Everett Henes: Just as you are

Tucked away in the Gospel of Luke is a passage that highlights for us what it means for a sinner to come before a holy God. Luke 21:1-4 tells the story of Jesus observing people giving offerings in the temple. There were 13 of these offering boxes in what was called the Court of Women. It was the part of the Temple where Jewish women could come and worship God. They could not go beyond this point. But these boxes were set up to support various aspects of the Temple ministry.

Jesus notices a poor widow who puts in two small copper coins. There was usually a show that took place as people brought their gifts. Their amounts would be announced to the watching public. You could imagine that such a situation would discourage a poor widow from coming to contribute anything at all. The two small coins referred to here were each equivalent to one-eighth of a penny. A quarter of one cent is what she gave.

Jesus sees what she does and says: “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.” That last sentence is literally translated, “But she, out of her poverty, put in all the life which she had.”

This was more than the last two coins she had in her savings account; it was a sacrifice for her to give what she did. And Jesus says that she is the example. But why? Is this a rich versus poor sort of thing? I don’t believe that is the case. Notice that Jesus doesn’t condemn the other offerings. He simply says that she put in more because they gave out of abundance, but she gave out of what she lacked.

I do not believe that this passage is teaching that we must muster up some little good deed for God to be pleased with us. If we just give enough of ourselves, of our time, of our resources, then God will be pleased with us. As though, if God’s not blessing you then you must be holding something back from him. This is how some read what Jesus is saying, but surely that’s not what he would want to teach. We cannot by our best deeds placate God. We are sinners and he is holy.

She came in her poverty and gave all she had, and God accepted it as a pleasing offering not because it was of any monetary value but because she was his child. It isn’t about pleasing God so that he will love you; it is about God’s love enabling you to please him. She is commended because she does not try to please man. Jesus takes the poorest of the ones that the Scribes had preyed upon for so long and shows, from her, that God is not pleased with them. They haven’t even been trying to please God. They thought that they could fool everyone, including God. But they cannot. God weighs the heart; man merely looks at the actions. That is all that we can see. But God is not limited in the ways that we are.

The lessons from this passage are clear. How often do we try to measure and count in order to please God? “I read my Bible today; I prayed today; can I have a good day please, God?” “I was nice to someone today who didn’t deserve it; can you be nice to me because I deserve it, God?”

We don’t normally say it that way. It usually comes out something like, “I thought I did everything you wanted, God, why is my life not going the way I had hoped?” God is not in the business of making bargains with us. We have nothing of value to offer him, sinful as we are. We are to trust in Jesus, and trusting in him, we see our own poverty, our desire to be praised by others and to be seen in our good deeds just like these Scribes. We are to come as that widow did and give to God our whole life. This is the Christian life, lived to God because he has sent his Son to pay the penalty for our sins. As Christians, we are not trying to earn God’s favor. We live in love because he has first loved us.

— Pastor Everett Henes, the pastor of the Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, can be reached at pastorhenes@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Everett Henes: Just as you are