Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
We are being constantly alerted to the discovery of new diseases and new treatments for old diseases. So right now, we are on the back end of the recent flu season and more people than ever have had a flu shot in the hope that they would not get the flu.
Well, there is another disease that has been around for a very long time and it is called CIRRHOSIS OF THE GIVER. The first recorded case of the disease occurred in Jerusalem around A.D. 35. It is described in Acts 5. Two people, Ananias and Sapphira, sold some land and kept some of the sale-price for themselves but told the Apostles that they were giving all of it to the church. Basically, they just couldn’t bear to part with all that money. Cirrhosis of the giver. And the disease they suffered from has afflicted many since then and there are still regular outbreaks of it in the church today. Basically, when the offering bag goes around the church, sufferers of this disease just cannot get their hand to get their wallet out and open it up and take money out and put it into the bag; their hands become paralyzed. And what Doctors find particularly intriguing about the disease is that its effects seem to be limited just to Sundays and the church building. You see, if you take the person out of church and put them in a MacDonalds or at a movie theatre or in a clothing shop, anytime from Monday to Saturday, the hand works fine. But put them back in church on the following Sunday and the disease takes a hold, again. Cirrhosis of the giver. Now, some people are completely gripped by this disease and others suffer occasional outbreaks, but all of us will be exposed to it every now and then. So what is the cure, you ask? Or better yet, how do we prevent this disease from taking hold of us?
Well, what we are talking about here is really no laughing matter at all; it is a serious issue. And it is, of course, not a matter of physical inability but the heart. And it is our hearts that are addressed in this episode today where A POOR WIDOW DEMONSTRATES THE GIVING THAT MEETS WITH THE LORD’S APPROVAL.
And the context here in Mark’s Gospel helps us to see that this is a VERY IMPORTANT SUBJECT. If you look at 13:1, you will note there that Jesus is coming out of the temple with His disciples. So the long day that He has spent in the temple is concluded with this episode. Way back in 11:27, Jesus arrived at the temple and He has been involved since then in a series of encounters and conversations with the Jewish authorities. And then, when they had no more questions for Him, He asked them one Himself, as we see from v35, which we considered last time. So now we come to the very last episode of Jesus’ day in the temple. And it is an episode involving money and giving. The truth is, you see, that few things reveal the state of the heart more plainly than our giving or lack thereof. We might give, even a lot perhaps, but with the wrong motives, or we might not give at all or be miserly or stingy or tight with our giving. So again, we need to hear these words and consider how this POOR WIDOW DEMONSTRATES THE GIVING THAT MEETS WITH THE LORD’S APPROVAL.
We are told in v41 that Jesus “sat down opposite the TREASURY and watched the people putting money into the offering box.” And the Greek word translated as “treasury” is the same word translated as “offering box” at the end of the verse. So other Bible versions just use the word “treasury” both times. But from the Gospels and other Jewish historical documents of the time, we know that Jesus had His conversations with the Jewish authorities in the outer porches of the temple complex. The Treasury was located in the Women’s Court of the Temple. On either side of the Women’s Court, there were 13 brass treasure chests called ‘trumpets’ because they were narrow at the top and very wide down at the bottom. And each one of these horns had a label on it so you knew where to put the right sacrifice or offering. So you might have gold or grain or even a bird for an offering or money, for example. So Jesus probably entered the Court of the Women through one of the gates and positioned Himself so that He could watch people putting their offerings into these horns. And as He watches He sees the rich people put in large sums and the poor widow put in her two coins.
I. And this brings us to our first point as we see that the Giving that Meets with the Lord’s Approval is DONE IN SECRET.
A. The way that Mark records this episode make it clear that Jesus wanted to watch the givers without them knowing it. In the last couple of days, Jesus has been the centre of attention in Jerusalem and especially at the temple. But here we find Jesus alone, just watching the givers. He is a very publicly recognizable figure but He does not want that to influence those who are giving. He just wants to watch them as they give. So without their knowing it, what they are doing is being observed by Jesus.
