1 Jesus looked up, and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury. 2 He saw a certain poor widow casting in two small brass coins. 3 He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, 4 for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.”

Luke 21:1-4 - World English Bible

In this short passage, Jesus witnessed a poor widow by a Temple collection chest, donating two small coins (literally “lepta,” a Greek coin worth one percent of a daily wage). According to a second century AD Jewish document, the Mishnah, the Temple treasury lay in the Women's Court; it had thirteen collection chests, nine to collect the Temple tax, four for voluntary donations. The Mishnah described these chests as “trumpets” wide at the bottom, narrow at the top opening. Some scholars speculate a priest would blow a trumpet seven times a day to mark the times for donations; indeed, a tower by the Temple Mount, just above Robinson's Arch in Jerusalem, had an inscription that indicated times for the blowing of the trumpet.

Jesus marveled at the donation, for the widow gave everything she had to live off of that day. She contributed all she had for the good of others, unlike others that simply gave out of their surplus.

This simple act by an anonymous widow should give us pause. We should not measure the gifts we give by size or amount, but by the sacrifice they entail.

What gifts have you given lately?