“Everything She Had”
St. Mark 12:38-44
November 11, 2018 – Redeemer
The widow’s mite is one of our favorites. Have you ever wondered why?
Jesus is in the temple courts. He’s watching people bring their offerings and since He is God He sees it all. He sees the Scribes, the Rich and the widow, and He sees their offerings. What do you say we follow Jesus’ example? After the offerings we’ll open the envelopes, read your name and the amount you gave? Would you still like the widow’s mite?
Jesus summarizes what He sees in their offerings. “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.”
It can’t be the Scribes that make this story a favorite. Jesus condemns them because they rip off the old widows and then make a show of themselves in the temple. Have you ever boasted about some great deal you made? You bought a gem of a car from an old widow whose husband died. And then you went and boasted to your friends. That car was worth fifteen grand. She didn’t know what she had, but she doesn’t have it now. We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right. Christ sees the Scribe in us.
It can’t be the rich that make this story our favorite. None of us ever identify as rich. To listen to us we’re barely scraping by. Just look at all the rusted out wrecks in the parking lot and the ramshackle homes we live in. And yet there is something about these rich people that looks just like us – we give to the Lord out of our abundance. We give Him the extras, what’s left over after our internet, cable, and cell phone bills are paid. We may give great gifts, but we give out of our abundance and Christ knows it.
So it must be the widow that makes this story our favorite. Back in Sunday School we heard this story and felt like the widow when we put our two nickels in the offering. The widow makes us feel good – she does the right thing. She’s like the Samaritan who helped the mugging victim on the road to Jericho. That Good Samaritan shamed the Priest and Levite. The widow shames the Scribes – they ripped her off and still she brings her offerings to the temple. She shames the rich guys. They gave out of their abundance while she gave everything she had – she gave her livelihood. She gave her mortgage, her groceries, her car payment, her energy bill. She not only gave up her iPhone, now she couldn’t even afford a flip phone. She’s like the widow in the Old Testament reading who is down to her last meal and then gives that to God – by feeding Elijah.
So, why is this story a favorite? If I was like that widow I wouldn’t have Redeemer pass a budget that provided for my salary, and housing, and health insurance. I would trust God to provide for me. If you were like that widow, Redeemer could have two pastors, a deaconess, support a missionary overseas, have our remodeling paid for, give generous gifts to our seminaries and still have money to help every needy person that came along. The widow shames you and me.
Let me be clear about something before I finish the sermon. The Scribes weren’t excluded from God’s Kingdom because they ripped off widows. The rich weren’t excluded because they gave gifts out of their abundance. And the widow’s gift of her two coins did not earn her entrance into God’s family. Jesus does not say, “Woman, go in peace, your offering has saved you.” Your money will not get you into heaven and your greed is not what keeps you out of heaven. Unbelief keeps you out of heaven. Christ alone, by the offering of His body for our sins on the cross opens heaven’s door for us. Faith in Jesus receives His forgiveness. With forgiveness of your sins, comes life and salvation. Whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.
So why is this story a favorite? It is the widow that makes this story. We love the story because we love the widow. She doesn’t do what the Scribes do. She doesn’t take. She gives. She doesn’t do what the rich do. She does not measure. She does not calculate. She doesn’t do percentages. She doesn’t do what we do. She gives it all. A French artist named Tissot (tee-SEW) tried to convey the extent of her gift when he painted this text. He painted the widow with a baby in her arms, a single mom, putting her offering not only ahead of herself, but of her own dear child. She is not practical. She is foolish with her offering.
And that I believe is why we love her, because she points us to Christ. She shows us the way of God’s grace. When you read the Scriptures, you will find a God unlike any god of any world religion. There is no one in any sacred writing like the God of Scripture, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He stands out in His foolish charity – giving Adam and Eve everything in the garden, including the freedom to choose against Him. He protects Cain the murderer, gives a son to doubting Abraham and laughing Sarah. He endures a three thousand year marriage to an adulterous bride named Israel. He keeps a doubting prophet like Elijah alive. He doesn’t do what we do. We’re practical. He is foolish. We conserve. He wastes. We calculate. He gives without measure.
That is seen most certainly in Jesus. He becomes the poor sinner so you can become the rich heir. He gives His body and blood to death so your body can rise on the last day and blood will course through your veins for eternity. He doesn’t measure His gift – He scatters His forgiveness freely – to cover the sins of the Scribe, the Rich, the Widow, the Pastor, the sales executive, the veteran, and student. He doesn’t calculate the return on His investment. Christ dies for all. Those who believe in Him will rise to life and those who don’t believe will rise to eternal death, but He still dies for them. God throws His two bits into the world in Jesus – an infant son laying in a manger and a naked man hanging on a cross. It doesn’t look like a great offering, but to the eyes of faith it is everything He has. It is His livelihood given that we might live.
“Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.” The poor widow is more than an example to us. She is a sign to us – a sign to us of Christ. She put her last two copper coins in the offering because she believed in the foolish charity of God. This is what faith does – faith trusts in Jesus and faith acts like Jesus. A few days after her offering, on Friday of the same week, God would make His offering for her on the cross – all that He had, His Son, for the widow and for us. I think that is why this is one of our favorites. The widow’s mite shows us faith in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
7 November 2009 anno Domini