After the religious debates of Luke 20 and Jesus silencing all his enemies, Luke seems to imply that Jesus simply looked up from where he taught in the previous chapter (Luke 21:1). However, Mark seems to say Jesus moved to a position near the place in the Temple treasury where Jews deposited their offerings (Mark 12:41), and there he observed what was done. Nevertheless, whatever actually occurred, the fact is that Jesus had to call his disciples to himself (Luke 21:3), and this does indicate Jesus was no longer formally involved in teaching them. So, the debates were over, and Jesus moved on to something else.
We are told that Jesus watched, as rich Jews cast their alms into the treasury (Luke 21:1; cf. Mark 12:41), and, as he watched them give their gifts, he saw a widow drop in two mites (Luke 21:2; Mark 12:42). A mite was a small copper coin, the smallest of all Jewish coins. It was one sixty-fourth of a denarius, which was considered a day’s wage for a laborer. So, what the woman offered was the equivalent of about 15 minutes labor (figuring on an 8 hour day, or 22 ½ minutes of a 12 hour day). So, no matter how it was figured, it wasn’t even an hour’s wage.
Immediately, Jesus called his disciples together to show them what the woman had done (Luke 21:3-4; Mark 12:43-44). For in casting in those two copper coins, she had given away all her living (cf. 1Kings 17:8-16), and had, therefore, offered more, in the sight of God, than all the rich men who had given out of the abundance of their wealth.
It is important to understand that Jesus, through Mark and Luke, has said nothing disparagingly against the rich who offered their gifts. The fact is, proportionate giving is acceptable to God (cf. 1Corinthians 16:2, 2Corinthians 8:12). However, this widow had given beyond her means (cf. 2Corinthians 8:5; 1Kings 17:8-16), which places such a one in the hands of God. In other words, when someone does such a thing, one places himself / herself in the care of God, because there is nothing left to use to care for oneself.
It may be that Luke bookends the record of the widow (Luke 21:2) between the hypocrisy of the scribes (Luke 20:46-47) and the destruction of the Temple (Luke 21:5-6) to show why God’s judgment fell upon the Jewish nation. For the most part, worship had become a façade. It was nothing but a show for others to see and be impressed. The love for God, which overextends itself in worship (Luke 21:1-4), had, for the most part, been lost in their long flowing robes and the chief seats in the synagogues and at banquets they made (Luke 20:46-47).
Matthew tells us that even the act of giving to God had become a effort to exalt the giver in the eyes of his peers. Jesus said we shouldn’t ‘sound’ the trumpet when we give (Matthew 6:1-4), which, whatever is meant by that phrase, had been going on to such a degree that Jesus thought it was important to mention. The implication seems to be that some people who gave gifts somehow made it known (sounding the trumpet) that they were giving a lot and wanted others to see and be impressed (Matthew 6:1-2). But, what does sounding the trumpet really mean? Did some Jews actually blow a trumpet when they gave an offering?
“The Court of the Women obtained its name, not from its appropriation to the exclusive use of women, but because they were not allowed to proceed farther, except for sacrificial purposes. Indeed, this was probably the common place for worship, the females occupying, according to Jewish tradition, only a raised gallery along three sides of the court. This court covered a space upwards of 200 feet square. All around ran a simple colonnade, and within it, against the wall, the thirteen chests, or ‘trumpets,’ for charitable contributions were placed. These thirteen chests were narrow at the mouth and wide at the bottom, shaped like trumpets, whence their name. Their specific objects were carefully marked on them. Nine were for the receipt of what was legally due by worshippers; the other four for strictly voluntary gifts… It is probably in ironical allusion to the form and name of these treasure-chests that the Lord, making use of the word ‘trumpet,’ describes the conduct of those who, in their almsgiving, sought glory from men as ‘sounding a trumpet’ before them is, carrying before them, as it were, in full display one of these trumpet-shaped alms-boxes (literally called in the Talmud, ‘trumpets’), and, as it were, sounding it.” [Alfred Edersheim: The Temple: Its Ministry and Service; Chapter 2 “Within the Holy Place” – Court of the Women]
So, we are able to see the manner in which some ‘sounded the trumpet’ when he gave a gift. Moreover, the scribes taught that whenever a man gave a gift to God by depositing such in the Temple or in the synagogue, he was excused from his duty to help his parents who may be in need (Mark 7:10-13). Such may even have been the case of this poor widow (Luke 21:2), who, not receiving anything from an adult son (if she had one), placed herself in the hands of God.
Smoodock's Blog 