In fact, except for the grace of God—the God of my grandfather Abraham, even the glorious God of Isaac, my father—you would have sent me off without a penny to my name. But God has seen your cruelty and my hard work, and that is why he appeared to you last night.”

“Guard these treasures well!” I told them; “present them without a penny lost to the priests and the Levite leaders and the elders of Israel at Jerusalem, where they are to be placed in the treasury of the Temple.”

for you will stay there until you have paid the last penny.

Not one sparrow (What do they cost? Two for a penny?) can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.

“Then the angry king sent the man to the torture chamber until he had paid every last penny due.

Here, show me a coin.” And they handed him a penny.

He called his disciples to him and remarked, “That poor widow has given more than all those rich men put together! For they gave a little of their extra fat, while she gave up her last penny.”

for if that happens, you won’t be free again until the last penny is paid in full.”

Yet I have never asked you for one penny. And I am not writing this to hint that I would like to start now. In fact, I would rather die of hunger than lose the satisfaction I get from preaching to you without charge.

After all, we didn’t bring any money with us when we came into the world, and we can’t carry away a single penny when we die.