We grew up being taught to be cheerful givers, like the poor widow, and offer everything we have to live on to the Lord and the Lord's work. Not just our food, money, and house; even our mental and emotional health is given away for God's sake.
Thank God, most of us have outgrown these teachings. Now, we are learning to follow the One whose life and ministry was dedicated to widows, orphans, and strangers, the One who preached a Gospel for the Poor, the One who offered his life so that others may live.
Now, we are learning how many institutionalized structures and systems--religious or otherwise--rob people of even the barest that they have. Now, we realize that Jesus was actually denouncing the temple elite's unjust system of dispossessing the already dispossessed in the name of God. I think the incident at the temple was one of his ways of declaring, “Enough! This temple has become a den of thieves!”
Yet, many of our churches and our programs continue to thrive and live off of the backs of the poor and suffering.
Friends, don't forget this, ever: Jesus condemns the scribes who devour widows' houses. Moreover--if you read his precise words--Jesus does not tell us to "go and do" as the widow did.
*art, "The Widow's Mite," JESUS MAFA 1973 (available at vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
