Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Mark 12:41-44
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  October 20, 2019

How would you feel if someone sat down next to you here at church specifically to find out how much you put in the offering plate? They pick out your envelope from the plate to note the amount before passing it along or they stare at your phone screen as you give on the app. How weird, right? And rude! That’s none of their business! But what if that person was Jesus? How would you feel about the amount you put in? And, more importantly: What will Jesus see in your offering? Not the amount itself, but what will he see in your heart as you give?  That’s what I want you to think about as we explore a well-known portion of Scripture from Mark 12. 

The account takes place near the end of the chapter; it’s Tuesday of Holy week, just three days before our Savior’s crucifixion. Jesus and his disciples were walking in the temple courts of Jerusalem and we find that they are looking at two very different things. The massive rebuilding and expansion of the whole temple complex begun by Herod in 19 BC was not completed until 64 AD, but by this time the main structures were complete. Their magnificence was no doubt awe-inspiring for the small-town Gallileans who followed Jesus. The part of the substructure that still survives today, including the Western Wall, is made up of carefully dressed stones, some 16 feet in length. The temple buildings themselves that stood above this would have been even more impressive, decorated with beautiful ornamentation. But Jesus was never one to get caught up in outward appearances. He knew, as beautiful and luxurious as the temple was, it was only a mirror of the priests and scribes who labored in it: Outwardly impressive, but spiritually empty. And so as the disciples wandered around admiring the immense buildings, Jesus sat down to watch the people.

In the courtyard of the women, the first of the exclusively Jewish courtyards, stood 13 large chests to receive money, six of which were designated for freewill offerings. It was near one of these that Mark records: Jesus sat down opposite the offering box and was watching how the crowd put money into it. Jesus sat down specifically to watch the people give their offerings. The Greek word for watching [θεωρέω from which we get “theory”] is more explicit: Jesus was studying the people as they gave their offerings. This is what he saw: Many rich people put in large amounts. This makes sense. We expect those who have more to give more. Jesus himself once said: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Luke 12:48). But Jesus saw more than money being given that day; he was staring right through into their hearts, to their reasons for giving.

And that’s he saw her: One poor widow came and put in two small bronze coins, worth less than a penny. These small coins were called leptons; they were the smallest roman coin. Scholars say these coins were about 1/128th of a worker’s daily wage. It was miniscule offering! In fact, two leptons was the minimum offering that would be accepted for the temple tax, only acceptable for the poorest citizens, like this widow. Some might have scoffed if they saw what she gave, but Jesus saw something special. And it provided him the opportunity to focus his disciples’ attention where it should’ve been, not on buildings and pageantry, but on what truly pleases God. Jesus called his disciples together and said to them, “Amen I tell you: This poor widow put more into the offering box than all the others. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all that she had to live on. Jesus says that what makes an offering greater or lesser in God’s eyes is how much it costs the one who gives it. Considered in this way, the poor widow’s offering was far greater than the others. Because Jesus saw what no one else could see: she, out of her poverty, had put in everything—all she had to live on. The rich had given out of their surplus. They gave thousands, but they had thousands more. They went home to a warm house, a full fridge, and a cozy bed. They gave big offerings, but there was no personal sacrifice. The widow was different. She didn’t give some frosting-off-the-cake; she gave her daily bread. The amount of her offering was tiny, but her personal sacrifice was total. This is why Jesus commended her.

You know what really struck me this past week when studying this portion of Scripture? I realized that if I were sitting in Jesus’ seat and knew all that he did, watching that widow give her offering, I think I would have tried to dissuade her. I would probably have said, “No, keep that for yourself, you need it! God knows you don’t have any money! He knows you’ll give to church when you have some. Go buy yourself some food!” I’m willing to bet that most of us here today would have done our best to talk the widow out of making her offering! What hit me is that we would have talked her out of doing the very thing that Jesus commended her for. There is a tension between what Jesus says is God-pleasing and what we often think is reasonable. In the name of sympathy or just financial prudence, we are often eager to make excuses for people not to give and not nearly eager enough to encourage sacrificial giving.

Why is that? Well, ultimately it comes down to faith. If we truly believe that God provides for us, but are never willing to actually depend on him, or to allow others to depend on him, then we aren’t acting in accordance with faith. Because when it comes down to it, a person’s offering reveals or betrays their trust in God. I’ll use two examples to help you think about this in comparison with modern expenses:

#1: Investments. Why is it easy to send thousands of dollars to Fidelity, Vanguard, or Etrade every year? Because we trust that these people will make our money grow. But have you noticed that these companies cannot make any promises to you? Seriously, they have to say it right on the website: “All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.” [Vanguard] But your God does give you promises! “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).” Or Malachi 3:10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Why do we take comfort in uncertain investments, but fear giving to a God of promise? This is about trust.

