Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had

 And He said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?  Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms:

'The LORD said to my Lord,
"Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'

Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then His Son?"

Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.  So he said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."

- Luke 20:41-21:4

Yesterday we read that the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Jesus in the temple and asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife, and he dies without children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers.  And the first took a wife, and died without children.  And the second took her as wife, and he died childless.  Then the third took her, and in like manner the seven also; and they left no children, and died.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife does she become?  For all seven had her as wife."  Jesus answered and said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.  But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.  But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'  For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him."  Then some of the scribes answered and said, "Teacher, You have spoken well."  But after that they dared not question Him anymore.

And He said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?  Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'  Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then His Son?"  Here is a challenge to the understanding and interpretation of the Scriptures.   Jesus quotes from Psalm 110:1.  In Jesus' perspective, the first reference to the LORD applies to God the Father, while the term my Lord refers to Christ.  His question is answered in that Christ is the Son of David in His humanity and David's Lord in His divinity.   David addresses the Messiah as Lord, it therefore teaches that the Messiah, in addition to being a descendant of David, is also divine.  There is no answer offered here; clearly those addressed are afraid to assent to the implications of the question.

Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  Jesus goes on the offensive, giving a critique of the behavior of the scribes.  (In Matthew's Gospel, this forms part of Jesus' final public sermon, a great criticism of the ways of both the Pharisees and the scribes; see Matthew 23:1-39.)  The criticism here focuses on hypocrisy, and the desire to make a show of piety while privately violating all the intent of the Law.  It suggests a cold-hearted love of position, and a ruthless attitude toward those who are dependent.

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.  So he said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."  According to traditional understanding, the Lord accounts the value of a gift not by how much is given, but by how much is kept back.  Thus this poor widow is counted to have given a great gift, as she kept nothing for herself.  Those who have given out of their abundance but keep plenty back for themselves are counted by God to have given very little, my study bible tells us.  Jesus gives us the Lord's perspective of each.

We get a perspective on Jesus' truth here.  In order to really follow His truth, we must be, in some sense, truly courageous.  First of all, for these men to recognize the Messiah (and we remember that Jesus' disciples have welcomed Him to Jerusalem as Messiah) is divine is a great leap forward from their assumptions and even desires.  The image of the Messiah in their understanding is not one that fits Jesus, the one who rode into Jerusalem in His Triumphal Entry on a donkey's colt.  Their understanding is of a military liberator, one who will restore the fortunes of Jerusalem -- and by implication, their positions of authority and power as absolute, minus the Roman rulers.  We have a kind of hierarchy of power and position that obscures truth in all of the images given to us in today's reading.  Jesus first of all establishes that the rule of Messiah must be one that is divine, not merely earthly.  And in the perspective of the divine, all kinds of things are already wrong in Jerusalem, and it's not just the Romans who are responsible for what is wrong.  Jesus criticizes the scribes for their love of position and authority, their full emphasis on their own image of piety before others and their places of great honor in the society -- while meanwhile they abuse those who are already without means and support, the widows whom Jesus names.  In a most cruel image, the scribes are those who devour widows' houses.  And we must see this as going hand in hand with "for a pretense they make long prayers," because spiritual hypocrisy, in Christ's view, is a product of greed, self-centeredness.  The very image of "devouring" tells us something about a kind of insatiable desire, and links it to Jesus' image of false prophets, who are like "ravenous wolves" "in sheep's clothing"  (Matthew 7:15).  Jesus ties His criticism to the praise of the poor widow, who truly loves God, and whose gift, although small, is greater than all.  We mustn't confuse image with truth, is the message here.  Image is altogether too easy to manipulate -- and in particular, by those whose entire investment in life is in that image before others.  Such an emphasis -- no matter what the guise -- is all too often a prescription for a total lack of emphasis on the heart and the reality of the inner life, the place where we are temples to the spirit of God, in which the kingdom of heaven dwells within us.  In fact, one might say that the entire thrust of the Gospels gears us toward a kind of humiliation that may be necessary for salvation.  That is, a shattering of public image, a willingness to undergo shame for the sake of the love of God.  The Cross speaks of this to us, in what is perhaps a most frightening way, still powerful in its great truth that stands all worldly image on its head.  Jesus' words teach this to us, when He says, "Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels" (9:26).  To be associated with a poor widow who has only two coins to put into the treasury as donation may still be, in our world, a kind of undesirable image for all kinds of reasons.  But we're mistaken if we think that Christ is only speaking about wealth and status as indicators of who is righteous and who is not.  The true source of humility and right-relatedness is love of God, and within that context all image falls away.  It is a heart devoted to God that creates the reality of the kingdom of heaven within us, and there is no status in the world that stands in the way of that.  There is only false image, hypocrisy, cold-heartedness, accompanied by a kind of ravenous hunger to devour that stands in the way.  Let us strip ourselves of images that obscure the one thing necessary, and remember what we are to be about.