The widow that gave all she had
12 min read
Many preachers use this passage to endorse tithing. They teach that this passage is about sacrificial giving. They say that we should donate to churches the same way that the widow gave, sacrificially. However, is this what Jesus really meant here? Was Jesus really trying to teach us about sacrificial giving?
In order to really understand what Jesus was saying here, we need to analyze the context in which this passage is found.
Analyzing the context
This event took place during the final week of Jesus' life. Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem on Monday, and cleansed the temple on Tuesday, driving out the money changers. It was now the Wednesday of the week famously called the Passion Week.
Jesus spent most of Wednesday teaching the multitudes. He was confronted by the corrupt religious leaders of Judaism who tried to trap him in his words in order to find some cause to have him crucified (Luke 20). Jesus' responses silenced them and they stopped asking him questions.
In Luke chapter 21, we find ourselves at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry. The time of Jesus' invitation and teaching is over and the time of judgment has come for those who have rejected him and his message. Why is it that we find a small story about a woman and her donation in the midst of Jesus' words of judgment against the false religious leaders, their followers, and the religious temple?
Many will argue that the widow's story is meant to be an illustration of self-denial and that we should donate to our church until it hurts. They will say that if our giving is not sacrificial, then we aren't giving enough. Others will say that the widow's story was to show us that what pleases God is to give everything away and take a vow of poverty.
In spite of the popularity of such views, they are wrong because they do not respect the context of the Bible passage in question. Such views attempt to make the Bible say something that it actually never says.
What Jesus does not say
Sometimes, it is important to notice what Jesus does not say just as much as what He does say. Notice that Jesus never said that the widow gave the right amount. Jesus also never said that the widow had the right attitude in her giving. We do not know with what type of attitude this widow gave. She could have given out of devotion, love, guilt, or even fear.
Jesus never said that she gave the right percentage, or that we should even imitate her in our giving. Jesus did not say whether she should have donated or not. Jesus did not even invite his own disciples to imitate her and reach into their money bags to give away everything they had. If Jesus thought the widow was truly being spiritual, then he would have invited his disciples to be spiritual with her too, but he did not.
Jesus said nothing about her giving, except that she gave more than everybody. Jesus did not command anything or establish any principles based on the widow’s giving. This passage was not meant to establish principles on giving. Jesus does not expect us to give one-hundred percent of what we have away. That would make us irresponsible stewards of his provisions to us.
This passage does not contain any hidden revelations. It’s meant to describe a simple observation of Jesus. He saw a widow give more to the religious temple than everybody else. What does this observation of Jesus mean? It means that the widow’s involvement in religion cost her more than it cost anybody else because it cost her everything. The disciples had no questions to ask about what Jesus said here. It was obvious for them.
Jesus wants it to be obvious for us too. He wants us to see that there is something terribly wrong with a religious system if it takes the last two coins out of a widow’s hand. The last two coins that the widow had left went to a false and corrupt religious system that Jesus spoke out against and even pronounced judgment against.
False religion
Any religion that is built upon the backs of poor widows such as these is a false religion. This poor widow was a victim of the corrupt religious system that sucked everything that she had out of her.
Imagine witnessing something like this, just as Jesus did. Imagine seeing a lonely widow feeling compelled to give the last of her life savings to her church. You’d feel angry toward the church that compelled her to do such a thing. You would determine that there was something seriously wrong with that church for taking her last two coins right out of her hand. You would correctly conclude that this church was robbing the poor and you would demand justice. This is the way that Jesus saw it too.
Jesus saw a corrupt religious system robbing a poor widow. To give away her last two coins, this poor widow must have been giving in desperation. Perhaps she was trying to buy a blessing from the religious system. The rabbis would teach that with one’s alms they could purchase their salvation. Such false teachings provided false relief for people as desperate as this widow.
The Prosperity Gospel
Many contemporary preachers do something very similar with their prosperity gospel preaching. They will try to convince you that you can get richer if you let them make you poorer. They will try to get you to donate more by telling you that God will bless you on the basis of your donation amount. According to them, the more money you give them, the more God will bless you. They are selling people blessings just like the corrupt religious leaders that abused of the poor widow. The poor widow would not have given away her last two coins unless she was told by her religious leaders that her giving would have made her richer in some way.
