Thanks for hanging in there to read this far! If you are just finding this, you can start at the beginning by going here. As always, this content is free to use in teaching and preaching, but please do not print it or sell it. chapter five God is bigger than my job “And my God shall supply all of your needs, according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 (NASB) “Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance.” Psalm 78: 22-25 (ESV) If we think the goal of our finances is simply to pay cash for all our purchases or to ensure we have a sufficient emergency fund, we can lose touch with the fact that God, not budgeting, meets the needs of our lives. Time: Late 20s to early 30s AD, depending on whose calendar you read. Place: The court at the Jewish temple, right beside the offering plates. (We can surmise they did not use buckets from the Hummus Hut.) Participants: Jesus, His disciples, a bunch of rich people, a destitute widow. The following is how this story might have been relayed before the inspired writers, Mark and Luke, penned their records.89 I made this up…obviously. “Anybody seen the Lord in the last few minutes?” Peter asked the other eleven disciples. “Not since He tied that last group of Pharisees in a knot,” replied Andrew. The other disciples nodded their agreement as to the Lord’s effectiveness in dealing with challengers. They shielded their eyes against the sun, deciding to wait until He made His way back to them. Had they known where to find the Lord, they would have seen Him in the temple complex sitting over by the offering box, also called “the treasury.” Since Jesus never did anything by accident, it was with purpose that He watched to see how the people gave. “Hey, guys. Come over here a minute.” The disciples could hear the voice of the Master over the shuffling and murmuring of the worshipers. “Anybody see Him?” asked Thomas. “I hear a voice, but I see no man,” replied Andrew, bringing a head slap from someone behind him. “Over here,” came the voice of Jesus again. They looked to see His hand above the crowd and navigated toward Him. “Is He over by the offering plates?” mused Thaddeus. “Man, I hope this isn’t another tithing sermon,” said someone else who forever escaped identification. No one heard Judas say, under his breath, “I hope it is. My house payment is due.” The twelve men arrived beside Jesus. “What is it, Lord?” they wondered aloud. “OK. I want you to watch this. You see all these people putting in their tithes and offerings?” He asked. For the next few minutes they stood in silence as the worshipers filed by putting in their various amounts. Finally, Jesus said, “What do you see?” They struggled to make any distinction. “Well,” began Peter haltingly, “a lot of people are bringing their offerings and putting them in the treasury.” He looked around for a little moral support from his compatriots. “Yeah,” added Matthew, the former tax collector, “and some are putting in a LOT.” “Notice this,” said Jesus. “Those you see putting in a lot of money also have a lot of money left over. Now, watch that widow.” They listened as the slightest tinkle of copper rattled against the money already in the box. With somewhat puzzled, sideways glances, the twelve semi-shrugged their shoulders as they tried to figure out the Master’s point. “It might not have looked like much,” the Lord resumed His teaching, “but those two coins were all that she had. It was her entire living in this world.” Looking slowly from face to face He finally said, “She gave more than any of the others.” A matter of perspective The historical record of Jesus and the widow’s mites is outstanding in its simplicity. The widow gave all that she had—two copper coins worth less than almost nothing. We are given nothing about her history and the Lord tells us nothing of her future. The only insight we are given into her life is this single act and, like the woman who washed and anointed Jesus feet, this sacrificial act has been a memorial to her since. What we are told in this story is the evaluation that God gave regarding her gift. In God’s economy, this “pauper widow”90 gave more than all the others who contributed. As a result, it becomes clear the “how” of their giving for which Jesus watched: a percentage of the whole. He was interested to see not what was given, but what was kept. In the case of the crowds, much was kept; in the case of the widow, nothing was kept. If this was anyone other than Jesus Christ as the point man in this story we might think them prone to hyperbole, just an exaggeration to make a point. But for Jesus not only to say it, but to doubly emphasize it (“out of her poverty”, “all she had to live on”) is no teacher’s ploy. The widow literally had nothing left. Paul described the giving of Macedonian believers in a similar way, “Out of their extreme poverty, they abounded in generosity.” Randy Alcorn makes an interesting observation91 about how we might respond in a situation similar to the widow’s coins. If a widow in our church came to the offering plate with everything that she had, we would likely try to talk her out of giving it based on her extreme need. But Jesus did not do this. He knew that His Father would bless this woman’s obedience and used her sacrifice as an example to us all. When it comes to missional giving, we cannot compare what