This passage comes from the end of Jesus’s ministry when He has come to Jerusalem for the last time. He had already driven out the sellers in the Temple courts who were taking advantage of people when he spoke the words, “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers,” echoing the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. As He teaches in the Temple courts every day, the people listen and are spellbound. The chief priests and their hangers-on lurk nearby, jealous of the attention Jesus is getting and plotting His arrest and death.
But Jesus is seeing the sights of His beloved Jerusalem for the last time. He’s people-watching. He sees the way the scribes and Pharisees lord it over people. He watches the parade of wealthy people ostentatiously bring large gifts to the offertory, wanting everyone to take note and praise them for their generosity. And then He sees someone who catches His heart: a poor widow. She comes quietly up to the treasury and puts in her offering, two small copper coins. She doesn’t think anyone has noticed, and she calls no attention to herself. But Jesus sees her. He knows what her giving has cost her, and He loves her for what she’s done. In the words of Eugene Peterson’s The Message, Jesus says, “The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all!”
What does Jesus mean? When we look through Jesus’s eyes, we see that He grades on a sliding scale. He doesn’t just think, “Big gift = Big-souled person.” He sees just what it costs each of us to give, to speak, to act as we do. For this woman, it took deep faith to let go of those two little copper coins and drop them into the treasury. She needed to watch carefully everything she spent because there was no longer a man to earn for her in her life. But she gave to God anyway. She gave out of her poverty, and Jesus loved her and held her up as an example. Though she had small resources, she was great in soul and great in faith.