When Less Is More (2)
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INTRO
INTRO
My first job I ever had was selling fireworks at a fake castle in my hometown in Muskogee, Oklahoma. I was 16, just beginning to drive so I needed money to buy gas. The owner of this business was a man named Jeff. And everyday Jeff would sit us down and remind us how selling fireworks was the most important job we could have. Now I was 16, so I completely bought into what this guy was saying. I worked long days, cut the grass, wrapped the fireworks, was selling fireworks left and right, and then after about 2 weeks I realized that this job isn’t everything that Jeff said it was. Even though Jeff wanted me to devote my life to selling fireworks, I soon realized that selling fireworks in a shop that resembled a castle, was not going to be the career I chose. There are very few things in life that can actually demand your entire life. Marriage is one of those things. Imagine if on your wedding day, the pastor said “for the rest of your life do you promise to give yourself fully to your spouse” and you responded “is there an option for 50%?” No! Marriage demands all of you. When it comes to Christianity and the Gospel of Jesus, Jesus makes a similar claim on your life, that if you want to follow Him, HE demands all of who you are. Let’s stand for the reading of the word.
Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had—all she had to live on.”
耶穌面對銀庫坐著，看著大家怎樣把錢投入庫中。許多有錢的人投入很多的錢。後來，有一個窮寡婦來投入了兩個小錢，就是一個銅錢。耶穌把門徒叫過來，對他們說：「我實在告訴你們，這窮寡婦投入庫裡的，比眾人投的更多。因為他們都是把自己剩餘的投入，這寡婦是自己不足，卻把她一切所有的，就是全部養生的，都投進去了。」
CONTEXT: Jesus in Jerusalem: Passover. This was the last occurrence in the Savior’s public ministry, except the trial and the crucifixion. This is the last appearance of Jesus in the Temple. His public teaching is over except for the words of defense in his trial and the seven sayings on the Cross. The Pharisees and Sadducees had withdrawn after Jesus’ last teaching, and Jesus is preparing His disciples for His final moments here on earth before He goes to the cross. Yet in Jesus’ final moments, just a day or so before He goes to the cross, He takes time to sit by the temple as people are giving their offerings. Now if you were a historian why in the world would you include this seemingly insignificant story about a unimportant poor widow who gives a seemingly insignificant amount? What is Jesus teaching us here?
Jesus is “sitting across from the temple treasury and he watched how people were dropping their money into the treasury”. The treasury was the temple’s offering box. Like the one we have here at CityLight except their offering boxes were 13 horns made out of gold and they were placed in the opening of the temple. So Jesus sitting across outside, was able to see in full view how people were giving their money to the temple. Now how would you feel if on Sunday, me or Rich or one of the deacons, just sat back there by the offering box, and watched every person, how they gave, how much gave, who gave? That would be really uncomfortable wouldn’t it? What does Jesus see first?
THE GIFT奉獻
THE GIFT奉獻
“Many rich people were throwing in large sums of money”.
The text here is describing a very public act, Passover: this is offering time for the church! Everyone is in town. Many of those donating large sums were wealthy landowners who lived in or near Jerusalem; others were Jewish businessmen and merchants of the Diaspora who had journeyed to Jerusalem for the Passover and are coming to give their offerings to the temple.
There were different types of offerings in the Old Testament, some were animal sacrifices, but others were money and were called tithes. The word tithe means 1/10. But when you look at the Old Testament there were 3 different tithes the people were asked to give:
1 for Levites
2 For banquets and feasts
3 For the widows and orphans.
So when you add up the total amount of the yearly tithe for the people in the Old Testament it could have been close to 30%.
What was the heart behind the tithe?
Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest;
你要把你的財物， 和一切初熟的農作物，敬奉耶和華。
The tithe was meant to be a way to honor God, and to show that the people understood all that they had was a gift from Him. The law instructed the Israelites to bring their tithes as a sacrifice in gratitude to God for provision.
So a very similar action is taking place here. People are bringing their offerings before the Lord, and you have this group of ultra rich people dropping some serious cash in the offering box. Now if this was me or you we would be impressed by this wouldn’t we? We could easily look at money these people were giving and say “wow look how much they love God!” “Look at their generosity!” But does Mark tell us that Jesus was moved or impressed by their giving?
Jeff Bezos(owner of Amazon) makes almost $3000(USD)a second. He makes 8.9 million USD an hour. So in the time we spend together as a church, Jeff Bezos earns 8.9 million USD!
