Justice: Being Fair

Scripture:

Luke 21:1-4

Quick Summary:

Jesus saw people giving their money to the temple when a poor widow put in just two coins. He said she put more than all the others, because she gave a big portion of what she had. She gave more in God’s eyes even though she gave less in people’s eyes. God sees what is fair, but that is not always the same. Our virtue is Justice. It is treating everyone fair. 

The Point:

Justice is about being fair to everyone. Being just means helping the people who need it most the most.  

Questions for Family Time:

                  1.      Who gave the most money in the story?

a.     the rich

                  2.      Who did Jesus say gave the most?

a.      the poor widow

                  3.      Why did Jesus say she gave the most?

a.      She gave the most of what she had.(proportionally, she gave more than the rich)

Deeper:

Justice in our society is often understood as people getting the punishment they deserve. The Bible talks about justice in a much broader sense. It is fairness for all people. Often God is found telling his people that they need to seek justice for the oppressed, not by punishing individual oppressors, but breaking down oppressive systems in their society and empowering the oppressed to rise above their circumstances.

When our nonprofit organizations ask for donations, they recognize the biggest gifts. They put up plaques with the largest donations on their walls. The biggest givers are recognized the most. Those big givers are often the ones who have the most to give. They are wealthy businesses and families. They are NOT poor widows. They are the people at the other end of the spectrum of wealth. Recognizing the biggest gifts which happened to be donated by the riches people was the same during Jesus’ time. The people of Jesus’s time expected that was how God recognized their too gifts. Then Jesus came along and called a measly 2 coins the largest gift. That gift wasn’t worth recognizing. It wasn’t enough to run the temple, to feed the priests, to care for the building, to buy oil for the candles or wood for the altars.   It was nothing.

Widow in the Scripture is code for “someone with nothing.” A widow had no husband or sons, and with them no land rights or ability to make a living. They were at a dead end. This is why Jesus consistently reached out to them as the poorest of the poor and makes them the hero of his stories. With one word he described a person of the utmost lowest class without the ability to rise. Not only this, but this position was not due to things under their control. They didn’t deserve to be in the position they were in. They were someone that any group of people could have sympathy for. That poor widow.

And yet, Jesus makes her the hero.

Jesus said the widow’s was the largest gift because God counts by the proportion of what we have to what we give. The rich men maybe gave 3% of their income that day. All their needs were met and that money was just extra rattling around their pockets. The widow, though, was poor. Those two coins easily could have been 50% of her income for the day. Jesus recognized the sacrifice she was making in giving such a large proportion to God. She was not giving God the extra after all her needs were met. She gave to God and trusted he would meet her needs.

Jesus didn’t advocate for the widow giving the same as the rich men. He advocated justice. Justice was seeing that in the widow’s case, the amount of money was not equal to the size of gift. Justice was recognizing her gift was more sacrificial. Justice was looking passed the coins to where (and who) they came from.

God always sees in terms of justice. He cares about lifting up the oppressed. He is less concerned about how much has to be given to them than about them ending up equals at the end. In school, some kids need more help with reading, but at the end, we want every kid to read well. That is justice. Justice is not giving them all the same help in reading, but making sure they all end up proficient. That is how God sees us, and how he wants us to see others. He doesn’t want us only seeing the gifts people give to society. He wants us to see the people behind those gifts. He wants us to recognize that some gifts that seem tiny are enormous.

Personal Reflection:

When have you seen a tiny gift really be an enormous one because of the one giving it? How do you teach your kids to stand up for others, especially people who might be labeled as oppressed or poor? How do you stand up for them? What would be a big sacrifice for you to give to God?