WELL….its Stewardship Sunday so it would be odd if I did not preach on a text that dealt with money. After all, there is no shortage of them in the Gospels. Jesus talks about money more than any other subject except the kingdom or realm of God…. That’s right, even more than love. Eleven of the 39 parables are about money. But, in all fairness to Jesus’ theology, his concern isn’t for the money itself, but our relationship with it.
Listen for the message in Luke 20:45-21:4 in which compares the large donation of a leader of the congregation to that of a widow’s two small copper coins.
45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” 21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” (The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.)
To understand this teaching of Jesus, we need to understand who the people were and the context of the setting. In the beginning of Chapter 20 we are told that Jesus was teaching. After all, he was a rabbi, so that should be expected. My guess is that he was running what is comparable to an ‘Adult Sunday School Class’ for the faithful and they are posing questions to him on interpreting the scriptures and what their teachings and their meanings are. We would assume that there were Pharisees and Sadducees present in the temple and the passage starts out with Jesus making a pretty awful comment on these leaders of the law. In some translations, it names them as the scribes, but whether scribes or teachers, these people were the target of Jesus’ criticism that day.
The leaders of the temples were called Pharisees and the Sadducees and we know that in many of the Gospel stories, Jesus points to these leaders as the example of people who do not live out their faith. Jesus had a new and different interpretation of the law which put him in conflict with the Jewish powers that be. He was making waves that questioned authority and the power of the powerful. Not a way to make friends with the people in power!!! To understand the conflict, we need to understand who these groups of people in the temple were. Both had political and social power in ancient Israel.
Sadducees were the elite class of Jewish leaders. They associated with the ruling classes and were the chief and high priests. They were more conservative than the Pharisees and however, they were known to compromise themselves in their association with the Roman people. Sadducees had strict interpretations of the Torah and were doctrinal. They were the people who subscribed to following the letter of the law in its most literal sense.
Pharisees differed from Sadducees in several ways. For one, they were more representational of the common Jewish person and perhaps because of this, they were better liked than the Sadducees by the Jews. They had a few big differences in their approach to the Torah as they gave the oral tradition as much authority as the written Word of God. Another belief that separated them from the Sadducees is that Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead.
The scribes were learned men whose business it was to study the law and transcribe it. They would copy and recopy the Bible meticulously and they took this job quite seriously. Scribes were often hired to interpret legal points in Jewish law. They were associated with those criticized Pharisees but not all Pharisees were scribes.
And… well, in the Gospels, Jesus criticized all these people, and when you think about it, most people in power. He felt that the leaders in the Temple spelled out the letter of the Law without the spirit behind it. The outcome of such a belief is that the traditions and regulations of Law become more important than the meaning behind the Laws. In other words, it would be more important to follow the dietary laws than understanding the reason behind them. It is a religion that was asking people to follow regulations without any feeling of the importance and the theology behind the action itself. Much like Christians who take a literal approach to the Bible, and believe that questioning the laws, and questioning the authority of the people who teach the laws, is a sin. And we know that throughout history this becomes fertile grounds for reformations in all religions.
And here we have Jesus, teaching his class at the synagogue, and he turned and looked at the person in authority. He has used that person as an example in his lesson. He was concerned that they were not living as they preached or taught. The authority figure liked the benefits from their position but did not act with charity towards widows and the have-nots of society. And we know that central to Jewish law and life is caring for those in society who are the poor, the immigrant, and the widow. So, Jesus saw them living this lie and, well, he condemned them.
Just like a teenager who can smell out a person who is not authentic, just like the child who knows a fake when they see one, Jesus looks at these leaders and calls them out. And then to give a sermon illustration or an example of what he is talking about he looks at a rich leader of the temple putting in a generous donation to the temple treasury and a poor widow putting in her all, which is only a few small coins. And he says the widow has given more.
And she has. She responded out of her faith totally while the rich person only did what was expected and although it was a lot, it was not going to affect the person’s life, make the person have to feel the gift as a real gift, and probably would not change the rich person’s life in any way.
And, we do understand this. We are called to be disciples of God and our faith is to be lived. We don’t follow a set of rules in the Bible as an equation for our ticket to happiness and salvation, rather we live in a lifestyle which holds love and charity above all else. Our faith is not to make us comfortable, but rather to make us uncomfortable enough to see where we must work for God’s realm here on earth.
To close I want to tell you a story about my friend George that used to work in a large church as the Business and Finance person. George never went to seminary, but through his work, he developed a faith and theology of stewardship I greatly admired. I often actually quote him. He told me that when he first joined a church, he gave his weekly gift to the church and felt good about it. But then he realized that was not what it was supposed to be. He told me that he wrestled with this story of the widow and her coins and came to believe that the lesson was that you must give in a manner that you feel your gift; that your pledge to the church isn’t just a gesture out of obligation, but a gift stemming from your heart and your relationship to God. May our gifts to the church always come from our faith, our love, and our heart. Amen.