1.
Please pray with me. May
the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.
Amen. Here in Mark 12 Jesus uses
the sacrifice of a widow to illustrate for His disciples the character of
absolute dependence on God. In our text this morning we see a, “A Sacrifice of Staggering Proportions.”
It’s a sacrifice given in anticipation of an even greater Sacrifice (vv. 41,
42) and commended by our Lord Jesus (vv. 43, 44). Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Budgets,
deficits, and spending are a large part of congregational life. In addition, as
individual families, we have to make decisions about how we handle what God has
given us. Today’s text is a very familiar story. It’s come to be known as “The Widow’s Mite.” But, this text isn’t
just about giving or contributing to the Lord’s work. This word from God
teaches us the proper perspective on living as God’s people. Jesus shows us 2 very different categories of
people. He shows us that this poor widow gave more than either the scribes or
people of great wealth. Her gift was truly a sacrifice of staggering proportion
because the Lord sees what’s in our hearts, not our gifts.
3.
Some things
everyone knows about the story of the widow’s mite. It’s really very simple,
Mark 12:41-44 says: “And [Jesus] sat down
opposite the [temple] treasury and watched the people putting money into the
offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put
in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And [Jesus] called his disciples
to him and said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more
than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all
contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in
everything she had, all she had to live on’ ” (vv 41–44).
4.
Jesus sits
down in the temple and can see people put in their offerings. Offerings weren’t
handled the way we do today, at a specific moment in the worship service.
Instead, there were 13 containers in the courtyard of the temple. They looked a
lot like toll baskets on some of our freeways that aren’t free. Worshipers
would walk up and drop in their coins. They had no paper money, just copper or
silver or gold. Often, people would sit around and watch—and give an
appropriate reaction when a particularly shiny offering was made. As Jesus sat
there that day, there were plenty of those offerings, probably being noticed by
the people.
5.
Then along
comes a poor widow with a couple of little coins. These were the smallest coins
in circulation, in today’s money, a fraction of a cent. But Jesus calls his
disciples and tells them her offering was the greatest of all. Other guys gave
more in terms of their wealth, but this widow gave all she had to live on. It was a sacrifice of staggering proportion.
We all know the story, don’t we?
6.
All of you
probably also recognize that this story teaches proportional giving. Jesus said
the rich had given out of their abundance. They made a lot, and they gave a
lot. But the woman gave all she had, 100 percent. The total dollars couldn’t
compare, but percentage-wise, her gift was tops.
7.
Proportional,
or percentage, giving is always the way God prescribed. Old Testament Israel
was required to give 10 percent of their crops or whatever form of income they
received. The tithe was God’s system of percentage giving. One reason God
prescribed percentage giving is that it works at any income level. Some folks
say, “If I had a big income, I’d give a
tithe, 10 percent, but my income is small.” The nice thing about percentage
giving is that it grows or shrinks with the paycheck. It works for everybody.
Here in the New Testament, in our text, God still speaks about percentage
giving, but he doesn’t demand a particular percentage. We can give more or less
than 10 percent, right?
8.
Right. But
offerings should still reflect the way we’ve been blessed. How do our financial
blessings compare with those of the widow in our text? More important, how have
we been blessed spiritually compared to those Old Testament people who had to give 10 percent? They were
blessed with the promise of a Savior to come someday. We’re blessed with the
certainty that the promise has been fulfilled. The Savior, Jesus Christ, has
come. We know he died and rose from the dead for us, that he has taken away
sins. Could we really consider giving a lesser proportion of our income than
people who only looked ahead for the promise? The story of the widow’s mite
teaches us that percentage giving is alive and well and God’s plan also for us
in the New Testament. You all knew that too, didn’t you? Okay.
9.
