I almost cried during one of my New Testament exams at Bible College – not out of fear of not finishing or paralysing hand cramps from having to write so fast (though these were occasional issues!) – but from having my heart melted.
It was a Greek translation and exegesis exam, which meant having to translate a portion of Greek New Testament text into English and then writing comments on both the Greek grammar and syntax as well as what the text meant. Doesn’t sound very heart-warming or heart-melting, but I’ve found that the great thing about reading the Bible in a language other than your own is that it slows you right down and you grasp things you otherwise miss because you’re reading too quickly or with too much familiarity.
In this case, I had to translate and exegete a portion of Luke 21, starting with verses 1-4 – a section often called The Widow’s Offering, or The Widow’s Mite. It’s a passage that has never since failed to melt my heart – despite being so short and unadorned. I’m just incredibly touched that this widow, “out of her poverty put in [to the temple 'offering bags'] all she had to live on” (v4).
What on earth would possess her to do such an apparently foolish and irresponsible thing?! It’s hardly good stewardship to give away all your money, especially when you’re a widow with no position in contemporaneous society and no hope for a stable income. This woman is either stupid, or -
she has a heart of profoundly deep worship and utter dependence on God. Out of everyone who gave their offerings that day, she was the one who knew God best and therefore loved and trusted God best. The rich people gave perhaps to honour God but likely to honour themselves, but her willingness to give everything, to ‘lose’ everything to the LORD, revealed exactly Who had first place in her life and how much she trusted Him as her God and provider.
These four simple verses kick me in the guts. I struggle to put their meaning and impact into words because SO MUCH is being said. The sermon this humble widow preaches to me convicts me deeply. I am ashamed of the poverty of my worship of God in contrast – this is what makes me cry, as much as being touched by her love and worship. The thing is, I can’t see myself in her position. If I were in her shoes, I don’t know if I could do the same – because I love and trust and worship God too little…
5:17 girls out there, there are a bunch of women in the New Testament who preach loudly to us about whole-hearted devotion to Jesus: among others, Mary who submitted herself to ridicule and rejection to bear the incarnate God, the woman at the well whose transformation was so complete she became an evangelist to her whole town, the forgiven prostitute who kissed and anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume, the women who lovingly prepared spices for Jesus’ crucified body.
I hope you (and the guys too) can hear the ‘sermons’ preached to us by these beautiful women. Together, I hope we will have our hearts melted and broken by their examples; I hope God uses their stories to move us to their heights of unbridled adoration for Jesus – not out of flippant or flighty emotionalism, but taking captive all our womanly powers to deeply love and live for him.
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