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The Good News of Jesus

11/15/2009 - The Might of a Mite, Mark 12:41-44

It's Tuesday afternoon, late afternoon. The time of the evening sacrifice is over, but the smell of smoke and burnt flesh still lingers in the Temple air. Jesus is exhausted. He's been grilled all day with questions and had just told a riddle that silenced the scholars, but delighted the crowds. It's been a long day.

But he has to keep going. This is not the time to rest. He has to keep pushing and teaching and training because in less than three days he'll be dead, crucified on a cross on a hill called Golgotha, the place of the skull. Its crunch time and he knows it.

His disciples have had enough. They think it's time to leave the Temple and check out of the city, hike up the Mount of Olives and head back to Bethany for a hot meal and well deserved night's rest. They've been in the Temple all day long and they're hungry and they're tired. It's not easy following Jesus. It never has been easy. And sometimes it can be downright difficult.

But Jesus isn't ready to leave the Temple yet. He's got one more lesson to teach, an object lesson. And if they don't hurry up they're going to miss an appointment that he has with a widow. So instead of exiting the Temple he moves with his posse from the Court of the Gentiles into the Court of Women and there he sits down to watch and to wait.

The Court of Women is an area large enough to hold 15,000 worshipers. It was open to Jewish men and Jewish women, but not Gentiles. And on this week, Passover week, it is packed, filled to capacity. In each of its four corners are large, roofless rooms used for storage and other things. And surrounding the court, against the marble wall, are receptacles, trumpets of brass, thirteen in all stretching out to receive the people's gifts.

Each brass trumpet is etched with a Hebrew letter designating the fund for which the money in that trumpet will be used. One is for last year's temple tax and one is for this year's. One is for turtledoves and one is for pigeons to be used by the poor for burnt offerings. One is for wood to fuel the fires of the altar and one is for frankincense to perfume the air. One is for the gold vessels used in the Holy Place and six of the trumpets are for freewill offerings used to maintain this massive complex. This is the Temple treasury. This is the gas tank that provides the fuel that powers the engine that drives all the religious activity of the Jewish Temple, the most sacred place in the all the world.

So Jesus and his men sit on a marble step and watch. They watch the people as they come and go. The disciples are enamored by what the people look like and how they're dressed and what language they're speaking. For remember, this is Passover, and people, all kinds of people, from all over the Empire are in Jerusalem.

But right now Jesus isn't focused on what they look like or where they're from or what they're saying. Instead, he's watching what they give. There are many who are wealthy. You can see it in the robes they wear and the jewelry that hangs from their necks. You can see it in their eyes and in the way they carry themselves as they strut confidently through the massive courtyard.

And you can hear it as they draw attention to the large amounts of money they're giving. There's no paper money in Palestine, no checks to write, no cards to swipe. Only coins - brass coins, temple currency that's been exchanged for local currency by the unscrupulous moneychangers camped out in the Court of the Gentiles.

And those who are wealthy have learned that metal coins make noise when they rattle down the throat of a brass trumpet. So they carry their bags to the funnels, pause for a moment to draw the attention of the crowd, and then slowly dip their hand in the satchel and rattle a fist full of coins down the horn to the amazement of the people. And Jesus sits and watches.

But he's not only watching them. At times he seems preoccupied, scanning the scads of people as if he's looking for someone, waiting for someone. Then he sees her! She's right on time. No one else sees her for she's trying not to be noticed. But his eyes lock on to this woman slowly shuffling across the courtyard floor, hunched over, jostled by the jam, alone, dirty, afraid to have her offering seen. Ashamed to bring it, she hides it in the sweaty palm of her right hand.

