Tainted Money
There was a man who called at the church and asked if he could speak to the Head Hog at the trough. The secretary said "Sir, if you mean our pastor you will have to treat him with a little more respect than that and ask for the ’Reverend’ or ’The Pastor.’ But certainly you cannot refer to him as the Head Hog at the Trough." The man said, "I understand. I was calling because I have $40,000 I was thinking about donating to the building fund." She said, "Hold on for just a moment-I think the big pig just walked in the door." You know, we’re all subject to changing our tune when money is suddenly involved. We tend to treat people differently when money is invloved.
But let’s try looking at it a bit differently today. Jesus is sitting opposite the place where the offerings were put, watching the people make their donations as they come into the temple. He’s in the Women’s Court where, along the wall, there are thirteen large, metal, trumpet-shaped receptacles. We read in verse 41, "Many rich people put in large sums." And these receptacles sit in plain view, their clinking and clanking advertising the size of individual offerings. Now the person putting their money in might be tempted to consider the clink/clank value of his/her offerings. “Mmm, would it be more impressive to make a few loud clanks. Or maybe a long shower of smaller clinks? Or maybe the best show would be like the fireworks, a number of small clinks followed by a rousing finale of several great clanks.
You see, no one puts in paper money, so it all makes a loud racket as it rolls down this long horn and falls into the pool of coins. The use of offering envelopes, paying by check and, in some churches now, even credit cards, this particular temptation has been removed from church offerings today. Of course I suppose you could still have someone stand up and say, “I want to give $1,000 anonymously.”
So "A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny". She casts two lepta into the treasury (12:42). A lepton was cast from bronze and was the lowest denomination Greek coin in circulation at the time. Each coin is uniquely shaped and a bit smaller than a U.S. dime. The high-relief designs feature symbolic representations of anchors, stars, eight-spoked wheels, cornucopias and other objects reflecting daily life.
The value of the two Greek lepta was equivalent to one Roman quadrans. The Roman quadrans was in turn worth 1/64 of a denarius. Since the denarius was the normal wage for a day’s work by a menial laborer, one can calculate how small an amount the widow contributed by converting it to a modern-day value. If we estimate the average American laborer’s daily wages to be about $70, then the widow’s two lepta would equal $1.09.
Next to the hefty contributions Jesus apparently witnessed, such a pittance might seem laughable. But what struck Jesus was the percentage of the widow’s total savings represented by the two small coins. Jesus then calls his Disciples over and says, "This poor widow has put more in to the treasury than all the others." For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."
Jesus doesn’t condemn the large gifts of wealthy people, but says that this woman’s offering is even larger. He bases his calculation, not on what she gives, but on what she has left. He knows how tempting it would be for her to think, "This little bit won’t matter, so I will let the rich people fill the coffers." He knows how much easier it would be for her to give one coin rather than two. The gifts of the rich people were calculated gifts, guided by the law of the tithe and contrasting dramatically with the widow’s gift.
The poor widow (a redundant expression in Jesus’ day) gave the least of coins — equivalent to pennies — but gave the most relative to her income. Her gift came out of her poverty, not her wealth; out of her want, not out of her affluence.
The widow gave much more than a tithe, much more than was expected of her. We know about tithing. We’ve all heard about how we’re supposed to tithe. God commands tithing. Leviticus 27:30,32 "Ten percent of everything you harvest is holy and belongs to me, whether it grows in your fields or on your fruit trees...When you count your flocks and herds, one out of ten of every newborn animal is holy and belongs to me."
W. A. Criswell tells of an ambitious young man who told his pastor he’d promised God a tithe of his income. They prayed for God to bless his career. At that time he was making $40.00 per week and tithing $4.00. In a few years his income increased and he was tithing $500.00 per week. He called on the pastor to see if he could be released from his tithing promise, it was too costly now.
The pastor replied, "I don’t see how you can be released from your promise, but we can ask God to reduce your income to $40.00 a week, then you’d have no problem tithing $4.00." W. A. Criswell, A Guidebook for Pastors, p. 156.
