Scripture: Mark 12:38-44
Video Link: https://youtu.be/Jl2L_Egupx4
Structure:
- Introduction
- Jesus’ insight
- The widow’s worship
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Bob Dylan once said, ‘What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big’.
Great line. Who knows what Dylan had in mind when he wrote that, but to me it has several layers of meaning. On one level, it says, “Don’t believe the hype. Things are not always as they appear at first”.
Or, if we look at it from another angle, “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Most problems seem bigger from a distance. But when you get close enough to break it down, the problem is more manageable than you first thought”. In other words, don’t worry too much about the future.
Today we continue our series in Mark’s gospel, following the lectionary readings. In this week’s passage, Jesus shows his disciples that, ‘what looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big’. From Mark chapter 12, verses 38-44 we read…
38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” 41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
This morning’s message has two points of focus. Jesus’ insight and the widow’s worship. Let’s begin with Jesus’ insight.
Jesus’ insight:
Some of you will be familiar with the Yohari window. The Yohari window is a graph of four quadrants, depicting self-awareness.
Some things about you are in the public arena, they are known to you and to everyone else. Other things are known to you but not to others, those private thoughts and motivations you keep hidden behind a façade.
Then there are the things other people know about you, but you yourself are unaware of. Those things in your blind spot or your shadow. The things you deny or don’t want to face.
There are things too which are unknown to you and unknown to others. These things are known only to God.
With some people what you see is what you get. They are the same on the inside as they are on the outside. They are not pretending.
But then there are those who hide their true self. How they appear in the public arena is quite different from how they actually are in private. Insight sees behind the façade. Insight recognizes reality. What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big.
In verse 38, Jesus warned people against the teachers of the law. These were the religious experts or Bible scholars of Jesus’ day. It might be difficult to imagine, but being a Bible expert was very cool in first century Israel.
Studying the Law of Moses (the Torah) was Israel’s national sport. The Jews of 2000 years ago put the teachers of the law on a pedestal. The teachers of the law were like the All Blacks of Israel, they were honoured.
In contrast, being a Bible scholar is not really valued these days. Bible teachers in wider NZ society are largely ignored or misunderstood. If you want to be popular, then join a sports team or become a rock star. Don’t become a preacher.
In the public arena the religious leaders seemed like paragons of virtue.
Jesus had the insight to see that, when it came to the teachers of the law of his day, what looks large from a distance up close ain’t never that big. Don’t believe the hype. Don’t be too impressed by them.
Many of these teachers of the law (probably not all, but many) did not put God first. Their worship was false, a show to make themselves look good. God hates it when people use religion to hide evil. To do this is to take the Lord’s name in vain. It is hypocrisy.
If it wasn’t bad enough that these religious leaders sought honour for themselves, some also devoured widows’ houses. They inveigled their way into the lives of vulnerable women and took advantage of them financially.
Jesus sees a day of reckoning coming for these men. They won’t get away with it.
In Mark 12, verses 28-34, last week’s lectionary reading, Jesus had a good conversation with a teacher of the law. This shows us that not all the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were the same.
This religious expert had correctly discerned that love for God and love for your neighbour is more important than ritual sacrifice. In response, Jesus says to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”, meaning you are close but not yet in God’s kingdom.
This may have been a bit unsettling for the teacher of the law, who probably thought he was already in, given he was Jewish and one of the religious elite.
The religious leaders were trusting in their heritage and their traditions.
Perhaps Jesus was hinting at the fact that being Jewish and knowing about God’s law in your head is not enough. For even when we know God’s law, we are not always able to keep it, not perfectly.
We must put our faith in the one who fulfils God’s law of love on our behalf, that is: Jesus. Putting our faith in Jesus’ righteousness requires us to abandon all pretence of our own righteousness.
Many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time were pretending to be righteous when they were not. Some may have done this cynically and others may have been quite unaware of how bad they really were.
Jesus had to shine the light of his insight on the unknown so people wouldn’t be deceived. What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big.
The widow’s worship:
In contrast to the religious leaders who steal from the vulnerable and say long prayers to cover their tracks, Jesus holds up the example of a poor widow who says nothing and gives everything she has in devotion to God.
The widow in this reading from Mark’s gospel shows us what true worship looks like. Faith expressing itself in love. She worships God with a pure heart.
