i-t-e.  A mite was a tiny copper coin used by the Jews.  It was about 1/20^th of a penny.  The Greek word for “mite” was leptos.  It meant, “thin, like the peel of a piece of fruit, or the thin skin of a fish having been prepared for dinner.”  A mite represented almost the smallest possible offering that could be offered and one that was hardly noticeable or even valued by human standards.

Yet, this widow’s mite (m-i-t-e) shows just how much “might” (m-i-g-h-t) this woman possessed.  Though this gift was hardly noticed by those in the temple court that day, it was so mighty a gift that it caught the eye of Jesus.  That’s why I changed the spelling of the story from the Widow’s Mite, to the Widow’s Might.

What I want to show you through these series of messages on trusting God enough to give sacrificially is that the practice of giving regularly and sacrificially to the church is enormously powerful in bringing blessing into your life. 

This story highlights two different ways in which a person’s giving can be measured.  The background of this passage puts us in the Temple Treasury that was located in the Court of the Women.  It was as far as a Jewish Woman could go.  She was forbidden to go into the next level of the Temple, the Court of the Israelites (or men), or the next area the Court of the Priests, or the next two areas the Holy of Holies. 

In the Court of the women were 13 receptacles placed around the courtyard.  These receptacles were shaped like trumpets—narrow at the opening and wide at the bottom.  Each “trumpet” represented a different use for the offering.  The over-zealous, self-righteous, rich folk would go around to each one and drop in a sizable offering making kind of a “ringing or clanging” noise.  The plan was to impress those in the Temple at the time. The sound of the Widow’s two mites would have been noticeably light, if anyone noticed it at all.

By every human measure, the rich gave a lot and the poor widow gave almost nothing.  We know, however, that the human measure of things is usually lacking.  God will not judge you according to how you measure up to other people, but how you measure up to His standard of holiness—Jesus Christ; that is, are you covered by the blood of His Son.

I want you to discover the “true measure” of giving today.  It is one that may embarrass you, but it is one that will certainly challenge you.

SIS—The true measure of giving is not in how much we give away, but how much we keep.

There are three means by which we can get the true measure of our giving.

1.  Measure One:  The Savior. verse 1, “He looked up.”

Look at verse 1.  Jesus is sitting in the outer Court of the Women. People were bustling about putting their offerings in the appropriate box.  Some, like the rich ones, were making quite a display of the matter.  Coins were dropping and clanging as the rich moved from trumpet chest to trumpet chest depositing their offerings.

Then, Jesus hears a different tone.  He hears the almost imperceptible tingle of two tiny “lepta” (mites) sliding down the long tube of the treasury trumpet chest.   The Savior never misses even our smallest attempt at devotion—however insignificant that attempt might be according to the world’s measure.

As I said, by any human measure, the Widow’s offering compared to those of the rich was insignificant to the point of almost being laughable.  By a human measure, the Widow’s gift was next to useless.

But, human standards are not the “true measure of things.”  Jesus said in verse 3:  “I tell you the truth.”

Folks, that’s what I try to do – tell you the truth.  It is not always pleasant.  In fact, this passage is deeply troubling to me.  In some ways, when I consider what the Widow gave and what I give, I realize that I have not used the right measure to size up my giving.

How does my giving measure up to the Savior’s Gift?  You see, Jesus is the “True Measure” of righteousness, not the standards of man.  We become smug and comfortable when we can say, “Well, I’m sure a whole lot better that this man or that woman.”

But, the measure of our giving is not “this man or that woman.”  The measure of our trust and devotion to God is Jesus Christ.  He’s God’s Righteous Measure of Holiness.  He’s the Gold Standard of God’s Kingdom.

One of the principles we glean from this text is this:  we become smug in our self-righteousness when we compare ourselves by man’s standards, not God’s.  The Savior is our standard.  Here’s what the word says about that:  (Phil. 2)

Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. ⁷ Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, ⁸ He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

This is referred to in theology as the “Kenois,” derived from

the Greek word, meaning “to empty, usually to the extreme of making completely empty.”  As the measure of our giving, Jesus gave it all!  He held back nothing.  On the cross Jesus completely surrendered all that He had a right to as God in order to make the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.  Until your giving reaches this measure, you have room for improvement and no cause whatsoever to wrap yourself in the smug clothing of self-righteousness.

It does not matter if you give more than this person or that person because the number one measure of “true giving” is the SAVIOR.

2.  Measure Two:  Our Spirit (Lk. 21:32; Cor. 9:1-15)

            We must “look in.”

Notice verse 3:  “This poor widow has put in more that all of them [ei. the rich people].

I told you earlier that two lepta (or mites) were the tiniest coins that the Jewish people used – even more worthless than our penny and not even as big in size.  They were paper thin and light.  But, the Savior does not measure our trust in Him by human standards, but by the standards of the “heart.”

So often we make the mistake of not seeing things as God sees them and we get into all kinds of trouble.  One case in point comes from the O.T.  The people wanted a king like all the other nations.  The result of their worldly desire was to put the mantle of the king upon a man named Saul.  Saul looked like a king.  He fought like a king.  He was “king material” by every measure of man.  He was an utter failure as king and God removed Saul in order to replace him with a king after the heart of God.  In 1Samuel 16 the prophet, Samuel, comes to the house of Jesse who was the father of 8 sons. 

When Samuel arrived at the house of Jesse to anoint the next king of Israel according to God’s instruction the first son to step forward was the eldest, Eliab.  He rivaled Saul in appearance and demeanor.  He looked like a king according to man’s measure and Samuel thought he could fulfill his mission to anoint the next king.  Then God spoke,

1Sam. 16:7: But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Samuel would go through all of Jesse’s sons until he would come to the last son – the one that definitely did NOT look like a king.  He was just a lad with a “beautiful eyes” (16:12).

