[Note: The following is an excerpt from my chapter in the book, Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers & Their Last Days Deception, edited by Terry James. Order your copy on Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)].

The Olivet Discourse

The Widow’s Mite

One of Jesus’ most riveting teachings was recorded in the Gospels in Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13. Jesus had been teaching from God’s Temple in Jerusalem, which overlooked the Mount of Olives. Hence the sermon has been titled the Olivet Discourse after this pastoral view. As Luke 21:37-38 describes:

“And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet. Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.”

The narrative opens with a touching little comparison that shines the spotlight on greedy, egotistical deceivers who enshroud themselves in religiosity. While at the Temple, Jesus observed this sharp contrast in Luke 21:1-4 with:

“And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, ‘Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.'”

The story of the widow’s mite provides the background to a much larger subject Jesus was about to address. But, first, Jesus sets up His teaching by pointing out to His audience an everyday scene of tithing—the masses of Jews flooded the Temple in order to tithe the Temple tax.

The rich were dropping massive bags of loot into the treasury, and likely making a big show of it. Onlookers, including the Apostles, were naturally impressed at the perceived magnanimity.

Not Jesus! He instead focuses on a poor woman, who in her poverty nobody else would have ever noticed had He not pointed her out. She timidly dropped into the coffers two mites, being small copper coins worth a paltry eighth of a cent. And likely, in her humble poverty and out of embarrassment, she attempted to go as unnoticed as possible.

What God Almighty sees, the world does not see. Amount mattered little to Jesus, but rather percent, and heart. For those rich people who gave, some begrudgingly, out of their abundance, they acted as Old Deacon Horner. He sat in a corner, as the contribution box passed by; sweetly content, he dropped in a cent, and said, “What a good churchman am I.”¹ But the widow, destined to societal poverty without a husband or son to take care of her, gave all she had to live on. For this generous widow presented her gift without withholding herself. She didn’t give from the top of her purse, like the parading rich did, but from the bottom of her heart. She loved God and trusted Him to provide for her needs. Now that was a woman of faith!

The Wealthy Temple

After Jesus had dropped this bombshell of profound insight into sacrificial giving, the scene was now properly set to launch into an even greater bombshell. From a simple widow unknowingly demonstrating to the world over millennia how God wants His children to give, He was now going to show them how He would be victorious over the great spiritual warfare long being waged against Him by those who greedily covet His position.

The Olivet Discourse does not record how long Jesus’ audience pondered the widow. The human mind tends to wander when faced with a revelation too massive for our brains to fully contain. Likely, only a few minutes passed before Jesus’ disciples began to be captivated yet again by the riches they were witnessing. The narrative continues, “Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations…” (Luke 21:5).

Jesus disciples must be excused somewhat for being amazed. They were, after all, talking about the Temple. This complex stood as the center of culture for Israel. It was the most beautiful, most ornate, most important building to the Jewish people in the entire planet. Most of Jesus’ disciples were small-towners, living in the sticks of tiny 200-300 people boroughs. Imagine spending your entire life living in a one-room house deep in the backwoods. Then, for the first time, you travel to the Big City and ride up the tallest skyscraper. Like the disciples, you’d be like, “Wow! I can’t believe this building!”

That was what it was like for the Apostles. These peasants had just arrived at the biggest city they so far had ever seen, filled with commerce and wealth and people. Then they go to the apex of it all–the Temple–God’s own dwelling on earth.

The Jewish Temple stood out as the wealthiest of all the buildings in Jerusalem. The Temple was located up on Mount Moriah, the very place Father Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac. The building was beautifully decorated with panels of cedar and floors of cypress wood. The fixtures were inlaid with gold set to floral designs. The rooms contained marvelous furnishings. The famed and deadly Ark of the Covenant once stood in the Holy of Holies where the Shekinah Glory of God had dwelled.

The magnificence of the Temple building was blinding! Those country boys were naturally awestruck.

Resource

Indoctrination disguised as education. The religion of climate change enshrined. Witchcraft and the occult made mainstream. Fake news. We live in a world where deception is rampant and true agendas are rarely revealed. Jesus foretold of this time as He answered His disciples’ question: What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Bible prophecy experts present analysis of today’s issues and events in Deceivers, revealing that Christ’s prophecy is literally unfolding before us today.

Order the book, Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers & Their Last Days Deception, edited by Terry James, on Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)]!

References

1. Eleanor Doan, Speaker’s Sourcebook (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1960), p. 109.