“The Widow’s Faith” - Mark 12:41- 44 - Matthew Colburn
/And He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And He called His disciples and said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
This is the Word of God…amen. Let’s pray together.
Well, Chip and I both have recently celebrated our one year anniversary of being at FUMC in Alexander City. And part of that anniversary celebration involved both of us traveling down to Panama City Beach to participate in and behold the amazing witness of faith that was professed and confirmed by our four confirmands who, as of this past Sunday, have recently joined this household of faith.
Now, usually within the first year of ministry, pastors get the opportunity to kick the tires, check the engine, see all the ways and habits and quirks that make the local church so unique. And I’ll tell ya, just being plainly, simply, as honest as I can be, I have never encountered a congregation quite like this one. In many ways good, in some ways, not so good.
To give you an example: when I came to that confirmation retreat, my talk was on commitment. And when I met with these confirmands, the future of our church, I had to tell them: don’t commit to Christ in the way that many of the adults in our church “commit” to Christ. Because I’ll tell you church, our congregation here has a commitment problem.
We see it in our giving. We see it when we plan events that require volunteers. We see it when summer arrives and the lake is right next door. We see it when travel ball emerges and competes for our time and attention. The call to Christ is costly, yet we have reduced that commitment to something more palatable.
When some came to follow Christ, they came with what we might consider valid excuses. “Lord let me follow you.” “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head…” This being Christ’s way of saying, “You may have no earthly dwelling if you follow me, but you will also not have a home, a place of belonging, in the world if you follow me.” “Lord, let me first go bury my father.” “Let the dead bury the dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
What do we come to Christ with as conditions for our commitment, church? Because I can tell you what I have seen. And I say these things not to cause direct harm. I say these things to you because a good physician must know when to cut, when to set a bone, when to inflict something temporarily painful for the purpose of healing in the whole body.
What do we come to Christ with as our conditions? “Lord, I’ll give my time, but I’m going to wait until the last minute to show up because there may be something else I want to do that conflicts with serving you.” “Jesus, I’m going to follow you eight months out of the year, but those four summer months are mine. That’s lake time.” “Lord, I know you have instructed us in your good counsel and wisdom to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, but I really don’t have the time to even invest one hour of my Sunday to you. I’m sure you understand!”
Let me be clear that I am not saying this is a universal truth that applies to every person in this congregation. Because while I’ve seen a general spirit of uncommitment, I’ve also seen in this community of faith people who are so fervently committed to the cause of Christ that spending one minute with them is like basking in heaven’s rays.
But this is a prevalent phenomenon in this church. Its difficult to plan events because we never know who’s going to show up, we can’t accurately budget because money is given or withheld on a whim, every challenge we face currently comes from a lack of commitment: commitment to Christ, His church, His people.
So when I came up to our confirmands, to our children, to our youth I told them: do not commit as some of the adults in this church commit. I hope I say this to your shame that it will bring repentance! I told them do not commit as some in this church “commit.” Where we follow Jesus if and when it is convenient.
No no no, church. If Jesus is who He says He is, then He demands our complete and total obedience. Satan and the powers of this world get six days of the week to develop and encourage you in your habits, your hangups, your sins, your ways. God asks for one day set apart from the rest. One day to gather together to worship His holy name, remember what He has accomplished for our sakes at the cross, and to glorify the name of the risen Savior who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
And yet…we’ve culturally conditioned ourselves to say, “Alright God, its Sunday. You’ve got an hour then I’m going to go do what I want to do.” We look at people who go to Sunday morning worship, Sunday night small groups, and Wednesday evening Bible studies as super saints. God demands a day, we normalize setting aside an hour, and some of us even say to that, “No no no, an hour is too much.”
Church, what happened? What happened here? What happened to us? My hope in this is that you receive this word in love. That you know it is out of my affection for you and the condition of your heart that I am telling you these things. That God may call all of us to repentance to flee from the idols of this world and walk in faith, leading quiet, holy lives in faithful commitment to Him.
How do we address this problem? Well, I don’t want you to simply hear my words about what is good, right, and pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Let us look together at our passage this morning, as the Lord commends this widower in her commitment and love for her God. Let us speak more of the way in which we ought to conduct ourselves, ought to order our lives, and ought to live faithfully among one another.
