“And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’” (Luke 21:3-4)
In these verses, Jesus focuses on the heart when he says, the “poor widow has put in more than all of them.” Clearly, an accountant would take exception to Jesus’ claim, unless he allowed Jesus to mean what he meant.
Jesus qualified his comparison by evaluating her heart as demonstrated by her level of personal sacrifice. Presumably, the rich put significantly more money into the offering than she did. Yet Jesus said, “They all contributed out of their abundance.” Now, I don’t think this was necessarily a blanket criticism of the wealthy. Rather, I think Jesus was elevating the widow’s sacrifice to the level of appreciation it deserved…in Jesus’ paradigm.
In Jesus’ evaluation of our actions, He considers the heart more than we might. In fact, we are unable to accurately measure the hearts of others. But in this story, Jesus gives some guidance on how to measure a person’s heart. Sacrifice. What is the personal cost (or risk) in our effort for the Lord? As for the widow, “she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.”
Father, please help me to have a greater heart of sacrifice for your causes. Help me to risk more for your name’s sake. Please grow my faith in you and help me to have a decreasing faith in the things of this world. Amen.
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