She almost didn't come that afternoon. In fact, after she climbed the twelve terrace steps and walked through the Beautiful Gate she stopped and almost turned around. That massive gate, made out of dazzling Corinthian brass, richly ornamented with double doors so heavy they needed the strength of twenty men to open and close them. That opulent gate made her think, "What sense is there for me to give all I have to live on? Look at the magnificence of this place, how massive, how gorgeous, the brass, the marble, the gold that adorn these buildings. What difference will my gift make? Who will ever know if I keep it for myself? It means next to nothing to them, but it means everything to me. It's all I have to live on. Yet, it's not even enough to buy one stick of wood to burn on the altar."

But as she was about to turn around and walk away from the Temple, another thought gripped her mind. "But I must give. I'm not giving simply because the Temple needs my money. God knows they can make it without this. I'm giving because God commands it and its right for me to give. Its how I show my love for him and display my trust that he will take care of me."

It had been a battle in her soul that day. But God had won. And now she's almost in front of the trumpet. Jesus turns and interrupts Judas who had drawn the attention of the Twelve to a wealthy Jewish man from Persia and says, "Watch the woman. Watch the widow by trumpet number six."

So they turn their eyes away from the wealthy to watch the widow. And almost as if in slow motion, she raises her hand, but not her eyes, whispers a prayer, and slips the two copper coins over the lip of the trumpet. And as they slowly slide down the throat they make no noise. There is no applause. In fact, even before she ends her prayer and lifts her head she's shoved aside by a wealthy Egyptian who drops two bags of money at her feet and prepares for his show.

And as she's walking out of the court, confident that no one has noticed, Jesus says to his followers, "Listen to me. This poor widow put more in the Temple treasury than all of the others. For they gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on. Think about it. Let's go."

She was confident that no one noticed. But, someone had noticed. And because that someone was Jesus he made sure that her act of worship that day was recorded forever. And the Church has been noticing her for two thousand years.

How was she to know in her wildest imagination that her gift of two coins, the absolute legal minimum that could be given to the Temple, would be used by God to motivate the giving of millions down through the centuries? Indeed, it was as Jesus said, "This poor widow put more into the treasury than all the others."

So what lessons can we learn from this widow? What might is there in the mite that she gave?

Well first of all, if you've been with us over the past few weeks you've probably noticed the dominant theme that money has played in many of the interactions that Jesus has had over these last few days. The day before, on Monday, he had cleansed the Temple by overturning the tables of the money changers and driving out those who were buying and selling sacrifices. Greed and kickbacks, injustice and the overt oppression of the poor had prompted him to cry out, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'" The Temple had become a flea market and the worship of God had been turned into big business. And it was disgusting!

Then earlier on Tuesday Jesus had been approached with a question about paying taxes. "Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn't we?" So Jesus asked for a coin and said, "Whose image is on this? And whose inscription?"

"Caesar's," they replied.

"That's right," Jesus said, "So give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." Of course, we should pay our taxes. Give Caesar the filthy money he wants because his image is stamped on the coin, but give to God what he wants, your whole life because his image is stamped on you. That's what's most important.

Then in the stern warnings that Jesus gave to the scribes just before watching the widow he 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, and sit at head tables and have box seats in the synagogues. Yet they devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely."

They devour widow's houses and steal their property by writing contracts that illiterate women in that culture couldn't read or understand and so they take the assets these widows have and line their own pockets.

In Matthew 23, Jesus recites his strongest words of indictment anywhere in the gospels when he says in verse 23, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former."

And then in verse 25, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean."

Money was an issue for the scribes and Pharisees. It was a huge issue just like money is an issue for all of us which is why the Scriptures teach from cover to cover the importance of giving and being generous with our resources. We give to God, not because God needs our money, but because God wants our heart. And he knows that he won't have our heart if we don't loosen our grip on our wallet.

The first lesson we learn from this widow is that she gave. Someone has said that money makes a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. And that's true.

Jesus put it this way in Matthew 6:24, No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

So just like this widow, we give to God as an act of worship and obedience and devotion. Generosity is what protects us from the idolatry of money.