1. And this is a very vivid illustration of what is true also in relation to you and me as we give and indeed, in everything that we do. Whether you are aware of it or not, the Lord is watching you. PSALM 33:13 says, “The Lord looks down from heaven; He sees all the children of man; from where He sits enthroned He looks out on all the inhabitants of earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all observes all their deeds.”
a. I mentioned earlier the story of ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA. No one would have known that they were lying about what they were giving to the Lord. But the Lord saw what they were doing.
b. And you boys and girls might also remember the story of ACHAN from the OT. When the people of Israel defeated Jericho, they had been told by the Lord not to take any treasure from the city. But Achan saw some treasure that he just could not resist and he hid it under his tent. No one saw him do this. It was the ‘perfect crime,’ as they say. But God saw what Achan had done.
c. The Lord sees everything that we do including even the motives of our hearts.
2. And so, as the offering bag is passed around, you might just pass the bag along and no one will blink an eyelid because they don’t know what you give or how often. You might put one of the envelopes we use in and no one knows how much is in the envelope. You might pretend to get some money out and put a closed fist into the bag so it looks like you are giving, and no one here will be any the wiser. But the Lord sees and the Lord knows. Everything you do is done in the sight of the Lord. So this is part of what we mean when we say that the giving that meets with the Lord’s approval is done in secret. We give knowing that the Lord sees what we do.
B. But there is more we need to consider in relation to giving to the Lord in secret. Earlier in the service we read from MATTHEW 6:1-4, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
1. So here we are talking about HOW WE GIVE TO THE LORD and we see that ordinarily our giving is to be done in such a way that it is seen by the Lord and not by others (Repeat).
2. We shouldn’t be like the man who after the call had gone out for donations stood up and said, “I would like to give $100 – anonymously.” Our giving is to be done in secret.
3. And this is why, as practical examples of this principle, we have offering bags and not offering plates. An offering bag means the person next to you cannot see what you put in the bag, but that is not the case with a plate. And that is also why we have an envelope system so that what you give can be completely hidden from others. These are two things we do so that our giving can be, by and large, in secret.
4. But note that I used the word ‘ordinarily’ in relation to how we give. For our text reveals that it is NOT ALWAYS WRONG TO GIVE IN PUBLIC.
• Jesus was able to VIEW the rich people putting large amounts into the horns and the poor widow putting her two small coins in to the horn.
• Earlier in the sermon I mentioned ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA. Their giving, on that occasion, was done in public. That was not the problem. In the verses before we read about them, we are told that there were no needy people in the church in Jerusalem because many were selling land and bringing the proceeds of the sales to the Apostles and laying the gifts at their feet. And Barnabas is even named as one who did this. This was giving done in public.
• And in ROMANS 16, Paul thanks specific people in the Roman congregation for specific acts of generosity.
So to give to the Lord in public is not, in and of itself, an evil thing. But what the contrasting stories of Barnabas and A&S help us to see is that THE LORD SEES THE SECRET MOTIVATIONS OF OUR HEARTS. And this is also what is meant by that verse in Matthew 6, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” This is also what we mean when we say that the Lord approves of giving that is done in secret.
a. The WIDOW, in this passage, lived before the cross of Calvary. But because the Lord Jesus commends her gift, we know that she gave knowing that the God of her salvation was watching her. She loved Him, she trusted Him, and she wanted to honour Him with her offering. And so she gave as an act of worship.
b. BARNABAS, who we mentioned a moment ago, lived on the other side of the cross of Calvary. So Barnabas knew that Jesus was the Son of God. Barnabas knew that Jesus had died on the cross for the forgiveness of His sins. 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” So out of the love and thankfulness to the Lord Jesus that lived in the secret place of Barnabas’ heart, he brought his offering. He too gave as an act of worship.
c. So there is an important general point here in relation to our giving and every other aspect of our devotion to Christ: godliness must be found in the secret places of your heart if it is to be genuine. You can fool others and you can impress others with what you do in public, but the Lord sees into your heart.
d. The Book of Common Prayer is the worship book of our friends in the Anglican church. It contains this prayer composed by Thomas Cranmer:
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord.
