Giving Your Last Coin

How you define greatness is going to have an impact on your life. Jesus looks at the widow putting all she had to live on into the treasury. Some people measure respect by qualifications, clothes, family history, power, etc. It is notable that Jesus measured people differently--He spent time with the poor and sinful. Jesus highlights surprising examples of success. There was huge poverty in Jesus' day. The rich are showing off. The widow was poor and vulnerable. She deposits two coins into the treasury of an opulent temple. Jesus evaluates this action. His evaluation is shocking. She is another surprising individual. Here are some features Jesus highlights as great: Faith, love, humility, mercy, repentance, eternal perspective, gratitude, and dependence on God's mercy. What God considered traits of greatness resided in this widow. This is an opportunity to stop and evaluate your system of evaluation of greatness and success and to examine whether your criteria are the same as those God uses.