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October 16, 2005
Pentecost 22
Mark 12:41-44
Pastor Robert Raasch

The Lesson of the Widow's Offering

1. Jesus Considers the Size of the Gift
2. Jesus Commends the Source of the Gift

How many of you know the story that we read as our gospel lesson? You know, the widow who gave her last two little coins to church? Do you remember this story from Sunday School? If you're at least as old as I am, you probably remember it as the story of the widow's…what? Yes, the widow's "mite." I think back on that and I wonder if I had any idea what a mite was. Even today, I'm not sure what a mite is. I mean, I've heard of a dust mite, but a widow's mite??? We're probably all better off with the title that the NIV gives this portion of Scripture, namely, the widow's offering.

But even though we may all be at least a little familiar with this story, I wonder how many of us have given any thought to why God chose to have this story included in Holy Scripture. And why did Jesus take the time to specifically call his disciples together to point out this one woman's offerings? What did he want to teach them? What does he want to teach us? These are the questions that we'd like to answer as we take a closer look at what we might call:

The Lesson of the Widow's Offering

We'll see that:

1. Jesus Considers the Size of the Gift
2. Jesus Commends the Source of the Gift

The account begins with Jesus sitting in the courtyard of the temple in Jerusalem, watching people putting their offerings into the temple treasury. Ancient historians tell us that there were actually twelve separate treasuries, each in the shape of a large metal trumpet. Some were for collecting the half shekel temple tax paid by every Jew over 19 years of age. Others were for collecting voluntary thank-offerings. As Jesus watched, he undoubtedly heard the clink, clink, clink of single coins, as well as the thump of whole bags of coins. Both rich and poor offered their gifts for the Lord's house.

And Scripture says that Jesus watched them. In fact, the Greek word here brings out the idea that he watched intently, as an interested observer. He was paying close attention to who the people were and what they were giving. Does that surprise you at all? I mean, do you realize when this takes place? This occurs on Tuesday of Holy Week. Two days before this, Jesus rode into town with people going crazy, throwing palms in this path. Three days after this he was nailed to a cross. In the middle of the most historic week in Jesus' life, he's doing what??? He's watching how much money people put into the offering plate? Are you kidding me? Why would he care so much about people's offerings? Why? Because he cares about people's souls. You see, Jesus knows that there is a very close connection between a person's heart and his wallet. Jesus once said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21). Jesus knows that what we offer with our hands says something about what we hold dear in our hearts. Our offerings are, in a very tangible way, a fruit of faith. Our offerings either reveal faith, or they expose a lack of it. For that reason, Jesus is concerned about people's giving. He knows that giving is a very important part of a Christian's life of sanctification. In fact, did you know that in all of Scripture, prayer is referred to 371 times; love is mentioned 714 times, and giving is mentioned 2162 times? Obviously, Jesus and his Word have something to say about the subject of believer's giving of financial treasures.

Now, does that fact have any application in our lives or our congregation? Yes. First, because there always seems to be a little voice inside of us that says, "Oh no, the pastor's talking about money. I wish he didn't have to preach about that." But wait a minute. If your pastors are called to faithfully teach everything that God's Word says, then why would we not teach what Jesus says about offerings?

Secondly, this account of Jesus carefully watching what various individuals put into the treasury reminds me of another voice I sometimes hear spooking around the congregation. It goes something like this: "Why should anybody care what I give? You know that quarterly offering statement the church sends out? I don't even look at it. I think it's a waste of paper." Hmm. If Jesus the Master Teacher, is concerned about an individual's offerings, wouldn't it stand to reason that we, his disciples, would want to give some attention to them as well? Isn't that the purpose of a quarterly offering statement? That written summary of our gifts to date is not meant to be a source of pride or a source of guilt. Rather, it's simply a tool. It's a chance for you to do what Jesus did in Jerusalem, and what he still does today. And that's to carefully consider the size of your offering.

But as you do that, better keep in mind how Jesus judges "size." Let's go back to the courtyard of the temple. Mark tells us that "many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny." Obviously, a major difference in the size of the offerings. Big bucks from the rich versus next to nothing from the poor widow. But what does Jesus say? "Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.'" What? How could Jesus say she put in more? Didn't he know his Roman coins? Did he flunk Jewish Economics 101? No, Jesus could say she put in more because, as Jesus explains to his disciples, "She…put in everything-all she had to live on." In other words, what impressed Jesus was not the monetary value of her gift, but rather, the percentage of her income that this gift represented. She gave everything she had to live on.

My friends, isn't that still how God evaluates gifts today? God always thinks in terms of percentage. Through his inspired Apostle, God gives us these instructions, "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income", (1 Cor. 16:2), that is, in proportion to his income. God sees the offerings we bring to him as a percentage of the gifts he's given to us. That's why your daughter's $.50 in the offering plate may represent a much larger gift than the $50 you or I give. It's also why as individual Christians, we will want to take the time at least once a year to figure what percentage of our income we're returning to the Lord. To say, "I give $10 or $100 or $1000 is not nearly as meaningful as saying "this is the portion of my total income that I return to the Lord." Jesus commended this woman's offerings not for the dollar amount it contained, but rather for the percentage of her income it represented.

