'Money talks’, is an expression to mean that 'money can gain influence and power over others'.  But just days before His crucifixion, Jesus used the sacrificial gift of a poor woman to explain the sacred meaning of sacrificial giving.  The action took place in the Court of the Women, the outermost of three Temple courts, where the Treasury was housed.  This area was 60 feet square surrounded by colonnades where there were thirteen trumpet shaped containers (narrow at the top and wide at the bottom – for stability and to deter pilferers!) for temple tax, the value of obligatory sacrifices and for voluntary contributions. Each was marked to indicate its purpose.  It was here that Simeon and Anna met the baby Jesus (Luke 2:22-39) after Mary made the statutory offering following childbirth.

This widow's offering was financially insignificant compared to lavish contributions from the rich.  Hers was not an obligatory offering but a freewill gift, because of the 'trumpet' into which she dropped the two coins.  But only Jesus knew that it was all she had to live on.  Many people were milling around, and her contribution would have drawn no attention, unlike those who announced their charity 'with trumpets' (Matthew 6:2).  But Jesus saw and pointed it out to his trainee apostles.  It was time for another tutorial for the church - about how money reveals the heart of the giver or grasper.

This episode illustrates Jesus' earlier teaching against the hypocritical clerics (Mark 12:38-40).  Rich people used their gifts to demonstrate their holiness and gain admiration from religious people.  That was supposed to be service to God.  But it was really a self-rewarding exercise of no spiritual value (Matthew 6:1-4).  Without a sincere love-motive a gift is worthless.  For the rich, it was a tiny proportion of their assets - they could easily afford it to buy popular approval.  By contrast, the widow had very little, but because of her love for God she gave everything.  And Jesus commended her ultimate sacrificial gift.  It was also a picture of His sacrifice later that week (Mark 10:45).  The value to God was far more than the rich man's cast-off cash.  It was not what she gave that counted, but how much she did not hold back.

Prudence should guide our spending: that is good.  But when we refuse to give God what is His, it is not prudence but theft (Malachi 3:8-10).  If our love of money exceeds our love for Christ, we are on a slippery slope to ruin and grief (1 Timothy 6:9-10).  The Christian's life should be like Christ's - willing to give everything.  Holding back what should have been devoted to God was the sin of Achan (Joshua 7:1-26), Saul (1 Samuel 15:1-23) and Ananias & Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).  Let's not follow their bad example!  But also, be alert to religious manipulators whose own personal greed, dressed up as spiritual fervour, demands your sacrificial offering.  Spiritual giving never comes through psychological coercion (2 Corinthians 9:7).  We should be informed of needs; but only the Holy Spirit has the right to motivate our giving as an expression of our love for the Father, and gratitude for the sacrifice of the Son.  What does your attitude to money say?