Luke 21:1-4 Giving vs. Selling

Luke 21:1-4  Giving vs. Selling

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When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.  He said, “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth…”

Not too long ago, at a football game, I sat behind a young girl with the most beautiful eyes.  Her mom was sitting next to me and introduced herself to me.  When I commented on how beautiful her eyes were the mom nearly broke down. 

Her daughter has been cancer free for nearly one year now. 

She had the “good” type of cancer, but it was still very serious.  There was a moment when they thought they were going to lose her.  But the child fought back and eventually responded well to the treatment.  While she was receiving chemotherapy, she began to lose her hair.  The child’s mother immediately began looking into wigs.  When the little girl was ready to go back to school, the mother showed her a wig she could wear.  It matched her old hair perfectly.  But the child refused to wear it.  The mother told her, “But what if your friends don’t understand?”  “Then I will explain it to them”, the little girl replied.  “But what if they make fun of you?”  “Then they were never my friends.  This is who I am.”

The mom told me, “I realized that it was all about me.  It was all about my fears…What people would think.  My daughter taught me a great lesson.”

Due to our prime time television programs, we have grown used to thinking that people are perfect all the time; that they can drink all the time and never get addicted; that they can have all the sex they want and never get sick; that they can spend and spend and spend and never fall into debt.

Due to our “commercially” driven society, we have grown accustomed to selling ourselves to others rather than giving ourselves to others.  How do I know the difference?  When we give from our surplus, we sell ourselves.  But when we give from the depths of our heart, we give ourselves.  That’s the difference!

Divorced parents often fight over their children by showering their children with gifts.  When a man leaves his wife and moves into an apartment, he often becomes the awesome daddy, the cool daddy who takes his kids out once a week to see a movie or eat at a fancy restaurant or get drunk with them, leaving mommy at home the rest of the week to feed the children, bathe them, wash their clothes, and pay the house bills.  Duty has never been glamorous; it’s always been noble.    

Recently, a young athlete mentioned to me that his high school coach was very abusive, very rude and very demeaning to his players.  I asked him if he told his coach.  He told me, “No Father.  If I do, I may lose my scholarship.”  I understood.  And I would probably do the same thing.  But now that I am older, I know better.  And so I told him, “So what?  Do what’s right.  Stand up for yourself even if you take a beating for it!  You’ll be respected in the end.” 

When in the world did we learn to sell our soul and trade in our human rights for surplus items?  When did we begin to think that our hair or eyes or body is who we are?  When did we begin to think that our awards define who we are?  Don't you know you can lose all these things but never lose yourself? 

When the Lord told the chief priest who he was, he knew what would happen next.  He would be crucified.  But what the chief priest never expected happened next:  He disappeared while the Lord reappeared!  That’s what you get when you learn to stand up for yourself! You rise above all the pipsqueaks of this world!

The Lord was willing to give his life up, not sell it. He allowed his clothes to be stripped away, but not the truth.

This is the difference between laying it all down and "surplus" giving. 
Giving yourself has always meant dying to thyself.  Selling yourself is just an old fashion tactic at getting more for thyself.

This poor widow gave all that she had.  She did what was right and the only One that matters noticed it.  That’s all she cared about. 

We all can learn from her example.