Deo Gloria

Sermon for October 20, 2019

Pastor Martin Bentz

Text: Mark 12:41-44

Theme: Should Jesus Really Be Watching My Wealth?

It’s one of God’s attributes, one of those big “omni” words students learn about in catechism class: omnipresent.  It means that God is present everywhere, that he is with us wherever we go—to work, to school, to the Friday night football game, everywhere.  And what a comforting truth that is!  There is, however, the other side of that coin too.  If God is present everywhere, that means he is with us everywhere and sees everything we do, even when we think no one else is looking.

This morning in the verses of our text we hear that Jesus is watching.  And what is he watching?  He’s watching people give their offerings.  As Mark tells us, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury”(v. 41).  Can you believe it?  Obviously Jesus doesn’t know a thing about a person’s right to privacy!  And then there is that sobering thought that if Jesus watched the widow give her offering, then he is watching you and me give our offering too!  Should Jesus be doing that?  Should he really be watching my wealth?

            If it surprises you that Jesus sat down to watch people give their offerings, then it should surprise you twice as much to realize when Jesus did this.  This was Tuesday of Holy Week.  On Friday he would suffer and die on Calvary’s cross.  So here we are, just three days away from that momentous event, and notice what Jesus is doing.  He’s sitting in the temple courts at the very place where people gave their offerings, specifically so he could watch the people give.  For us Lutherans who prefer to be rather private about our giving, the thought of Jesus sitting there and watching people give makes us more than a little uncomfortable.

Should Jesus really be watching?  If you and I were Jesus’ advisors, we would certainly tell him no.  “Jesus, you’ve got more important things to do.  You’ve only got three days left before you suffer and die on the cross.  And besides, if you sit there watching people give their offerings, you’re going to give people the impression that you actually care about what they give.”

So, what did Jesus see?  He saw many rich people throwing in large amounts.  That doesn’t surprise us, does it?  We sort of expect rich families to be big givers.  After all, Jesus himself once said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked”(Luke 12:48).

But then Jesus saw another person.  No one would have mistaken her for a big giver.  “But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny”(v. 42).  Turns out Jesus was watching the widow’s wealth too!  What surprises you about her?  That she was poor?  No surprise there.  Social Security wouldn’t be invented for another 1,900 years.  That she offered two tiny copper coins, the bare minimum that could be paid for the temple tax?  No surprise there either.

What should surprise us, even shock us, is what we never would have known if Jesus hadn’t pointed it out: “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’”(v. 43).  This widow, the woman that no one else probably noticed, is the one our Lord really noticed!  She had given more than all the others.  Can’t you just see the disciples scratching their heads?  “You mean to tell me, Jesus, that this widow with her two copper coins gave more than the rich who put in their thousands?  That doesn’t even make sense.”  But Jesus could see what the disciples could not: “They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on”(v. 44).

When Jesus watched the people giving their gifts at the temple, he saw the rich give out of what was left over.  Yes, they gave their thousands, but they still had thousands left over.  They went home to a warm house, a full fridge, and a cozy bed.  They gave their big gifts, but there was precious little sacrifice behind those gifts.  They gave some of the frosting on the cake, but they still had both cake and extra frosting left over.

Not the widow.  She didn’t give some of the frosting on the cake because she didn’t have any cake.  Instead, she gave her daily bread.  She gave her bread money, her milk money, her rent money—everything.  She gave “all she had to live on.”  True, the amount of her offering was tiny, but her self-sacrifice was enormous.  She gave until she had nothing left.  And yet, at that very moment she still had absolutely everything.  She had her Lord.  She had God’s promises and God’s gift of faith to trust his promises.  She had forgiveness for all her sins and the assurance of her Savior’s love.  She gave even beyond her ability because she trusted her Lord’s ability to care for her.

So let me ask you this: If you had been sitting there like Jesus, watching that widow give her offering, what would you have told her?  Would you say, “No, dearie, you don’t have to give your coins.  God knows your heart.  He knows you don’t have two dimes to rub together.  He knows you’ll give it someday, if you’ve got it.  Here—here’s two more pennies.  Go and buy yourself a cup of coffee.”  I’m willing to bet—at least two, small, copper coins—that we would have done our best to talk the widow out of making her offering.  And in doing so, we would have talked her out of doing the very thing Jesus commended her for!

Why is that?  My guess is it’s because we tend to think that giving has to do with the wallet when what Jesus is really watching is the attitude of our hearts and the actions that follow.  Simply put: Do we trust God or don’t we?  When we give, do we give generously, do we give sacrificially, as if we really trusted in God and staked our future on his promises?  I’ve got two examples:

• Why is it easy to send thousands of dollars to Fidelity, Vanguard, or Charles Schwab every year?  Because we trust that those people will make our money grow.  But have you noticed that Charles Schwab makes no promises?  Seriously!  “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”  Charles Schwab makes no promises.  God does!  “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God”(2 Corinthians 9:11).  Why are we so tempted to trust Fidelity more than our faithful Father?  Jesus is watching our attitude and our actions.  What does he see?

• Let me put it another way. Would we say that it is a great act of faith to pay an electric bill every month?  Or would we say that it is a great act of faith to pay for a gym membership?  Obviously we all would answer, “No.”  So now let’s put that in perspective: How many families here at Trinity give our God—the Creator of the atom—less than they do the electric company?  Or how many families offer God—the Creator of the human body—less than a monthly membership at the gym?  Now granted, we obviously have some poor widows here at Trinity too.  And they need our special love and care.  But are there more than a dozen in our church?  Jesus is watching.  What does he see?

I’ll sum it up this way: There is only one reason we fail to give God our firstfruits: He, simply put, is not first in our hearts.  There is one overriding reason why we don’t practice proportionate giving: We’ve forgotten that God is really the Owner of everything.  There is one major reason why we fail to practice sacrificial giving: We don’t believe that God will truly care for us as reflected in Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice.

So how do you think the widow’s story ends?  Mark doesn’t tell us.  But knowing what you know about the faithfulness of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son, do you really think that Jesus let the widow go home and starve?  Do you get the impression that after commending the widow’s gift, Jesus was ignorant of what she needed to live?  The widow gave her all, trusting in the God who gave his all, his everything, his Son, for her.

And God has given his all, his everything, his Son, for you as well.  He didn’t offer two copper coins for your salvation, but the double treasure of a perfect life lived for you and an innocent death died for you!

Jesus knows all about coins, doesn’t he?  Just a few days after sitting and watching this widow give her two copper coins at the temple, Jesus would be kneeling and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he would be betrayed by Judas for 30 silver coins.  It’s ironic, isn’t it?  Jesus never once had a greedy thought, but human greed led directly to his crucifixion.  And on that cross, Jesus bled and died to forgive people who often love their copper more than the Christ and their silver more than the Savior!

Yes, in Jesus both we and the widow have the forgiveness we crave for our hearts and the motivation we need for our hands, to open them and give generously back to him, to give in a way that glorifies him and demonstrates our sincere trust in his loving and faithful care.

Jesus is still watching his people’s wealth.  What will he see?  I pray he sees the same thing he saw that day at the temple: people, like that widow, giving generously from the heart, a heart filled with faith and trust in his promises.  Amen