Giving that meets with the Lord’s approval is DONE IN SECRET. Ordinarily, we give in private so as not to be seen by others. But even if our giving is in public, we remember that the Lord sees into the secret places of our hearts. He knows if we are giving in true obedience, with a thankful heart that loves the Lord Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Is this how you give? Is He why you give?
II. Well, in the second place, as we continue with vv42-44, we see also that the giving that meets with the Lord’s approval is SACRIFICIAL. We are told that “a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins.” And then the Lord Jesus called over His disciples and commended her sacrificial giving. So let’s see why it is that her giving was sacrificial.
A. And we see this, first of all, as we consider this woman and her gift:
1. It would have been obvious to all that she was a poor WIDOW from her dress. Life for widows in those times, despite the fact that the Law of God commanded otherwise, was extremely difficult for widows. They were beggars, for all intents and purposes. So partly due to lack of a regular income and partly to elicit sympathy from others, widows wore a kind of ‘rag-bag uniform,’ that made their status clear to others.
2. And we are told that she offered “TWO SMALL COPPER COINS, WHICH IS A PENNY.” Now, in Greek, it is 2 lepta, which is a quadrantes. And lepta literally means ‘peeled’ or ‘thin.’ The idea is tiny coin slivers shaved off larger coins. In those times, an unskilled labourer was paid 1 denarius for a day of work. It is hard to be precise, but a denarius might be worth about 30c in our money. An Assarius coin was worth 1/16th of a denarius; so about 2c. A quadrantes coin was worth 1/96 of a Denarius; so about ¼ cent. And the lepta coin was half of a quadrantes; so about 1/8 cent. But this tiny amount, as Jesus makes plain, was “everything she had, all she had to live on.”
3. And if we have been listening to the ELISHA sermon series from our Vicar and if we remember the ELIJAH sermon series from a couple of years back, we will know that this widow is not alone in giving all that she has to the Lord. Elijah asked the widow of Zarephath to offer the last of her flour and oil to the Lord trusting that He would provide for her, and she did. Elisha asked a widow to offer her last jar of oil to the Lord trusting that He would provide for her, and she did. And here, this widow also gives all that she had.
4. We can imagine her FEELING SOMEWHAT ASHAMED to be among the scribes that we described as strutting peacocks when we spoke of them in v38. And there she is in her rags. And there they were with the large sums of money they were putting into the horns, while there she is with just these tiny coin slivers. And all this could be seen by anyone watching. But the words of Jesus make it clear that she is making a humble and sacrificial offering to her God. Such is her devotion to God, such is her trust that the Lord will provide, that she is glad to give Him all that she has. And it is this that so impresses the Lord Jesus.
5. And notice that JESUS DOES NOT CALL HER OVER TO COMMEND HER. She is a very real example of what we read earlier in Matthew 6. Her Father in heaven has seen what she has done in secret and He will reward her. If Jesus were to commend her now, that would have added another dimension to what now is just between herself and her God. So He says nothing to her. She is probably glad to escape the attention of the public, content to know that her Father in heaven has seen her devotion.
B. But Jesus has seen her and He holds her up to the disciples and to us as an example of sacrificial giving. And in so doing, this widow has become famous, in the best sense of the word, for this sacrificial act. We don’t know her name, but every Christian who has read Mark’s Gospel has read of her sacrificial giving and in so doing has been forced to ask himself or herself, Do I give to the Lord as she did? This woman had only the promise of Messiah, and she gave sacrificially. I have Jesus; I know that He gave His life to forgive my sins and to make me a child of God. Do I give, sacrificially?