Let me first begin, before even touching our passage, by setting it in its context. Jesus has entered Jerusalem for the final time as He prepares to go to the cross, endure the shame, and be raised and exalted in glory all for our sakes. The gospel of redemption, received by grace through faith in Christ, casts its shadow upon our story this morning.
And as Jesus and His disciples are walking through the city, Jesus is doing a great deal of teaching. He is warning people of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, who are enamored by appearances. Jesus tells them, “Beware the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive greater condemnation.”
Church, since I’m in the challenging mood this morning, let me ask you: of which sins listed here are you guilty of? Are you obsessed by appearance, as the scribes? Because I’ll tell you: when I began to wear a tie and coat as of two or three weeks ago, I had someone tell me, “I heard a lot of folks say they thought you were so cute in the way you were dressed.” And I’ve also had people tell me, “Y’know, I’ve heard some people talking about how much they hate the length of your hair…”
For those who speak either way, in the positive or negative of your ministers’ appearances, let me ask you: of those Sundays where I was dressed nicely, can you tell me what Scripture we read together and studied in worship? Or perhaps, you who are obsessed with the length of a person’s hair, can tell me one hymn we sang by the Spirit’s prompting? You can’t? Interesting. So then, re-order your heart, sinner! What does it matter if I come to you in rags and bald, or in a three-piece suit with lengthened hair? For the wild man, John the Baptist, came bringing a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, while the Pharisees and scribes, dressed in the finest robes, led people to eternal damnation like the pied pipers of Satan.
Or who among you, in the course of your time in worship, have grown so accustomed and attached to your preferred seat in the synagogue, that you have run off strangers and visitors for the sake of your personal preferences? Re-order your heart, o sinner! Confess before our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and pray that your arrogance and pride has not run off those poor souls from the doors of the church where God transforms the hearts and minds of the lost.
The church in the West is obsessed with appearance. Even pastors aren’t immune. The number of times I’ve heard ministers in an arrogant, bragging way speak of “We worship about 500, we worship about 1,000…” Fool! Do you not know that God is the One who adds to the number of your assembly daily? What good is a high membership roll if there is no discipleship? You may as well brag about the Dead Sea; for though your membership roll flows long, it is shallow, empty, and dead in sin.
So then while many may try to read themselves into the role of the faithful widow, in reality, we are often much more like the Pharisees than we’d care to admit. And these Pharisees are the ones who, as Jesus says, “devour widows’ houses,” that is, they devour the lives, hearts, and souls of the faithful for the purpose of making an idol of themselves or worshiping themselves. And if we don’t take great care to note Jesus’ words, we are in TROUBLE. For “These will receive the greater condemnation.”
Y’all got your toes stomped on yet? Let me remind you, then, of the hope of the gospel before we continue forward. That every word of rebuke or correction is not simply to cause aimless harm. It is to realign our hearts to the will of God and bring us into repentance, that we may experience true joy and life in His name.
So, what is the solution, preacher? If then you call us Pharisees, how are we to live? How ought we to conduct our lives for the sake of the gospel? Don’t rebuke us without giving us a solution! Ah, dear friends, I intend to do just that.
Let me direct our attention to these first two verses: “And He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money in the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.”
Now, church, let me, as both exposition of this passage and application of this passage, tell you rumors of what I have heard of some of you that I dearly hope and pray are not true. It has been reported that some among you have chosen not to give to the church because you want to wait and see what happens with the discernment process, disafiliation, and the future of this church before you give to it.
If this is true, and I hope it isn’t, but if this is true, and you are sitting here today, read this passage along with me closely: we saw in the context what Jesus said: the Pharisees devoured widows’ houses. The Pharisees saw the poor, the orphaned, the widower, as pigs, equal to the Gentiles, without any hope of keeping the law and destined for hell.
This widow isn’t ignorant of that fact. She knows she will receive little help or grace from the temple, the dwelling place of God among man. She knows how the religious leaders see her. This place, enraptured by religion, hates her. And you know what she does? She comes faithfully to the temple treasury, and gives all that she has.