William White retells an old Jewish folktale… [1]
Once there was a rich man who never gave donations to the poor. People in his small village never called him by name, they simply referred to him as the Miser.
One day a beggar came to the door of the Miser. ‘Where do you come from?’ he asked. ‘I live in the village’, answered the beggar. ‘Nonsense’, cried the Miser. ‘Everyone in this village knows I do not support beggars’.
In the same village there lived a poor shoemaker. He was a generous man who responded to every person in need that was brought to his attention. No one was ever turned away empty handed from his door.
One day the Miser died. The village leaders decided to bury him at the edge of the cemetery. No one mourned his passing; no one followed the funeral procession to the place of burial.
As the days passed the village rabbi heard disturbing news regarding the shoemaker. ‘He no longer gives alms to the poor’, complained one man.
‘He has refused every charity that has approached him’, declared another.
‘Has anyone asked about his change?’ inquired the rabbi. ‘Yes’, replied the first man. ‘He says he no longer has money to give away’.
Soon the rabbi called on the shoemaker. ‘Why have you suddenly stopped giving money to worthy causes?’ Slowly the shoemaker began to speak.
‘Many years ago, the man you called the Miser came to me with a huge sum of money and asked me to distribute it to those in need. He made me promise that I would not reveal the source of the money until after he died.
Once every month he would visit me secretly and give me additional money to distribute. I became known as a great benefactor even though I never spent a penny of my own money.
I am surprised that no one questioned me earlier. How could anyone who earned the wages of a shoemaker give away as much money as I have all these years?’
The rabbi called all the villagers together and told them the story.
‘The miser has lived the Scriptures, worshipping God with a pure heart by keeping his giving a secret.’
Things are not always as they appear at first. What looked like meanness from a distance, was actually generosity up close. The widow in Mark 12 shows us what it means to worship God with a pure heart.
There are three things, about widowhood, we should be aware of…
Firstly, to be a widow is to experience loss and the pain of grief which goes with that loss. Grief is the price we pay for love. The more you love someone, the deeper the grief you feel when you lose them.
Secondly, widowhood often involves the experience of loneliness. Yes, you can have friends but it’s not the same as your husband or wife. You can get involved in the church and community. But even when the community is warm and kind, a single person might still feel out of place around married couples.
Thirdly, for the woman in Mark 12, being a widow involved financial hardship. There weren’t many employment opportunities for women in those days.
And no government welfare system to pay out a widow’s benefit. Without a man on the scene to provide for her, options for this widow were limited.
Life was extremely difficult for the widow in Mark 12. If anyone had reason to be angry with God, it was this woman. She had suffered much and it probably felt (at times) like no one was on her side. And yet she is not angry with God. She loves God with a pure heart, without there being anything in it for her.
Although the widow gives her offering publicly, no one could accuse her of doing this to make herself look good. If anything, she probably looked relatively bad in the eyes of others, like a miser.
Many rich people dropped in a lot of money, but she dropped in just two thin copper coins. Compared to their great gifts her offering must have seemed very stingy indeed, but not to Jesus. Jesus looks with insight. Jesus sees beyond appearances to what is hidden in the heart.
After witnessing the widow’s act of worship, Jesus calls his disciples together and says to them, 43 “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Jesus’ measure is different to ours. Jesus doesn’t just look at the amount given. He measures the proportion given and the cost to the giver. The widow’s offering, which looks small from a distance, up close is really quite big.
The widow gave 100%, whereas the rich gave maybe 5% or 10%? Their 5% or 10% may have equated to hundreds of dollars while her 100% amounted to only a few cents. But the personal cost to her was much greater. The rich did not miss what they gave but the widow faced hunger.
Now, in saying this we must note that Jesus is not criticising the wealthy here. This is a freewill offering, over and above the minimum required by the law. And the wealthy in this passage give generously. They are not like the religious leaders who are ripping people off. Their giving still counts with God.
The point is Jesus’ measure is different to ours. We measure the amount. Jesus measures the cost to us personally. We measure quantifiable outcomes, results and bottom lines. Jesus measures the immeasurable, our motivations and heart attitude.
Some witty soul once quipped, ‘the last part of a person to be converted is their wallet’. If that is true, then by giving all the money she possessed, this widow demonstrated her faith was whole and her conversion was complete. She trusted God totally with her life. She genuinely did love God with all her heart and with all her strength. This is challenging stuff.
