Dr Paul Allen

Image by doug88888 via Flickr “All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:4). As Jesus was speaking about the oppression of widows by the teachers of the Law, He looked up at the great bronze “trumpets” in the temple courtyard, in which people put their gifts. The rich were putting in their gifts and Jesus saw a widow slipping two mites into one of these receptacles. A mite was a copper coin, the smallest coin in the Jewish currency. It was worth about one tenth of one cent. The amount of money she gave was minuscule. It is interesting that the rules of the rabbis forbade giving just one mite, because the expense of administering such a gift was more than the gift itself. Thus, the minimum acceptable offering was two mites, exactly what the widow gave. Jesus was moved. He said this widow had put in more than all the rich. Jesus did not mean this in a quantitative sense, but in a qualitative on...

Image via Wikipedia “They devour widows ’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers . Such men will be punished most severely” (Luke 20:47). After defeating the Sadducees in the temple, Jesus warned His disciples to beware of the teachers of the Law, because they loved outward show but were guilty of grossly unethical behavior. Jesus was speaking directly to his disciples, but the crowd was all around, as were many of these teachers. The specific crime with which Jesus charged them was devouring widows’ houses. Keep in mind that in the ancient world the widow was legally and economically at the mercy of the power structures of the society. For the most part she had little means of income, and she certainly had no power in the courts. Thus, it is not by accident that the Bible singles out the widow, in her loneliness and helplessness, as one who is to be a special object of compassion in the community. Indeed, we are told that caring for widows is of the essence of true relig...