Piety Point and Counterpoint

At the end of Luke 20 when Jesus tells his disciples, in a very public setting which included the scribes, to beware of the scribes because of their hypocrisy, then you and I had better stay away from the same kind of hypocrisy. On the other hand when he praises a poor widow as the greatest giver who came to the temple that day, despite the a gift of just two leptas (think pennies here), then you and I had better think about how he might view our giving. The reason she's the greatest? Because she gave "all she had to live on" demonstrating incredible faith in God to take care of her needs. The message to us: better to be a dirt poor widow with great faith than a rich, self-satisfied, "honorable" scribe.