But there is another reason that Jesus said this woman gave more than all the rest. Jesus compares her gift to the gifts of the wealthy people with the words, "They gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty." Actually, the original language here says even more. Literally, it reads, "They gave from their excess; she gave from her need," or, "they gave what they didn't need; she gave what she did need." Or to put it another way, "The rich gave what they could afford to give. She gave what she could not afford to give."

Think about that statement for a moment. The rich gave what they could afford to give; she gave what she couldn't afford to give. How often haven't you heard it said, or maybe said yourself, "I give to church as much as I can afford to give"? But if you think about it, it's easy to give what I can afford to give. It's easy to give what I don't need. That's what the wealthy were doing. This woman gave what she couldn't afford to give. She gave what she needed to live on! I don't know about you, but her example convicts me. When was the last time I gave to church what I couldn't afford to give? When was the last time you offered the last 10 dollars you needed for groceries? Jesus commends this woman for giving "all she had to live on."

Now, let's understand something here. Is Jesus saying that he expects us to do exactly what this woman did? Is he saying that if we have $20 in our wallet, we'd better put $20 in the offering plate, we'd better empty out the checkbook, we'd better give 100% of our income to the Lord? No, he's not. And how do we know that's not what Jesus is saying? Because that would be a contradiction of a number of things God tells us in his Word. For example, in Mark, chapter 7, Jesus criticized the Pharisees for giving to the church the financial support that they really owed their parents. St. Paul says to Timothy, chapter 5, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Tim. 5:8). Jesus says, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's" (Matthew 22:31). In other words, Jesus obligates us to use the gifts he's given to us to support a number of different areas: our family, our government, our church. What makes this widow's offering truly exceptional is the great lengths she went to to deny her own needs, and give instead to the Lord. I mean, how could she do that? The answer to that question is found not so much in the offering itself, but rather where that offering comes from. Here in our text, Jesus not only considers the size of her gift, more importantly, II. Jesus Commends the Source of Her Gift.

Now, what do I mean, the source of her gift? Well, think about where her gift came from -what prompted her extraordinary offering? If you or I would give everything we had to live on, people would probably say, "That's crazy." But God would say, "No, that's faith." I mean, what else could possibly motivate this woman to give "all she had to live on," except the unwavering faith in the Lord's ability to provide for her? She trusted that the same God who had preserved her life in the past would still provide for her needs in the future. She trusted that the God who loved her enough to send a Savior would not leave her in the lurch now. This woman's offering was the ultimate expression of, "God, I'm putting my trust in you!" My friends, have you ever wondered how large an offering you would need to bring in order for it to be that same statement of faith that this woman's gift was? How large would your gift have to be before you would have to say, "Lord, now I really don't know how I'll pay the bills-but I'll trust that you will provide"?

Maybe you're already at that point. Maybe you're already giving 10 or 15 or 20% of your income and saying, "Lord, I'm putting my trust in you." Or maybe you have some room to grow in that direction. Maybe you're thinking about ways that you can cut back on your needs and your wants so that your gifts too can be a greater expression of faith in God's ability to provide.

Now, you realize, of course, that the world considers that kind of thinking pure foolishness. I once had a lady tell me that as she was working on her estate plan, she told her attorney that she planned to give a sizeable portion to the church-I mean, tens of thousands of dollars. The attorney said, "Why would you want to do that? Why don't you take a vacation with that money? Spend it on your family. Why give it to the church?" Why do Christians scrimp and save in order to give more to church? Why? First, because we know that our money doesn't belong to us. It belongs to God. Secondly, even more important than the fact that our money belongs to God is the fact that we belong to God.

Isn't that right? We all were once lost and condemned creatures. And then Jesus purchased us with this blood. He made us his own. He set us free from sin and guilt and hell forever. And in so doing, Jesus has given us the desire to serve and honor him with everything we have, including our offerings.

Sure, you and I still have an Old Adam that says, "Wait a minute, that's mine! I'm keeping that money for myself." But by God's grace, we also have a New Man that says, "I want to give this. I want to be like that widow and those Macedonian Christians in our epistle reading who gave yes, "even beyond their ability."

You know what that New Man in the heart of a Christian reminds me of? It reminds me of the 4 year old who just can wait to put his coin in the offering basket each week. He looks forward to it. He enjoys it. Why? Because he knows that it's not really his money. It's his father's money. And he gets to give it to God. Isn't the same thing true for you and me as Christians? It's all our Father's money. And we get to give it back to him, not because we have to, but because we want to. Not because we're motivated by guilt. In Christ, we've been set us free from guilt. No, our offerings are just a heartfelt expression of our joy, our thanks, and ultimately, our faith in a God who has granted us eternal life, and will provide for our earthly life as well. To him be the glory forever. Amen.