1. 1 TIMOTHY 6:7 says, “We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” Do you believe this? Or are you like a certain character from the book or movie who holds on to his possessions saying, “My precious”? You have probably heard this before but you never see a hearse with a trailer on the back. When they take your body to the cemetery, they take just your body to the cemetery.
2. But listen also to these words from MATTHEW 6:19-21 where Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
a. Where is your treasure? If you are like me, your are glad to hear news of a mortgage rate drop or improving performance of your Kiwisaver funds. Right? But how does your heart react when you read about an opportunity to support our friends, Yuri and Andrea, in the Ukraine, or the Doumas in PNG or Janice in South East Asia, for example? When you read in the bulletin that volunteers are needed to visit our new neighbours next door or to help with a soup kitchen, do you quickly skip over it and read on because, well, you are busy? Where is your treasure?
3. The rich people in our passage put large sums into the offering box. But they were rich and had plenty left over. The widow gave everything.
a. PROVERBS 22:9 says, “Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.”
b. And DEUTERONOMY 15:10 says this about giving to the poor, “You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him.”
c. Earlier in the service we read from 2 CORINTHIANS 9:7, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a CHEERFUL giver.” The Greek word translated as cheerful is hilaron. We could just as well say that God loves a hilarious giver. And brothers and sisters, young people and boys and girls, there is no better example in the Bible of a hilarious giver than this widow: Plenty of people would have told her, if she had asked them, that she shouldn’t give all she had to the Lord; that it was a foolish thing to do. She needed to eat! But the Lord loves a hilarious giver!
C. Does all this mean then that we have to put every coin we own in the offering bag? No. That is not what we are being taught here or elsewhere in the Bible. What we do need to recognize, however, is that we do not actually own a single coin – it all belongs to the Lord. And this is so whether you put it into the offering bag or whether you spend it or save it – it all belongs to the Lord.
D. But the Lord does want you to know the joy of giving money to Him in a focused and dedicated way, such as we do in our worship services.
1. So what all this means in terms of that moment in our services when the offering bag goes around is this: The Lord commands us to TITHE our income, which means to set aside 10%, and to give that tithe to Him. And we wont go into the detail of that commandment now. Our deacons and myself have an article or two that you are welcome to get from us and read if you want to think about that some more.
2. But remember also those words from 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9 that we have already mentioned, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” Jesus has brought you out of darkness into the light. Jesus has delivered you from the wrath of God that your sins deserved. Jesus has brought you into the family of God. Jesus has secured for you an inheritance in heaven. Jesus has given you the gift of His Spirit. So in addition to His command to tithe, the Lord Jesus holds before us the example of this widow who gave everything she had to the Lord. And the Lord tells us that He loves hilarious givers. So when the offering bag goes around, worship Him by giving to Him His tithe and your offerings.
3. And I trust you can see that this is going to require some PREPARATION on your part, just as it did this widow. To give to the Lord sacrificially with tithes and offerings means you can’t just bowl up to church and hunt around in your pockets for whatever is there. You are going to have to make it a part of your weekly routine to get ready for the Lord’s Day. And to help your children learn these principles, you are going to have to have some coins ready so they too can know the joy of giving to the Lord. This is all a part of how we give to the Lord, cheerfully and sacrificially.
E. But let me speak now to those of you who have heard these words and have come under the conviction of sin in this area. Listen to these words of God from 1 John 1:8, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So go to the Lord in prayer and confess to Him your sins in the area of giving, knowing that He has promised to forgive you, which means to remember your sins no more! And to repent of sin is to turn around and go in the other direction. So now resolve in your heart to give to Him IN SECRET, which means, ordinarily, to give in private, knowing that the Lord is watching, and to give SACRIFICIALLY, because of all that God has given you through His Son, Jesus. For this, congregation, is giving that meets with the Lord’s approval. Amen.