Week 39 Luke 21
Let’s say three people donate money to a charity:
A) an investment banker donates $1000
B) a middle-class wage-earner donates $100
C) a poor widow donates $10
The question is: ‘Who Gave the Most?’
And the answer is: A) gave most (and he’s followed by B) who gave less & C) who gave almost nothing).
The Lord took a different view: this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.
So a second factor has to be considered: Charitable Capacity. The question for a donor is: what is my financial load-bearing charitable capacity? (The Lord called it my surplus).
I can do a simple budget breakdown:
• What is my total income? (I’ll call it x)
• What are my non-negotiable expenses? (they are y)
• What Surplus Cash do I have when my non-negotiables are covered? (x – y = z). Z is my ‘discretionary loot’ (my surplus).
My original question has to be modified to: Who Gave the Largest Percentage of Their Surplus?
And now the answer changes to: C) (the widow by a gigantic margin).
In the short-run the widow didn’t do herself any financial favours. But I’m reading about her two-thousand years later – so she was that much of an exception. It’s maybe true that the Lord helps the person who helps herself. But in this story he commended a woman who didn’t.
Note: Luke 21:3-4 (NLT)