That’s wealth, that’s impressive. As people we get can be impressed by all of that. Let’s just stop for a moment and realize that most of our society operates in this manner. Every culture has “status symbols” things we do or own that give us status in society, that make us look important. For me I remember in high school, you had to own this particular brand of shirt and you had to wear the shirt with the collar popped(collar up), that was a status symbol. In Taiwan, it could be education, it could be money, it could be a car. But Jesus doesn’t call his disciples to look at the rich people’s giving does He? How does Jesus say these rich people gave?
verse 44 “out of their surplus”. Jesus says these rich people gave out of their wealth and still remained wealthy. Jesus is not impressed with this kind of giving, even though it was a lot of money. What these rich people were doing was saying “okay God we will give you this 10% of our money, we can look good in front of people, but we can still retain the same life style we choose to have, but still do whatever we want with the 90%.” We will worship you with the 10%, but the other 90% is ours. Tell us what we have to do to do our duty, and let us live our lives the way we want.
Is this not how all other religions operate? If you look at Daoism or Islam, there are rules to follow, duties to perform, in order to make people feel like they have done their duty before God and can live their lives how they want. If all I need to do is bai bai, then tell me, if all I need to do is burn paper money, then tell me, if I’ll need to do is go to church then tell me. Even with Christianity, we have to be careful, where we don’t live divided lives, where this part of our lives become about God, but then the rest of my life I can live as I please. There is a story of a well known pastor in the United States, if you heard his name most of you would know who he is. But his wife had called a counseling service and began to tell them that every night this pastor would eat dinner with his family, but then go into his office, lock the door, eat candy, and drink alcohol and watch tv every single night! How does that happen? It happens by believing that all God desires of you is your duty. I’ll give God this part of my life, I can look good in front of people, it can be ministry, but when I go home, or when I’m by myself, it’s revealed that HE doesn’t actually have my heart. Religion operates around, duty, but God isn’t impressed with our good works, these status symbols, your money.
So who does Mark tell us actually catches the attention of Jesus? Who does Jesus point at and call attention to?
A poor widow. This woman is doubly poor. She is both a widow, which at that time was often a dangerous state for a woman in ancient times because economic security was often based on a husband's income and work, and she’s poor! And what does this poor widow give that catches the attention of Jesus? Two tiny coins worth very little. Now these coins would amount to about 1NT a piece. So literally all she throws in comparison to the rich people is 2 NT.
And Jesus says “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all of the others” Now don’t judge me, but if today the people who count the offering go back to the offering box and find a 紅包 with 10000NT in it, and then 2NT, there’s no mistake which one has more monetary value, right?
The disciples are thinking, Jesus what are you talking about. The rich are dropping gold into the offering box, and this poor widow has put in a penny.So if you can imagine God’s scales: you have the rich heaping on wealth, and cash, and expensive things, status symbols, good works and it doesn’t move the scales an inch, but then you have this poor insignificant widow, in humility, who puts on two pennies, and the scales drop to ground! Why? God must have a different value system than me or you. He does
God doesn’t just value WHAT we give, But ultimately HE values WHY WE GIVE. He’s not simply seeking the gift, but He is seeking the heart of the giver.
THE GIVER奉獻者
THE GIVER奉獻者
While we saw earlier that the rich’s giving revealed the state of their heart towards God, what did this woman’s giving reveal about her heart? An offering of faith.
“but out of her poverty she gave everything all that she had to live on”. The word here that Jesus uses for “all she had to live on” literally means life. Let me ask you a question, if Mark writes this story and we see that widow just gives 1 of her coins, would we not all say that she is a woman of faith? IF one of you comes up to me today and says “Collin I’m going to take 50% of my assets and give it away and invest them in the kingdom of God” I would say that you are a person of great faith! But does this widow only give 1 coin? No she gives both, 100% of everything she had, and Jesus said that in this act of worship she is giving her very heart her trust to God. This isn’t 10% giving, this isn’t 50% giving, this 100% everything is on the table. She is saying to God, I’m all in. I know that many of us want Jesus just to tell us how much to give, is it 10% is it 15%, but Jesus doesn’t do that. The New Testament doesn’t give us an amount. Because the question for a disciple of Jesus is not, “is this enough?” The question we need to be asking “is there anything I’m holding back?”