Now something
you may not know about the story of the widow’s mite: It isn’t primarily a
story about proportional giving. It isn’t primarily a story about giving at
all. All those rich guys putting money into the treasury—undoubtedly they were
giving a hefty percentage. 10 percent was commanded; you can be sure anyone
giving for show would exceed that! But someone could even give 100 percent and
not be commended by the Lord. If we think giving gets us in good with God, then
no percentage is good. The story of the widow’s mite is not primarily about
giving.
10.
It’s
primarily a story about faith. Faith is recognizing what God has done for us in
the past and believing what he will continue to do for us in the future. The
widow in our text had so little of everything except faith. She’d lost her
husband, which in those days meant she’d lost her source of income. But,
somehow this woman believed God had done right by her and trusted that he would
continue to do so in the future.
11.
Christian
giving is always a matter of faith. Do we recognize what God has done for us in
the past? Do we trust he’ll be there for our future? God has given us all we
have. God has given us a Savior. Do we believe he’ll continue to provide and
save in the future? If we believe as the widow did, our giving will be in
substantial proportion too. Christian giving is primarily a question of faith,
isn’t it? The widow in our text trusted totally.
12.
Have you ever
asked yourself, “What happened to the
widow after she gave?” We like to think we know: that Jesus and the
disciples took her under their wing. Maybe she became part of their group.
Unlikely. The women mentioned as following Jesus were women of means; they
actually provided for Jesus. Surely Jesus didn’t walk away without helping that
day, but what about future days? Did she starve? Maybe. It’s absolutely
possible. We’d like to say, “No way! God
would feed her!” But we don’t know that.
13.
It’s no
accident that Mark doesn’t tell us. If he did, it would ruin the story. If he
did give us some earthly happy ending, we might think the point is that if we
do what God wants, he’ll take care of us. If we tithe, our income will go up
next year. If we pledge, God will be sure we don’t lose our jobs. If I obey
God, he’ll care for me. God cares for us because he loves us, not because we
make a deal with him.
14.
Mark fully
intends to leave us in uncertainty about what happened to the widow, because
our Christian offerings are always to be given in the face of uncertainty. They’re always to be an exercise in faith. We
don’t know about our jobs next year. We don’t know the amount of unexpected
bills we might have to pay. Losing your job is a possibility. These things are
always possible, because God doesn’t promise that kind of security.
15.
What we do
have is a far greater security. The
sacrifice of staggering proportion in our Savior Jesus Christ. Our Epistle from
Hebrews reminds us, “Christ, having been
offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time . . . to save
those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb 9:28). Here’s something that’s
never uncertain. Christ is coming back for us. Heaven is one certainty every
Christian can hold on to. Jesus has secured it for us. His death and
resurrection has made it certain for everyone who believes. And if we mattered
to God that much, we can also be certain that he will care for us every day in
the meantime.
16.
This was the
faith of the woman. Not that she’d have a meal tomorrow. She really didn’t know
where her next meal was coming from. Not faith in the next meal, but faith that
God would take care of her. Maybe a well-to-do widower would walk into her life
tomorrow. Maybe friends would take her in. We don’t know the whole story, and
she couldn’t possibly know it. She was giving into uncertainty, wasn’t she?
Maybe she would starve, but if so, it
would be the culmination of what she’d really been trusting all along: God’s provision,
security, that would be perfect, complete, that would never end when God would
take her to her eternal home in heaven that He has prepared for her in her
Savior Jesus Christ.
17.
You know, the
woman of great faith in our text probably didn’t realize that the one she was
trusting was sitting so near her that day. We do know the one we trust is
sitting right here beside us. He is with
us with His Holy Word and Sacraments. We know that Jesus sympathizes with our
struggle for our daily bread, our daily needs. He understands financial
uncertainty. His whole ministry was spent traveling, living day to day by the
good graces of others. Jesus understands our struggles against doubt, our fear
about really committing our resources to God. He was tempted just as we are—but
without ever giving in! He is here with us today, and we can be certain he’ll
be with us in the future. Amen.
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