Jesus was sitting with his disciples after a day of teaching in the temple.

He’d just been talking with a Jewish teacher about the most important commandment. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” “And,” he said, “love your neighbor as yourself.”

When that conversation was over, and the crowd thinned out, Jesus and the disciples moved toward the entrance. There were receptacles for people to use as they brought their offerings to God, to the temple.

The receptacles probably looked like a box on the ground with a chute for dropping the money in. Some people suggest that the chute was metal, which meant that you could hear the sound of the money dropping in. The more money, the louder the sound.

As the disciples and Jesus watched, they saw wealthy people walk in, look around to make sure everyone was watching, and then drop a bag of coins in the box. The text tells us that they were giving large amounts of money.

And then a widow, who was poor, came. She looked poor. She looked worn. And she looked around to make sure no one was watching. Or maybe, she didn’t look around at all. She went to the money box. She dropped two coins in. They were worth a small amount. They made very little noise.

+++

It was a scene that was common, I’m guessing at the temple. One that constantly reinforced the perception that the amount you give is important to people, and important to God. The amount of noise your gift makes determines the value of the gift.

What was different this time is that Jesus was watching. God with a body on. God with a voice that people could hear. And Jesus wanted to use this as a time to turn the values of the disciples – and us – upside down.

“That widow,” he said, “Put more into the treasury than anyone else all day.”

Jesus says, “They all gave out of their wealth. They gave what they thought they could afford to give.”

He went on. “But this widow gave out of her poverty. She gave everything she had.”

Those two coins were her current life savings. They were supper. They were rent. They were everything.

When you look at the amount, she gave the least. When you look at the percentage, she gave the most.