David did not look like a king by any human measure, but by the one measure that really matters, this was God’s man. The Bible says of David,  “he was a man after God’s own heart” (1Sam. 13:14).

Here’s the source of true “might” in our lives – have a heart like God’s.  The true measure of our lives is not in our appearance or aptitudes but in our Spirit.  This is true of giving also.  It is the spirit of the Widow’s heart that impressed Jesus, not the size of her gift. 

Look at 2Cor 9.  This entire chapter talks about “giving.”  But, the key to understanding the true measure of giving is given in verse 7:

⁷ Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of necessity, for God loves  a cheerful giver.

This entire passage could be (and should be) mined for principles guiding Christian giving.  This one verse, however, has some particularly stunning word pictures that describe the “spirit” a person should have when they give to God through the church.

First, they should not do it out of “necessity.”  The KJV says, “not out of compulsion.”  The Greek term is, “ἀνάγκηs”.  This is a compound word with great philosophical significance for early Greek philosophers like Aristotle. 

The term, ἀνάγκηs, puts together the word, “ana” plus the word “agalē”.  The word, “ana” refers to an intense degree, and the word “agale” refers to a bend, such as a “bent arm.”  In modern parlance we could translate this word as, “bending the arm intensely or repeatedly.”   What the Word is teaching us is, “we should not need to have someone twist our arm to get us to give to God through the church.”  We do not have the spirit of Christ or the spirit of the Widow who was praised by Christ, if we are giving to the church “out of compulsion or necessity (or guilt).”

The second word in this passage about giving in 2Cor. 9 that has great significance is the word, “cheerful.”  Not only does God measure us in regard to whether we have a “willing spirit to give,” but whether we have a “cheerful spirit” in giving.

The Greek word for cheerful is, ἱλαρόn.  We get the word, “hilarious” from this word.  The word meant, “glad, merry, cheerful, full of daylight.” We might say the person’s spirit is “hilarious,” or happy to a great degree.

One of the measures of Christian giving is the “spirit” of the giver.  Are you both “willing and cheerful” when you give?  God measures your gift by your spirit.

3.  A third measure of true giving is the SACRIFICE involved.

         We must look “beyond.”

Turn back to Luke 21.  Look at verse 4:  ⁴ For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

So, when was the last time you “put in all that you had to live on” into the offering plate?  She “looked beyond” her present, earthly situation of desperation and looked to the promises that await those who love the Lord with all their heart.  We must always live with eternity in view, and not be consumed by our present state of affairs.

Now, here’s where we get to the key issue in this passage, which I summed up at the start:  The true measure of our giving is not how much we give away, but how much we keep.  In a word, this is called, “sacrifice.”

I’m simply making a point:  no matter how much we give away, the real measure of our giving is how much we keep—more specifically, what we do with what we keep.  All of us need to “up our sacrifice level.”  The widow “put in all she had to live on.”  So, many in church, hardly put any thing in the plate at all—let alone, put in all.  This is sad indeed.

Some of the rest of us, keep way more than we need.  We need to give more and live on less and less.  That is, if it matters to us what Jesus thinks about our giving.  Jesus measured this widow’s generosity, not by how much she tossed into the offering box, but how much she had left in her bread box at home.  She gave all she had.  Sacrifice is the measure of Christian service.  Remember the sacrifice of Jesus:

Phil 2:7:  He emptied Himself.  Jesus went on to teach His disciples:

³³ In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not say good-bye to  all his possessions  cannot be My disciple.  Lk. 14:33.

Some people really get what it means to sacrifice.  I read about a school project where students were collecting food for the desperately poor people of Appalachia.  Kids had brought numerous items that were sitting in the cupboards at home.  A volunteer was sorting and  packing the items so they could be shipped to Appalachia.  He was separating beans from powdered milk, and canned vegetables from canned meats. Reaching into a box filled with various cans, he pulled out a little brown paper sack. Apparently one of the pupils had brought something different from the items on the suggested list. Out of the paper bag fell a peanut butter sandwich, an apple, and a cookie. Crayoned in large letters was a little girl's name, 'Christy - Room 104'. She had given up her lunch for some hungry person.  That’s what it means to sacrifice—give all you have, leaving nothing for yourself.

Do you see why I call this story the Widow’s Might—M-I-G-H-T—instead of the Widow’s Mite—M-I-T-E? This Widow was “mighty” in a way I cannot claim to be mighty.  She didn’t give to gain fame—she is unnamed in Scripture.  She didn’t give because she was rich—she gave only two mites.  She gave because her heart burned with love for her Savior.  She gave because she trusted God to meet her needs.  She had a level of trust in God that I cannot claim to trust.  She had a power operating in her life I cannot claim is operating in my life. 

I want to experience the Widow’s Might.  I want to have that kind of trust and experience that kind of power in my life.  I want Jesus to be pleased with my giving.  Don’t you?  Sure you do.

My purpose (and my desire) is not to have you leave this service today feeling good.  My desire is to have you leave this service today doing good.  My desire, my heartfelt desire, is that each of us would look at our giving with a NEW WAY TO MEASURE it: measure it by the SAVIOR’S gift to us; measure by the SPIRIT of willingness and cheerfulness; and measure it by our level of SACRIFICE.

If we will all follow this Widow’s example, Jesus will take notice of us.  God will bless us.  Heaven will reward us.