#2: Bills & Memberships. Would you say that it is a great act of faith to pay your electric bill every month? Is it  great act of faith to pay for your gym membership every month? Of course not. There is no faith involved whatsoever in paying for these things. But ask yourself, do you give to God—the Creator of the atom—less than you do to the electric company every month? Do you give to God—the one who knit you together in your mother’s womb, the one who has the right to give and take your life—less than a monthly membership at the gym? Does that even make sense? Simply put: Do you trust him? 

The truth is that our God is omniscient, all-knowing. Jesus is watching our offerings today, just as he was long ago in the temple. And he isn’t looking at dollars and cents. He is looking at the attitude of our hearts—our faith!  He is looking for people who, like the poor widow, give sacrificially. Because sacrificial giving shows trust in God. Sacrificial giving doesn’t ask “How much can I give to God and still be comfortable?” Sacrificial giving asks, “What amount would actually show that I depend on God?” Sacrificial giving is, in the end, a sacrifice. It isn’t the selective disposal of leftovers. It is giving the best of what you have. I ask this humbly, but when is the last time that you opened up your hands and gave sacrificially—gave as if you really depended on God and staked your future on his promises? What will Jesus see in your offering?

Do you know how the widow’s story ends? Mark doesn’t tell us. But knowing about the commands in Scripture concerning care for widows and the faithfulness of your Savior, do you really think that Jesus let that widow go home and starve to death? After commending her gift Jesus could not be ignorant of what she needed. After all, just a few days later, Jesus would show her the true meaning of sacrificial giving as his blood soaked the ground of Calvary. My friends, God will take care of you. God offered his all, his everything, for you. He didn’t offer coins for your salvation, but something worth much more. “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed…but with the precious blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:18-19) Talk about sacrificial giving! My friends, only in Jesus Christ do we find the forgiveness we crave and the motivation we desperately need to open our hands and give in a way that reveals trust in God.

Sometimes people think that our offerings are mainly concerned with paying for the ministry and the church building itself. And while, offerings do support everything we do at Eastside, we don’t collect them each week just to keep the lights on. You know the great Temple Herod built? The one the disciples couldn’t help but marvel at? The place where the scribes and pharisees loved to stroll in long flowing robes and say lengthy prayers? Jesus prophesied that despite how beautiful it was, despite how much money they had put into it, this great Temple would soon be reduced to rubble. And his words never fail. The temple was destroyed just six years after its completion in 70 AD, burned to the ground by the Romans. The temple treasury was sacked and all the offerings were stolen. What a waste of money. Think about it, if you knew that in forty years this church was going to burn down and the school was going to close, would it affect your offerings?  Do you know that Jesus, himself, paid the Temple Tax while he was on earth, even though he was the one they were supposed to be worshipping in that temple? In fact, Jesus didn’t think it was a waste to give offerings which paid the very people who would arrest him and put him to death. Jesus didn’t think that the widow’s offering to the temple treasury was a waste even though he knew the temple would be destroyed.

What I’m getting at here is that you’ll never be motivated to give sacrificially unless you realize that giving isn’t about keeping the lights on at church or balancing the budget. It isn’t about the building, it’s not even primarily about supporting the ministry, it’s about your faith in God. And it is only a secondary blessing that your gifts support a ministry which will continue, God-willing, for generations to come as he has blessed us in generations past. So when the plate comes around, understand that this is a part of worship, an exercise of your faith, not simply a tip for the sermon or payment for services rendered. It is a chance for you to show that you tangibly trust God.

It reminds me of the flying trapeze. These people flip and twist through the air trusting that someone else will catch them before they fall. They literally put their life into someone else’s hands and they aren’t afraid at all! How do they do it? The answer is, they practiced. They never started out by doing a double backflip or some other complicated twist. No, they trained for years, learning to trust each other, learning to depend on each other. That’s what sacrificial giving is all about. God wants you to practice putting your life into his hands. Because only when we let go of our reliance on ourselves and our wealth, can we truly understand what it means to trust God. Only when we give in accordance with faith will we experience the thrill of realizing that God does keep his promises! He will not let us fall. He will give us what we need! That is why God asks us to give sacrificially. If we depend on him to provide for us in life, how much more completely will we trust that he has provided a solution for us in death? If we give sacrificially and realize that our God does take care of us, our faith will drive out fear with proven trust in every aspect of life.

My friends, our Savior sits down to watch our offerings today. Not because he’s nosy, but because he loves us. What will Jesus see in your offering? Doubt? Obligation? Leftovers? God forbid. How about trust? How about Spirit-led sacrifice?  God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.