They said that when they use to baptize the vikings, those warriors from a long time ago, that the vikings would be baptized on one condition: their swords would be held above their heads and never enter the water. What were they saying? That Christ can every part of my life EXCEPT my sword and this way of life. I wonder if that was you or me, what would be the thing we are holding above our heads out of the water, saying Jesus every other part of my life you can have but this. It might be your finances, does our giving show that Jesus is Lord? Maybe it’s a relationship with a boyfriend or co-worker, and you’re saying Jesus I will let you have everything, BUT THIS RELATIONSHIP. Maybe it’s your future, your career? Jesus wants it all.
You might be asking the question why would Jesus ask for so much? Why does He ask us to not just give our Sundays, or our money, but He asks for our very hearts? Because Jesus never asks from us what HE has not already given Himself.
Why does Jesus stop and point out this widows giving, just one day before He goes to the cross? Because this widow’s sacrificial offering points us to the sacrifice of Christ.
Notice that in the same way it was a seemingly insignificant widow, making a seemingly insignificant sacrifice that in the eyes of God was an offering of worship. Isn’t the same, that it was in the world’s eyes, that a seemingly insignificant Jewish carpenter, despised and rejected by men, making what people thought to be a waste of a sacrifice on the cross, that ended up being the means, the power, the way that God would save and rescue and redeem humanity? Jesus doesn’t just give us 10% of Himself, not just 50% of Himself, He gave us all of Himself, His very life.
Remember that Mark is writing this Gospel to a suffering church in Rome who probably had lost jobs, maybe businesses, they might be wondering what do I have to give to God? Maybe you are here and asking, what can I give to God? I’m not wealthy, I don’t have much to offer, well that is what is amazing about the Gospel, that God sees and values so different than the way men value and see. And here in Mark it is a poor widow, giving out of he weakness, in a place of insecurity that shows you that you still have so much to give, your very life! Your heart.
Think about the gifts my kid give to me. Their last candy, or last hi chew, even though I don’t care much for hi chew I know that behind the hi chew he is giving me a part of his heart.This is what Jesus is after not our begrudging submission but our delight through worship and love.
But why else does Christ ask for us to give Him our all? So that in giving all that we have we can receive all of who He is. Jesus calls you and I to come to Him and empty ourselves of who we are, bring to Him our hearts, our passions, in surrender so we can receive all of who He is!
It’s impossible to live this kind of life, this sacrificial life, without the Son of God living it through you. I think most of us know how it feels to live the Christian life, full of ourselves. Our power our strength, living the 90% of our life for ourselves, even if it’s ministry, but there’s no power, there’s no freedom:
Hudson Taylor story? The reality of living life full of yourself.
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
我已經與基督同釘十字架；現在活著的，不再是我，而是基督活在我裡面；如今在肉身中活著的我，是因信 神的兒子而活的；他愛我，為我捨己。
And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
他替眾人死了，為的是要使活著的人不再為自己活著，卻為那替他們死而復活的主而活。
.Jesus says where our treasure will be there our heart will be also. Your giving has the ability to lead and shape your heart. What you care about. What we invest in from finances to time, shapes what we value. Church there are 90,000 just here in Linkou who do not know Jesus, there is 90% of this island that do not know Jesus, and if we want to be a church that sees people reached with the gospel, churches planted, we must have a faith, we must give like this widow.
CONCLUSION
What does God now require of me? To search my heart and consider not just WHAT I am doing, but WHY AM I DOING IT? God requires my faith and trust, not just my duty. He wants to be my delight.
Where does He require this? To be fair none of us will have pure motivations across the board, but look at our giving. Does our giving reflect faith and trust in God? I want you to take a look at your marriage, right now is your motivation to love your wife or your husband just because it’s the right thing to do? Your co-workers, just because it’s the right thing to do? Is there anything right now that you are holding back from the Lord?
Why do we do this? Because it is possible to do all the right things, look good externally, give large amounts of money but be no more holy or righteous than the buddhist who lives down the street. What God requires, what God asks for is a heart of faith. We do this because when we give Him our hearts, everything else follows.
How do we do this? I want us to remember that God doesn’t ask of us what He has not already given Himself. He has already given us ALL OF HIMSELF. That means His Spirit, His power, His grace, His mercy, so that we can be people who hold nothing back, who put our very hearts on the table, and say all that I have, all that I am is yours.