When I was a boy, we went on holiday somewhere and attended a theme park where they had a wishing well. The idea was to throw your coins into the water and the money would then be given to charity.
I was about to throw my 10 cents in when an older lady said to me, ‘Keep your money son. Don’t throw it away like that.’ She went on to explain that the money wouldn’t go to a good cause. It would be pocketed by the owners of the establishment. She was trying to protect me.
We might think Jesus would do the same for the poor widow. ‘Don’t throw your money away luv, it will just be pocketed by the religious leaders’.
Jesus knows the religious establishment are mostly corrupt. And he knows the widow can’t afford it. Surely it would be a kindness to save her throwing good money after bad. But Jesus doesn’t stop her. To the contrary, Jesus celebrates the widow’s giving.
We are not as radical as Jesus or the widow. We prefer a more common-sense approach.
If anyone here was to give all their money to the church, so they had nothing to live on, most of us would be horrified. No one wants you to be under financial hardship. Be generous to the extent you can afford it but please, take care of yourself as well.
So why does Jesus not prevent this widow from giving away her last penny?
Well, Jesus sees this woman with spiritual insight.
Firstly, the widow’s giving was an act of worship for God. Her primary motivation wasn’t practical. She wasn’t giving to support the priests or to maintain the running of the temple. Nor was she giving out of a misplaced hope that God would make her rich if she gave up everything.
Her primary motivation was spiritual. The widow was giving to express her love and devotion to God. And Jesus honours the widow for this. He honours her by respecting the choice she makes and he honours her by ensuring her story is passed on by his disciples.
Worship is like breathing. It is something we must do all the time in order to live. Just as it is not good to hold your breath for too long, so too it is not good for the human soul to hold on to excess cash for too long. Accumulating material wealth for its own sake will weaken your faith. Giving will strengthen your faith and refresh your soul.
This is not to imply some sort of cargo cult or prosperity doctrine. I’m not suggesting that generous financial giving will make you wealthy. It probably won’t. But it will free you to love God and live lighter.
Another thing we notice here is that Jesus is not anxious for this widow, because he knows the character of God. In Matthew 6, Jesus says to his disciples…
“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”
Again, parts of Jesus’ teaching seem to go against the grain of our survival instinct. To be clear we still need to work and plan for the future, but not at the expense of our perspective. Often those worries which look large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big.
Of course, by pointing out this woman had given away her last coin, Jesus is making the widow’s need known to the wider network of his disciples so they can do something practical to help her. If the men didn’t take the hint to help this widow, then the women travelling with Jesus surely would have.
Isn’t it interesting, despite his power to turn stones into bread, Jesus does nothing miraculous here. Rather Jesus points to the miracle of the widow’s love and devotion, and he invites others to share the responsibility for her care.
Jesus is not anxious for this woman because her faith is strong and her soul is in good shape. She embodies a number of the beatitudes in Matthew 5…
Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
Conclusion:
We must not miss the bigger picture. Soon Jesus would go to the cross and pour out his life, totally, for us. The widow who gave everything points to Jesus who gave everything. Like Jesus, her sacrifice of love held nothing back.
If you are not ready to love God as totally as this poor widow did (and as Jesus does) then don’t be discouraged and don’t give up. Simply love God as much as you can. God in his grace is able to meet us where we are at.
But understand that God will probably call you to greater love and faith, providing all you need in the process.
May the Lord bless you richly and make you a blessing to others, for his glory. Amen.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
- What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- Discuss / reflect on the Bob Dylan quote: ‘What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big’. What does this mean to you?
- Thinking of the Yohari window, how might we grow in our self-awareness? Can you think of a time when you learned something new about yourself? What happened? How did you feel?
- Why did Jesus point out the religious leaders’ hypocrisy?
- Put yourself in the shoes of the widow in Mark 12. What do you imagine life was like for her? How do you feel thinking about this widow and what she did? Why do you feel this way?
- Why does Jesus highlight the widow’s offering? What can we learn from the widow’s example. In what way(s) does the widow point to Jesus?
- Make some time this week (either on your own or with your partner in marriage) to calculate what you give financially to God. E.g. donations to the church and mission or to the poor. Consider both the dollar amount and the proportion of income this represents. What does your level of giving say about your love for God and for others? Does anything need to change?
[1] William White, ‘Stories for Telling’, page 101-102.
Tawa Baptist 