The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
November 12, 2006
Vol. 9 no. 44

Everything But...
           Money is not mentioned very often in the Bible, specific amounts, that is. Usually our problem is figuring out which particular denomination of coin the text is referring to. Denarius, talent, shekel, now the two “mites” of King James Version fame, worth barely a penny, or a farthing. Personally, I have yet to comprehend a farthing, but I gather it wasn’t much. Pennies have never amounted to much of anything, except to add on taxes!
           I thought money wasn’t that important for the Bible, but when I looked up “Money” in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible the article was significantly longer than the article for “Moses.” People talk about money all the time since time immemorial.
           The money of the widow is counted down to the last farthing, and it is Jesus who observes that those two coins are all she has, her whole living is placed in the offering box. What was she going to do when she went home after the offering? Nobody gets up to help her, notice that. Was she going to go home to starve, or would there be someone else to help her? The Bible and the Gospels don’t supply all of our answers.
           Money is seldom reported in the Bible as an economic value. The Biblical authors just didn’t care what things cost, and we usually can’t figure it out either. Money is used as the means to help figure out where our soul belongs. This woman did not even have two cents’ worth for her opinion. Her opinion, nevertheless, was to give to the poor, and thereby to give everything she had to God.
           It’s only money! Just pieces of paper and metal. Do you believe that, really? It may not be just a matter of economics.