One day, very shortly before our dear Lord was crucified, He was teaching in God's Temple at Jerusalem and preaching the gospel.
He had been warning the people against the scribes, who loved to seem very good and to be thought well of, who chose the highest seats in the synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts, who made long prayers for a show, and who oppressed poor widows and took away their houses.
The Lord looked straight into people's hearts, and He could not bear for the scribes to seem very good outside and to be very wicked inside!
Jesus was sitting near the treasury, which was the chest or receptacle in which the people put their offerings of money for God's service.
After He had been speaking about those scribes that oppressed the widows, He raised His eyes and saw the people casting their gifts into the treasury; and many that were rich cast in much.
JUST THEN A POOR WIDOW DREW NEAR.
And just then a poor widow drew near, and she put in two mites, which make a farthing.
Jesus saw it all! He could see into her empty pocket; He knew all about it!
Then He called His disciples to Him and said to them, "This poor widow has cast more in than all the others who have cast into the treasury: for they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living!"