Because at the end of the day, the stewards of that treasury will stand before God and give a full account of their exploitation and evil. Yet the widower knows that God calls her to be faithful. She gives, not because she’s expecting a return on her investment or for the church to act as she wants it to act, but because our giving is worship.
God has blessed us out of the abundance of His grace. And in worship, we return a small portion of that to Him in gratitude with thanksgiving. We don’t just spiritualize the time of the offering so we can pay church bills. Our worshipful time of giving each Sunday is an act of rebellion against the world, and an act of faithfulness towards our God: “Lord, you have blessed me greatly. I know you are with me. And because I trust in you, I am returning a portion of what you have blessed me with to your body on this earth, your church, that it may be used to the glory of your name and the good of your people.”
Our giving is worship. So I want you to hear me, church, and I say this with love for you: if you cannot give to the mission and work of this church because of current denominational issues, that is your decision. Go in peace. Be well. But you need to go and join a church where you can faithfully give. It is too important for the sake of your eternal soul and the health of this church for you to remain here with a heart that is not enlivened by the joy of Christ that causes you to give or withhold giving on a choice whim. Its not about you!
Because I’ll tell you, and I’m glad Steve Presley is at Discovery and Chip’s on vacation so they can’t hear me say this: I do not care what number is on our financial reports. I seriously don’t. If you use your money for influence, power and control; to withhold it when things don’t go your way, or change to a designated fund when someone hurts your feelings, go and repent or go find somewhere else to worship.
Give me a church full of people with this widow’s faith, and I’ll give you a church that can change the world. Because while many rich people came and deposited large sums, it was the widow alone who caught Jesus’ attention. Verses 43-44: “And He called His disciples and said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Notice here, church, that if you have been distracted by appearances and distracted from the life-changing, life giving Word of God, that you are not alone. For Jesus had to call His disciples to them to show them this wondrous act of faith. Some wonder at what the disciples may have been doing or looking at before Jesus called them to Him, but I would present to you this likely scenario: that the answer comes from whats before our text and what comes after.
Jesus warns them of the scribes’ hypocrisy, likely, because they are blinded by the wealth, power, and fame. Jesus, after this text, warns them of the temple’s beauty, as they marvel at its workmanship and precious metals, by telling them, “You like this temple? Truly, there is not one stone upon another that will not be torn down.”
How precious a word is this to the proud sinner: that the disciples were not unlike us, yet because of the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ they were restored to see the hidden beauty in a widow’s faith. You see, the difference between the disciples and the Pharisees is that, when Jesus told both groups to “Come and see,” the Pharisees rejected Jesus, while the disciples heard and obeyed His call.
This word is a challenging word that I bring to you this morning. But it is a necessary word. We are entering a time where commitment to the church of Jesus Christ at FUMC is necessary now more than ever. And if you come to this time with worry, or anxiety, or concern, let me, hopefully, give you a window into what gives me hope.
Every tree that bears good fruit must at times be pruned. And I firmly believe that this discernment process will do exactly that: it will prune the unhealthy, uncommitted, fruitless, dead vines from the true vine who sustains the healthy branches and, through them, produces good fruit.
I firmly believe that at the end of this process, this church will be forged into whatever it becomes upon the firm foundation of those who are committed in their faith, committed to this church, and committed to supporting it in their gifts, graces, service, and resources, all by God’s help.
Every Sunday that I am privileged to step up into this pulpit or behind this music stand, my hope and prayer is that those in need of conviction are convicted, and those in need of comfort are comforted. That is my prayer now more than ever. For those of you with hearts guilty of Pharisaism, I present to you two options. Because God has entrusted the care of this church in a small portion to myself, and because I will be held accountable at the judgment to how I worked to guard, protect, shepherd, and lead this church, for the health of the church I present two options: come to the altar, or exit through those doors.
Repent or leave. For the sake of your eternal soul and for the sake of the health of this church, repent or leave. That those who remain may be presented in those last days in the blamelessness of our God and Lord Jesus Christ, that He may receive all glory, honor, and praise, now and forevermore. Amen.