Warnings against religious leaders
Before getting to Luke chapter 21, and Jesus’ words about the poor widow, Luke chapter 20 ends with warnings. These warnings set the stage for what was to come with the poor widow.
And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
We find Jesus making reference to the abusive treatment of widows by religious leaders right before he encountered the poor widow of Luke chapter 21. This is no coincidence. This is the context in which we must interpret the story of the poor widow giving away all she had.
Luke 20:45-47 is paralleled in Matthew chapter 23, where Jesus repeatedly uses the word “woe” toward the scribes and Pharisees. Woe is a word of judgment.
The heart of false religion is the treasury
We must realize that this is a discouraging moment in Jesus’ life. After all the miracles, all the teachings, and all the questions he answered, the religious leaders still chose to reject him and embrace their corrupt religion instead. After all Jesus had done for the crowds, the nation still chose to follow the corrupt religious leadership and false religion rather than Him. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites and blind guides, among other things.
Jesus was heartbroken that after his three years of ministry efforts, it had to end like this. He had come to his own people and his own people did not receive him.
In Luke chapter 21, verse 1, it says “Jesus looked up”. This must mean that Jesus had to have first been looking down.
From a parallel passage in Mark 12:41, we find out that Jesus was sitting down. At the end of a day of teaching and facing conflict in the midst of crowds, Jesus was tired and sat down. His eyes must have been looking down as he reflected on the corruption of the religious system. The temple where Jesus sat, which he had earlier cleansed, had become so corrupt and misleading that judgment was coming upon the whole nation for refusing to turn from their false religion to embrace God.
According to Matthew chapter 6, the Pharisees would have trumpets blown to announce their giving into the treasury. The religious system of the Pharisees had developed a very public way to give to the treasury. However, Jesus taught that our giving should be done in secret. The treasury was an open court in the temple area where Jesus was sitting. It was called the treasury because part of this open court was a place where people were to give their money.
The word treasury comes from the word gazophulakion in Greek. This Greek word is composed of two other Greek words, gaza meaning treasury, and phulakē meaning prison. It was a prison of money that demanded donations, and the donated funds were locked into the possession of corrupt religious leaders forever.
When the treasury takes prominence, when donations are demanded, and when religious leaders have their eyes on lucrative gain, we have ourselves a false religion.
Luke 16:14 tells us that the Pharisees were lovers of money. The heart of false religion is the treasury. False religions and false churches are always about more and more money, continuous giving, and continuous reminders to give.
A den of robbers
The religious leaders of Jesus’ time endorsed and promoted the selling of pigeons for sacrifices and coin-exchange in the temple. They did so in order to extort funds out of innocent people. When churches focus continually on money and tithes, they have lost their prayer life. They are no longer churches. They have become dens of robbers. If Jesus were to walk into several churches today, He would overturn their tables and drive their leaders out of their own churches.
In the Bible, the Greek word used for poor is penichron, which means poor and needy. However, in Luke chapter 21, verse 3, when Jesus called the woman a poor widow, he used the Greek word ptochos. It means a beggar who is destitute of anything. Why did Jesus use a different word for poor when referring to the widow? It was because once she gave her last two coins, she went from being penichros, poor and needy, to being ptochos, a beggar. Greedy religious leaders lead individuals with financial troubles right into bankruptcy without any shame.
Religion cost the poor widow her life. Religious manipulation and financial abuse left her with nothing. Jesus isn’t commending her or using her as an example for how to donate. Jesus is observing the financial abuse of religious leaders against this poor widow and he is angry. This is why after speaking the words about the poor widow, Jesus pronounces judgment against the religious temple in Luke 21:5-6.
The judgment that Jesus then pronounced against the temple and the city came to pass in 70 A.D. This judgment continues even today upon that temple and city until Jesus returns.
Conclusion
Of all the things that could have triggered Jesus to speak of the destruction of the temple, it was seeing the poor widow being financially abused. This shows how much Jesus cares about those who are spiritually and financially abused by corrupt religious leaders.
True religion provides for the needs of the needy, it does not demand donations from them.