Give out of your means not your meanness? Monday, 34th week in ordinary time -Luke 21:1-4

Jesus is in the temple having cleansed it. It is here that he observes the behaviour of those giving alms; both rich and poor. A few verses prior to this text we find Jesus launching an all-out attack on the scribes. They were giving our Lord a hard time. He responded to his disciples and to others listening in by exposing the scribes. They are greedy with an eye on the possessions of the widows, devouring the homes of these widows. (verse 47).

We are also told that Jesus literally kept watching (imperfect tense in Greek) the people putting money into the temple treasury. This therefore, was a studied observation of our Lord. It was Passover and there would have been a large number of pilgrims from all over the Empire and many of them would be wealthy.

The treasury was around the court of the women where men and women were allowed to go. There were 13 trumpet-shaped boxes that served as the treasury. People could bring in their offerings and drop them in one of these 13 offering boxes. As the offering boxes were made of metal and the opening to the box was a horn, the sound of any coin being put in these boxes would be amplified drawing the crowds attention especially to very generous contributors. It is here that Jesus notice a poor widow and the contribution she puts in.

Let us talk about the widow as a person and then her offering. Widows had it very tough in Jesus’ day. The status of every wife in the community depended on the status of her husband. When her husband died all her status and security died with him. In many cases the woman was cast out for she was no longer useful.