Message---The Mite is Mighty…The rest of the Story
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By Pastor Ken Burisek
The Ole’ Country Church
Medford, Wisconsin
Kburisek@jesusanswers.com
www.webspawner.com/users/tictocc
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Mark 12:41-44
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41 Jesus went over to the collection box in the Temple and sat and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts.
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42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two pennies.
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43 He called his disciples to him and said, "I assure you, this poor widow has given more than all the others have given.
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44 For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has."
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The story of the widows mite is pretty well known by most Christian folks.
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I’m sure most of you have heard it told either over the pulpit…or in a Sunday School class somewhere during their lifetime.
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In Jesus’ day…widows were for all practical purposes…poor and helpless.
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Widows…and women in general in those days…had few rights and no standing in society…they had no resources…and oft’ times no one to provide for them.
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Perhaps she was like the widow lady who took care of Elijah in 1 Kings 17.….
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10. So Elijah went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, "Would you please bring me a cup of water?"
11. As she was going to get it, he called to her, "Bring me a bite of bread, too."
12. But she said, "I swear by the LORD your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die."
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What this woman was telling Elijah was…this was their last meal…once it was gone…they would be faced with starvation and death.
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The Bible goes on to say…that the prophet Elijah gave her a promise from the Lord.
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13. But Elijah said to her, "Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and cook that `last meal,’ but bake me a little loaf of bread first. Afterward there will still be enough food for you and your son.
14. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: There will always be plenty of flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the LORD sends rain and the crops grow again!"
15. So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat from her supply of flour and oil for many days.
16. For no matter how much they used, there was always enough left in the containers, just as the LORD had promised through Elijah.
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The widow woman in the story of the widow’s mite may well have been familiar with this story of Elijah and she had the faith to put her trust in God‘s word and God‘s promises.
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Whether she knew that story or not…we see here that Jesus is lifting up this poor widow lady over the high n’ mighty rich folks who were puttin’ on the dog…showin’ off how much they was givin’.
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There are a number of obvious lessons we can learn from this story.
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The most obvious lesson is that God looks at each offering and each giver of that offering on an individual basis.
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At the Temple collection box…Jesus sees many people dropping in their offerings…one after another…some putting in large amounts…some lesser amounts…but all of a sudden this widow lady drops in her two mites…perhaps comparable to our pennies today…and Jesus comments that this woman has put in more than all the rest.
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I’m sure the disciples were all “perplexicated” at that statement….how can that be…some of the others put in hundreds of dollars and you are saying this woman put in more than all the rest?
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Jesus went on to say that the others were giving…but out of their abundance…out of their surplus…they were giving what was comfortable to them…token gestures that made little impact on their finances and no real sacrifice on their part.
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Then Jesus goes on further to say…this widow has given more than the rest because she has given EVERYTHING she had…she trusted God’s promises enough to put all her earthly goods into God’s hands on God’s promise that He and ONLY He supplies our needs.
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God’s word says this in Phillippians 4:19.… “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
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This is often where many sermons come to a dead end…with the widow giving her pennies as being a large amount in God’s eyes because of the widows circumstances…being very poor…giving sacrificially as compared to the wealthier folks giving out of their abundance.
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And sadly…some folks use the Widow’s mite story to fudge out on their obligations to the Lord…they fail to see the deeper teachings in these verses.
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Today…we’re gonna take this story a little further…because too often the real message here is totally overlooked.
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Let’s just take a step back right here…let’s suppose that the Widow lady wasn’t a poor widow at all…let’s say she was actually financially comfortable…let’s go further and say she was even quite well off financially….and she still gave the Lord everything she had…a difficult thing for a wealthy person to do as described in Mark 10:25
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Mar 10:25-27.… “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
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Jesus lesson here isn’t about the amount of money that was given at all…it’s not a lesson about being rich or poor….it’s a lesson about us human kritters in general…that it’s hard for us to put God in first place because our human nature makes us “possessive” of everything we have….
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Some folks attitude toward God is “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine too !!!”
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Even the disciples wondered if anyone could make it to heaven? Then Jesus went on to say….
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26. And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
27. And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
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But the Bible says this about our human possessiveness.
Mark 8:36.… “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
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But whether the Widow was Rich or Poor or lived from paycheck to paycheck wasn’t the issue at all….it was the fact that she was willin’ to give everything she had to God…and put her total trust in the Lord’s promises.
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Jesus commended her because she was willin’ to turn control of everything to God….she trusted God with her entire living…
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If the widow would have been wealthy…the bible tells us that those who have been blessed with more are more accountable to God as to how they used it.
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But the bible says the more we have….the more accountable we will be to use what we have wisely as in Luke 12:48b.… “…….From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
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Whether Rich or Poor or Middle of the Road financially…when we give with the right heart and the right motives the Lord will look upon us with favor.
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God’s promise in Psalms 115:13
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Psalms 115:13.… “He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great.”….and why does God bless us?…so we can bless others…and the more God blesses…the more we can bless
others !!!
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Now let’s look back once more at the story…in the bible account the widow was very poor but let’s say that the widow lady instead…gave only one of her two pennies…even one of her pennies would have been a great sacrifice on her part...it would have been half of all she had….
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Even if she had only given part of what she had it would have been a great amount in Jesus’ eyes…because she was giving from her need not from her abundance…yet she didn’t only trust God with part of what she had or half of what she had…she trusted God with ALL that she had.
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The lesson about the widow’s mite teaches us to put our trust in the Lord…not in our finances…or our possessions…or in our jobs…but in the Lord !!!
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The lesson here isn’t about the amount given at all…it is about our willingness to trust God with everything we have…rich or poor…with every area of our lives.
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The lesson isn’t the fact that the widow was poor and couldn’t give very much…the lesson is that as little as she had…as poor as she was….it was MUCH in the sight of God…because her unselfish sacrifice was absolute….
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The widow’s gift was small by worldly standards….in comparison to the bags of gold being tossed in by the wealthy….but in God‘s hands as the saying goes…Little is Much when God is in it…
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So could a wealthy person have done the same thing as the widow woman…absolutely….
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No matter what we can give … whether small or great…God will multiply it and bring forth a great harvest as it says in Mark 4:20.… “But the good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s message and produce a huge harvest….thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted."
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Today so many SAY they love the Lord…so many claim to put their faith and trust in God with their words…but there is little evidence….little sacrifice on their part…so many serve God with their lips but their hearts are far from God.
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Sacrifice means that we put God first in our lives…and all of our actions are based on that….pushing our own desires aside to follow the will of God.
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How many today are willing to be like the widow lady…how many are genuinely willing to put every area of their lives into the hands of God?
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In today’s world…so many put their security and trust in their jobs or the economy or their finances or their possessions…but as we have seen in recent months those things can be taken away in an instant as we saw so many businesses and financial giants crumbling around us.
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In reality we’re all just one natural disaster away from losing it all…as we just witnessed in Haiti.
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According to God’s word the only lasting investments are in God’s Kingdom…all our other efforts are meaningless….
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Matthew 6:19.… “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
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Every time we do a good deed…every time we help someone in need…every time we show kindness toward someone…every time we give to the work of God…every time we invest ourselves in the things of God…the bible tells us that we are laying up treasures in Heaven.
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God requires much of those who claim to be believers…much more than being pew warmers in church on Sunday mornings.
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Just as in the sports world….there’s always plenty of spectators in the stands…there’s always plenty of bench warmers on the sidelines…but what God needs…what the church needs…is players on the field….committed to winning the game .
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Are we ready to genuinely give ourselves to the things of God?
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Prayer……Departing Song
