Money Matters: So What? Or So That!

by Marilynn Chadwick

Are you growing in your faith merely to become a “deeper” disciple? I call this a “so what” faith. I believe Jesus is calling us to more. God’s Word urges us to grow in our faith “so that” we’ll give our lives away to the least and lost.

I hope our lessons from the Gospel of Luke will encourage us to reflect on the question, “Is my life a so what or a so that?” How can we make a difference in our world?

Remember how Jesus always noticed the least and the lost. So often the poor are invisible to us. We may have to ask the Holy Spirit to help us regain our sight to see those who need Jesus—they are all around us.

Or God may call us to speak out for someone who can’t speak out for themselves. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God’s people have been called to side with the poor, speak out for them, and use our time, talents, and treasure to help.

Jesus affirmed the poor widow’s sacrificial gift. He said, “Truly I tell you; this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:1-4).

Do you see what happened here? In the race to be righteous, against all the rich leaders who wanted to appear holy, this poor widow won the prize. She won God’s favor.

In a desire to learn more about the widow’s sacrificial gift, I called my friend Angela. Her insights proved eye opening because she had experienced both great poverty and God’s great provision. She read much more into the story because of those life experiences. Angela confided, “Years ago, I gave all I had to live on. I put my last $6 into the church offering.” In a very short time, provision came from an unlikely source. The Lord gave me many times what I had given.” She smiled, “You can’t outgive God.”

For Angela, like the poor widow in Luke’s account, giving was an act of faith—tied to worship. This is a woman who knew Jesus as her provider, her Jehovah Jireh. She had seen God come through before and she trusted him with her life.

So what does that mean for you and for me? Are we to sell all we have and follow Jesus? Some believers do. I know a pastor’s family who sold everything and moved as missionaries to Thailand.

The widow in Luke’s story gave just two mites, the least coin. And she was the least in her community. But Jesus said she gave all. Remember, small things matter to God.

Give your time, your treasure, your love. As someone wisely said, “You can’t do everything, but you can do something.”

Money Matters: God Loves Small Things

by Marilynn Chadwick

Luke stresses the importance of the widow’s sacrificial gift. Jesus tells us the Father loves this kind of faith. We bring him glory when we trust him as our loving Provider. Such a message is vastly different from what the religious leaders were teaching. Jesus rebukes them, “What sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden” (Luke 11:46 NLT). Can you imagine? These teachers of the law even got mad when Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath.

Luke encourages us to see God through the eyes of society’s least, especially the little ones. I find myself wondering, “Why is it so hard to have simple faith like a child?” Perhaps it’s because most people long to be important. Even the disciples hungered for greatness. They once came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1).

Jesus shocked them with his answer: He called a little child to him and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-3).

We can spend our lives searching for “greatness,” only to end up self-sufficient, far from God, and just plain tired. Life wasn’t meant to be this complicated. What can we learn about keeping it simple from children?

We can learn to be humble: “So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:4). Spend time with children. Be teachable and learn from them.

We can learn to love our neighbor. Don’t look down on children or the childlike. If you’re a parent or grandparent, guard little eyes. Don’t push them to grow up too fast. A lost childhood is hard to regain.

Cultivate a childlike faith. Remember the pathway to heaven is only by grace through faith—faith like a child. The Bible promises we will experience God’s favor when we minister to those who are childlike—the least and the lost. “When you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me” (Matthew 25: 40).

Luke’s story of the widow’s mite (Luke 21:1-4) is about an open door that all can enter. God is the God of Small Things. If a poor widow’s small gift is accepted by Jesus, then anyone can be welcomed and loved by Jesus: Little children, babies, tax collectors, Samaritans. Even people like us.

Money Matters: Coaching Tips from Jesus

by Marilynn Chadwick

Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus was always teaching. Sometimes he got his message across by preaching to a crowd, such as the Sermon on the Mount. Other times, he made a strong statement through his actions...like turning over the money-changers tables for their misuse of the temple (Luke 19). I think he got his point across, don't you?

Still other times, Luke points to how Jesus performed signs, wonders, and miracles to convey his message and especially to show the love and power of God. Like raising a widow’s dead son (Luke 7), calming a storm; driving out a demon (Luke 8); Or feeding the 5000 (Luke 9). Miracles got a lot of attention and Luke records more healing miracles than any other Gospel. And he includes 24 angel stories, more than any book of the New Testament, second only to Revelation, earning Luke the nickname, “The Gospel of the Angels.”

But Luke also shows how Jesus would often find teachable moments while doing ordinary life with his disciples. He might say something like, “don’t do this but do this.” “Don’t be so busy and worried, Martha, but do spend time in my presence like Mary” (Luke 10). Or “Don’t neglect the wounded neighbor in front of you like the religious leaders did; but do stop and care for him like the Good Samaritan [an outcast].” Jesus sounds a lot like any good coach, doesn’t he?

We’ve seen how one of Jesus’s most significant teachings about money took place in the Temple. He called out a group of corrupt religious leaders and lawyers. What was it about these religious leaders? Why did Jesus warn his followers about them?

“Look out!” he exhorted. “Don’t listen to their teaching. Don’t follow their example. And especially, don’t love what they love.”

And just what did they love? Luke points out how “They were lovers of money” (Luke 16:14). They loved status: “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets Luke 20:46).

They especially loved looking good—appearances mattered. They wanted to be seen in the right places wearing the right clothes at the right time. Always with an audience.

Maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking through Luke’s Gospel, warning us to guard our hearts against the love of money, the love of status, and the love of looking good. Social media tempts us to compare. Appearances are deceitful. But Jesus sees our heart. As my husband David is fond of saying, “The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.”