I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 21-22

I did not comment on Jesus’ comments about the poor widow who gave her last two coins (OK, the passage does not actually say that, but Jesus does say that she gave all that she had) when I read it in the Gospel of Mark this year.  I felt bad about that because I have long thought it contains important lessons about wealth, but it is such a short part of the passage and I did not think it connected with the other themes in that day’s passage.

However, I did a quick search on it today to make sure that I remembered where it occurs in the Gospels and came across a commentary about it I had never heard.  The commentary pointed out that Jesus’ comment about the widow’s offering came just a short time before He prophesied the destruction of the Temple.  I am amazed that I have never heard anyone make that connection.  The collection box referred to in the verses about the widow’s offering would have been for expenses related to the upkeep of the Temple.  If the Temple was going to be destroyed in less than 40 years (and we know that it was indeed destroyed in just under 40 years after this) then these offerings were being wasted.  In this light, instead of commending the widow for her offering, Jesus was condemning the wealthy for what they were doing.  By ostentatiously making offerings which, for all intents and purposes, cost them nothing they were pressuring the poor to make offerings which they could not afford, offerings which accomplished nothing of value.

My title for today’s blog suggests that perhaps we should not spend money on worship facilities, but that is not what I believe.  Rather, I think this passage raises questions about how much we spend on those facilities.  Are we encouraging the poor to give more than they can afford so as to make our worship facility ostentatious?  Does the beauty and luxuriousness of the facility make the poor among us feel unworthy to worship God?  I don’t think the questions raised by this passage have one single answer.  We must consider them each and every time we make changes to our facilities.