THE WIDOW’S MIGHT

THE WIDOW’S MIGHT Mark 12:40-44 March 14, 1999 Give by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory An unemployed man by the name of Jack Worm was walking along the shore line in San Francisco in 1949. He reached down and picked up a bottle that had washed ashore. Inside it was a note which he retrieved. The note read: "To whoever find this I leave my entire estate." It turns out the note was written by one Daisy Singer Alexander, the heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. She had written the note and cast it into the Thames River in London some twelve years earlier. It had floated around the world to San Francisco and Jack Worm found a legitimate will and inherited a fortune. He went from penniless to immense wealth. Most of us don’t come by fortunes, and even if we did, not in such a fairy tale fashion. Most of us come by most of what we get a little bit at a time, by hard work and the sweat of the brow. And some work hard all their lives and, because of circumstances beyond their control, end up just dirt poor anyway. This was the case with the star character in our story today. We have come quite a way in our trek through t he gospel of Mark--we’ve come from Jesus’ earliest days of ministry, through the calling of His disciples and the difficult times of training them (which are not over yet!); we’ve looked in on Jesus’s great power miracles and heard His diatribes with the religious leaders. We’ve watched Jesus and His band wend their way to the time of their final approach to Jerusalem and, last week, considered His triumphal entry and some of the suffering He was about to face as His ministry on earth climaxes. In just hours from now He will enter the final page of His earthly ministry, and as we read in Mark we find now more than ever that His moves are calculated and timed with great precision. Even the cleansing of the Temple, the singular act which drove the religious leaders over the edge where they would now seek a way to have Jesus killed, was put off for a day because the time wasn’t right yet. Every thing He said and every move He made had a particular importance now, as the rising crescendo of agitation against the religious establishment was built move by move, word by word. Toward the end of chapter twelve we find Jesus teaching a large crowd with the typical contingent of religious leaders no doubt listening in. And He digs at them and their hypocrisy without holding back. Verse 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 in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. Well, if they weren’t already upset enough to strike a deal with the traitor Judas, they certainly were now. But notice the next sentence Jesus adds, as He sets the stage for His next set of instructions for the disciples... They devour widow’s houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished severely. (vs. 40) Next, in a well-calculated move designed to capture the attention of His disciples especially, Jesus changes seats. What happened? He saw one of the widows He was just talking about who were the victims of the hypocritical, scheming greedy religious leaders. Everywhere I go, there is this universal distaste for hypocritical, scheming, greedy religious leaders. As such caricatures are written into movie scripts they are designed as the ones to hate. As I talk to people outside the church, their ready focus of negative comments is on the media preachers who have abused their power and shamed the Lord’s church with their immoral gain. It was the same way in the first century, and Jesus places Himself squarely among those who think such activities are ungodly and immoral, especially in light of the victims of such chicanery in the name of God. Verses 41-44: 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. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. (so small an amount that the KJV translates it as a “mite) 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. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on.” Teaching by CONTRAST was one of Jesus’s preferred methods. And here He takes some of the precious little time He has left before His death to take the disciples aside and teach them about something that would, in an earthly sense, be used by God to sustain the operation of his church throughout the centuries until He came again--financial giving. Have you thought about this idea lately? The Lord of the church has chosen one method by which He would finance history’s most important campaign--that of carrying the good news of His salvation for all people through the church to every people group. How was He going to financially undergird this most urgent enterprise? Through the voluntary contributions of the people who joined that effort. Bottom line--Jesus intends to finance His redemptive work in the world by means of the church through your voluntary contributions! And through the sacrificial, consistent, cheerful gifts of financially destitute widows who moved in enough faith to be certain that God can take care of his own. No wonder the devil takes advantage of this area of God’s program to bring his brand of devious misrepresentation--it’s a ready-made plot! Imagine, God using the gifts of little old widows to finance His work! Let’s see now, we can mount an expose of the church’s exploitation of poor widows, and we could manipulate people who are rich and disposed to greed and avarice to take advantage of this volatile method. Yes, we can lead rich religious leaders to drain off the money God intended to go into His work, make them out to be the self-serving hypocrites they are, and really bring the church a bad reputation! No wonder Satan continues to use the issues of money to bring accusation against the church! But the Lord’s plan is to use the generous, sacrificial giving of the widow in two miraculous ways. One, He will use the small amounts given in love to do His work, while ignoring the large amounts given in hypocritical, boastful ways. You heard what He said--that this poor widow had deposited more useable kingdom resources than all the others. And, two, He will actually use the faith act of the poor widow to generate His plan of personal prosperity for the widow. That is, He would honor her selfless, faith-filled giving by making certain she was always taken care of. In my imagination, I can see this widow having walked a while to get to the Temple Courts where she would make her offering. I see her walking along a path where wild flowers are growing and where birds are chirping, and letting this sensory input remind her of what she recently heard a young rabbi teaching: See how the lilies of the field grow? They don’t work at all, but they are dressed greater than Solomon in all his glory. Look at birds of the air--they don’t farm or store things in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Don’t be in love with your riches. Learn to give it away and trust God to care for you... But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all that you need will be added to you... One thing is for sure. This woman gave out of faith, believing God would take care of her because she gave ALL that she had. Let me remind you that she was not under the pressure of some fund-raiser who was compelling his listeners to “give a little more--come one you can do it! You can give a little more for God’s work!” All on her own she came to the conclusion that the small amount she had to live on would be better spent trusting God in an extravagant donation than spending it on herself. Of all the people who gave that day at the Temple, this woman was the happiest. Why? Because she was living in cooperation with a couple of key spiritual principles: 1. God owns it all. This woman knew that even the little she had was not hers, it was God’s. Ralph Beeson was a multimillionaire who never lost sight of this principle. He lived a frugal lifestyle in a modest home with no air-conditioning. He had no desire at all to spend any of his money on himself, but he was most adamant about giving to “the Lord’s work”. He gave money to hundreds of organizations with only one stipulation--that he remain anonymous. Mr. Beeson is dead now, and his extensive generosity in the Lord is no longer a secret. This was his favorite thing to say: “It’s the Lord’s money. He gave me the gift of making it. I am not smart enough to make that much money on my own. It’s his money, and I am going to give it back to Him.” Oswald Smith wrote: “It’s not ‘How much of my money will I give to God?’, but ‘How much of God’s money will I keep for myself?’” 2. When I give to God I don’t lose, I gain. Worldly wisdom says “Get all you can, and can all you get--then you’ll be happy.” God’s Word says, “Give and it will be given to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over.” In 1986, Chris Evert was still a commanding figure in women’s tennis. At age 31 she was internationally famous, had a $3 million annual salary, and had homes in England, California and Florida. At that stage of her life she told and interviewer from Life magazine, “I’ve had enormous success, but you have to find your own happiness and peace. I’m still searching.” At about that same time, O.J. Simpson was known for football and Hertz, and his wife was still alive. Interviewed by People magazine, he admitted he was rich and famous, but he said he was “lonely and bored” and often had fits of depression. He said, “I often wondered why so many rich people commit suicide. Money sure isn’t a cure-all.” The scripture is clear--the only way you can be truly happy with money is to give it away. Somebody said money is like manure--when it piles up it begins to stink. But spread it around and it helps the whole farm. The widow knew what happiness was. The Bible says that you can invest the money at your disposal in yourself or you can invest it in a heavenly account. Which one is going to pay interest the longest? Which one will give you lasting satisfaction? The widow knew that what she was giving was not lost--it was properly invested. Conclude with testimonies...         [Top]