Spinning Copper into Gold

I was thinking this morning about the story of Jesus in the Temple, watching the people put their offerings in the trumpet shaped receptacles, pointing out the rich showoffs and the poor widow who gave everything she had.

I used to imagine this story with Jesus camped out in the courtyard of the Temple, maybe hiding behind a palm frond, just waiting for a good object lesson to come along that he could spring on his disciples. Kind of like a show on the Discovery Channel. "Today," Jesus would say to the camera,"we're on the lookout for sincere generosity. Ooh, look at that one right there. Beautiful robes, quite the entourage, and ooh, see that big bag of coins! What a guy...oh, and he just tripped over a leper. Kept right on walking."

But that picture doesn't give Jesus enough credit for being supremely aware of his surroundings. In general, we who follow Jesus, and even those who are passably aware of his existence, tend to focus on his omniscience and ignore the fact that Jesus could be surprised just like any other human being. I'm not saying you could or could not walk up behind him and yell "Boo!" That kind of discussion is on par with the Major League argument on whether Jesus could or could not hit a curve ball, which he probably couldn't, considering how few Jewish ballplayers there are today.

My point is that Jesus was adept at incorporating the events going on around him to make a point about heaven, justice, or how life works best. As the widow is walking up to the offering place, Jesus is just wrapping up a tirade against the Pharisees and teachers of the law for being hypocrites and getting a kick out of burning down widow's houses. And right after that, clink-clink, the widow drops her last two pennies into the bucket.

We tend to think of Jesus as a cool customer, always in control, maybe even with an "I knew that was going to happen" smirk that a lifetime of being right would grow on a persons face. But what I love about the humanity of Jesus is the depth of his emotion.

I'm extrapolating big-time here, but I imagine if Jesus were living this story today, rather than leading with "I tell you the truth" he would use the speech of today's audience, with the proper emotional reaction: "SERIOUSLY! Are you kidding me? Did you just SEE that noise? OM Me, tell me that that did not just happen!"

And then he'd explain about giving out of our poverty and even if we aren't broke we should give in secret so that the focus isn't on how awesome we are and how we're wearing Tom's Shoes because we care about Africa. Because Jesus' next question would be to ask us to point Zimbabwe out on a map.