Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 192 · July 11
All Her Living
“For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”
Jesus sat down to watch people give money. And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
Then a widow. There came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. The smallest coins in circulation, and the detail doing the work is that there were two. She could have kept one and nobody alive would have known. Both went in, and Jesus did the arithmetic: all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
Now read the six verses before it, because they are the same speech and savage. Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces; then, two verses on, which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. He names a class of men who eat widows, then sits down opposite the collection boxes of the institution those men run, and watches a widow put her house into one.
When he walks out of the building his mind is on demolition. Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. Hold both halves of that afternoon. He praises her without reservation; she gave more than all of them together. He never praises what she gave into.
Do two sums this week rather than one. Work out your giving as a fraction of what you have instead of as a figure, since the fraction is the only measure he used. Then work out what your money holds up, and whether the poorest person giving into it is better off for it. He was watching both sides of that box.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 192 is Hope Not Ashamed (Romans 5:5).