I love the way the Philip Yancey puts it in an article called Learning to Live with Money when he writes, "Though money is neutral in itself, if your heart is not devoted to God, it can take on an irrational, almost magical power .... It is a force with a personality. It is in truth, a god, and Jesus called it that. But when we give it away we disarm its power. The act of giving is at its core irrational. It destroys the aura of worth surrounding money. Giving is the ultimate blasphemy of the god of money. And as we make a habit of giving generously we set ourselves free from its bondage."

This woman didn't have a lot to give. She gave two very small copper coins, worth a fraction of a penny. Those two small coins were called mites. In that culture two mites were the minimum that you could contribute to the Temple. You couldn't give anything less than that.

And those two mites equaled one farthing and one farthing was worth 1/64 of a denarius. And a denarius was a day's wage for a manual worker. So she gave 1/64 of what a working person made in one day. Think of what you make in one day and divide by 64 and that's what she put in the trumpet. Not a whole lot of money, but she gave it.

As Tim mentioned already this is a great story to reflect on during Operation Christmas Child because we might wonder what difference can one shoebox filled with dollar store items make in the life of a child? Well let me read just one story of many that came from Samaritan's Purse this month.

"While we are reaching millions of children and families in over 100 countries around the globe, God is touching one heart at a time. Every box you pack represents one more child who will have the opportunity to hear the good news of God's love.

"One child whose heart was touched was Cecilia, a 13 year-old Mexican girl suffering from a malignant tumor behind her eye. She heard the good news of the gospel during the gift distribution and immediately put her faith in Jesus as her Savior. Two days later, her sickness put Cecilia in the hospital. She asked her parents to bring her the doll and teddy bear from her shoe box "so I can take them to heaven with me." Cecilia said she had lived the most wonderful day of her life on the day she got the box and found Jesus. Cecilia is in heaven now, but through her story, her parents and grandparents have become believers in Jesus too." That's the power of a shoebox filled with dollar store items and given in Jesus' name. That's the might of a mite.

So there's a lesson in giving from this widow. Even though she gave the legal minimum Jesus says her contribution that day was worth more than all the others combined. How's that? That's because her gift has been the gift that's kept on giving for centuries by inspiring Christ followers for almost 2,000 years. In her wildest dreams could she ever have imagined that we'd be talking about her today?

There's a lesson in giving from this widow. There's a lesson in trust from this widow. She gave all she had to live on. How many of us have ever done that? It was a small gift, but it was everything to her!

In that culture there were set times of mourning for widows and certain clothes were worn by widows to identify themselves as one. So most likely her husband had died recently and if he was a young man when he died it was often assumed that God must have taken his life prematurely for some sin that he had committed. And that stigma often spilled over on to his wife and children if they had any.

So here's a woman who's had a tough time of it. Life had not gone her way. God had taken her husband. And it would have been very easy for her to be angry and upset with God as we can get when life doesn't go our way. It would have been very easy for her to stay home and avoid the Temple and keep that money in her own pocket. God knows she needs it more than them. But no, she still trusts God with a ruthless trust even though the bottom has fallen out of her life. And she worships him through her giving.

In just a few days the bottom was going to fall out of the disciples' lives as well. Jesus was going to be arrested and tried, denied and crucified. And the night before it happens he will tell the Twelve, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me."

This woman didn't have anything left to trust but God who still had her heart. And after all isn't that what Jesus has been saying all along is what God wants most of all. She's the example of someone who loves God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength even in her time of pain. And that's what God wants from us even more than our money. He wants our heart. He wants our trust.

But there's one more lesson I see here. And that's the lesson of sacrifice. Certainly this widow was making a sacrifice by giving all that she had to live on. She gave her whole life. And in just a few days Jesus would give his whole life, "all that he had" too as a sacrifice for our sin.

So we follow Jesus even when it's tough, even when life beats us up. Like the widow we continue to trust God and to worship him even when we're tempted to turn away. We're generous with what God has given to us knowing that he can take even the smallest gift and use it to change a life. And all the while we remember what God wants most and that is our heart and our full devotion. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.