I doubt what I'm about to write will sit well with many "preachers" out there in McBox church land because this passage has been a goldmine for those pastors out there needing to keep their American bank accounts plump and their soft "members" in the pews comfortable and passive. But that-there "widow's mite" passage simply is not about Jesus saying "Hey, if you're poor and don't have much, just step out in faith and give all the money you have to your local church, and I'll bless you so much you'll be begging for me to stop!"
I imagine this is going to shock most of you, but when we read the passage in context and we don't just parachute in on the widow dropping her coins in the box, a very different picture emerges. What we see is that Jesus isn't praising the action of the widow, rather He's justifying His prior condemnation of the vultures in the established institution in leadership (which would be in our day...[drum roll]...pastors!, "preachers"!, and seminary/college leaders!).
How do we know this? Well, after He talks with the crowd of people about the scribes and many of the despicable things they do, He pulls His disciples aside, and as usual explains what He just talked about more specifically to them. And this time it is a visual lesson: a life stage before them displaying and proving to them what He just told the crowd concerning the blood-sucking scribes.
"Then He [Jesus] said to them [the crowd of people] in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes...who devour widows’ houses...these will receive greater condemnation.
Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole LIVELIHOOD [i.e. everything she had, or her whole "house"].”
In other words, the widow isn't doing it because she thinks she'll be blessed; she's doing it because she's being "devoured" by the legalism of pharisaical code and fabricated man-laws of the lawyers and Pharisees (see Matthew 23:1-36). In other words, she's being shamed and bullied into doing it through fear by the very ones who should be shepherding and protecting women like her!
This, of course, flips the whole interpretation on it's traditional McBox church head. The lesson Jesus is showing is really about being aware of life-sucking, mammon-minded, egoist leaders within the Congregation of Messiah, and not about giving money to your local congregation and/or pastor "in faith".
Just passing it on. Hope is helps. It did for me.
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