We have before us here our offerings to God. I don’t know if you gave a tithe, 15% or 2%. I don’t know and I don’t want to know. That’s between you and God. But you need to know that this money here is “tainted” money. That’s right. Tainted money. Tain’t yours and tain’t mine. It’s God’s. This is God’s money that He has allowed us to handle for Him. He has made us stewards of HIS money. And all He asks in return is for us to return to Him a 10th of it. 10%. 10 cents on the dollar! And we get to keep and use the other 90% of it! Our pay, if you will, for our stewardship is 90% of what God gives us. I’d say God is pretty generous.
Prayer: "Lord, regardless of what we say about you with our lips, this is really what we say about you, this is really what we feel about you. This is really what you mean to us. Amen."
Stewardship is managing, using, overseeing all that GOD has given you…in other words - ALL that you have is from GOD and you are simply given the opportunity to manage it.
Some of you may say, “I worked for this money!” You’re right, you did. But where did you get the strength to do so? You may say, “I got the strength to work by exercising.” Well, “Where did you get the legs and the arms to exercise with?”
It is like the contest that God and man had. Man, thinking he had achieved a god-like place because scientists could restructure and make anything in a laboratory - challenged God to a creation-making contest.
God agreed and the contest began. God reached down and formed a living man from out of a hand full of dirt. The scientist stated he was impressed but that he could do the same. So he began to reach down for a hand full of dirt when God abruptly stopped him and said, “get your own dirt.”
Illustration: Amen corner/”let’er walk”.
Your money follows your heart. If your commitment to Christ has not yet reached your wallet then it has not yet reached your heart. Our giving reflects our attitude about church. How do we see the church? As an occasional place to gather, a social meeting place with spiritual overtones. Or do we see the church as the house of God? A place where we come to worship the God who gives us everything and asks us to be good stewards of HIS world and ALL that is in it?
I want to remind you that our scripture points out the fact that God does not expect all to give the same. God does not expect the poor and the rich to give the same. The woman in our text did not give as much as the others who came. Look all throughout the Bible, God never gave us an amount to give, only a percent. That way a man who gives 10% of $100,000 and a man who gives 10% of a $100 both give equally in the eyes of God.
God is interested in our giving. He is very interested. God has given us so much in time, talents, and money and he wants to see what we do with what he has given us. He is interested in our giving because when it is done right, it is an act of worship. God is more interested in the attitudes and motives than he is in the gift itself. You really cannot give God anything because he owns it all but we can give in the sense of returning to God what he has given to us.
Illustration: slips of paper and brownies a slip of paper marked with a household expense: house payment, phone bill, credit card bill, entertainment, groceries, car payment, Nipsco. Redeem each one for a brownie. "God!". No brownies-all God got was the leftover crumbs.
The brownies represent your money. If you don’t give God his share right away, he probably won’t get anything at all except maybe crumbs. God should have 1st rights to everything we have. Think about how God must feel with some offerings that He receives. Instead of God getting our 1st thought – He gets our last. He gets what’s leftover… He gets the crumbs.
• If we give to God only after we have made sure that we have all our pleasures and comfort and luxuries, what good is that?
• People often point to multimillionaires like Bill Gates and say: “He gives a lot of money to charity.” I am sure he does. Then he goes home to his $400 billion.
• God is not interested in our small change. He’s not some waiter that we tip at the end of an evening once we have satisfied our own appetites.
For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on" (v. 44).
Jesus is not telling us to go and do likewise. He does not demand that we drop every last penny in the offering tray. But, it’s clearly not okay to give God a bit of what is left over after we have paid the bills. Christ expects us to put God first, not last. God deserves the biggest brownie.
It would be one thing if we looked at this story as simply character sketches of two types of people. But it’s not that easy. Jesus is pointing to two roads that lay in front of each and every one of us, regardless of our role in the church or our income level. Each of us can become the rich person, giving what is left over out of our abundance. Or we can become the widow, a person of powerful, life-giving faith. The choice is yours. Just remember, it’s all tainted money.
