Counting Treasure
(Mark 12:38-44)
Seeing Double
This week’s Lectionary Readings bring together two widows. The first is from The Old Testament reading (from 1 Kings 17), and the second is from the Gospel reading (from Mark 12). While reading about one, you may have yet to consider the other. However, the Lectionary is helpful because it seeks to bring cohesion that leads to better comprehension of the whole counsel of God. The best rule of interpretation is letting scripture interpret scripture. We Learn better what Jesus considers treasure when considering both widows from our readings.
The Old Testament Reading- Widow
There was a famine in the land that caused a great drought. The God of man was hungry and was sent to a nearby city. When he entered that city, he encountered a widow collecting sticks. He approached the Widow and asked for a drink of water. She put her sticks down and went to fetch some water. But as she was going, he called out to her and asked for her to bring back some bread in her hand as he was also hungry. The widow replied to the man of God, saying,
“There is a great famine in the land, and I have only a handful of flour and a little measure of oil. I have been collecting sticks to build a fire to make a little piece of bread for me and my son; then, we will have nothing and will prepare to starve to death.”
The man of God told the widow, “Go and make for you and your son what you said, but first make me a little bread and bring it to me that I might eat, then go and make for yourself. If you do this, I promise you will not run out of flour or oil until it rains and the drought ends.”
So the widow trusted the man of God and did as he asked. She picked up her sticks, made a fire, and began to mix the bread and oil and knead the dough. She brought the bread cake to the man of God and returned to find that she had enough flour and oil for her and her son to eat.
The widow trusted the man of God and gave him all she had: a handful of flour and a measure of oil. She served him first. But she found that the man of God provided more than enough for all she needed to feed her and her son during a great famine.
But then something horrific happens to the Widow. After displaying great faith and trusting in the Man of God, her son dies. She cries out to the man of God with desperation and lamenting. The Man of God takes the son up to where his room was and prays to God, and God revives him and brings the son back to life.
The widow, who trusts the man of God, receives many blessings. She received inexhaustible groceries for food during a great famine and received back her son from death. The last we hear about this widow is that she continued to believe and trust in God and the Word of the man of God.
The Gospel Reading- Widow
Fast forward a few hundred years to a different place and time to another widow and another Man of God. This time, a widow was at the temple gates; instead of a handful of flour and a measure of oil, she had but only two coins in her hand, which was hardly enough to live on. Moreover, the widow’s poverty is made more sobering when you consider what Jesus tells us about what happens to widows in the Temple. He says that the scribes “devour widow’s homes.” See, the Temple had become a national bank for the Jewish people because of the great wealth that poured into it. So, widows, who were of the poorest class in the community, would come to the Temple Bank and seek a loan for a house. The scribes would grant them a loan, knowing that they couldn’t pay it back, and when they couldn’t make their mortgage payment, the scribes would foreclose on their home, putting the widow out while the scribes increased the Temple's assets. (Those who experienced the financial crisis in 2008 may be able to understand this.) This helps us understand the absolute poverty the widow faced. Yet She gave all she had left to the house of God, trusting God to provide for her needs. The man of God watches her do this like one who is counting treasure, and seeing her give up her life, He calls his disciples over to point her out to them. Jesus tells them she gave more with her two coins than all the other contributors combined. As Jesus is counting the treasure, he finds what is most precious to him: this widow. She embodies everything he has been teaching about. The Last will be first, the servant of all will be the greatest, and those who deny themselves, lay down their lives, and follow Jesus will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The widow giving all she had is what Jesus treasured above all else. The Widow models the people's faith to whom Jesus will provide this new wine.
However, a dying son is one missing detail in the Gospel reading that the Old Testament reading had. We aren’t told anything else about this widow. They don’t appear to be utterly similar, at least now. But if one keeps reading, you will find a dying son- The Son of God. Jesus dies and is resurrected so that those who place their faith in Him, like this widow’s faith, will not perish but have everlasting life. See, we still have both elements in the story: a widow who has remarkable trust in the man of God and a Son who dies and is resurrected, resulting in the widow’s life being blessed to the point that it can’t be dried up in a drought, exhausted in famine, or defeated in death.
This is Good news to those whom Jesus treasures! Giving your whole life in trust to Jesus results in Jesus sharing His whole life, which provides all you could ever hope or imagine: forgiveness of sins, a resurrected life, and a Kingdom ruled and reigned by His lovingkindness.
Models of Faith.
Both widows had very little. Barely enough to live the next day. They gave it all to God. Though poor, their faith was rich. This is what Jesus treasures most. These are the actions of a life that Jesus treasures above all, those who lay it all down in trust in Him. A life that casts all its cares upon Him to be sustained. It doesn’t trust in money, food, or the world but in the God who creates and pours out His loving-kindness upon His people.
Be like the Widow.
Those who have faith like these widows, who claim no value, who are spiritually bankrupt and have no pride in themselves, are those who are thirsty to receive the new wine Jesus is offering. It is when we come to Jesus with nothing but the sin in our lives that we can be cleansed of it all and receive the merits of the righteousness of Christ. When our lives are forfeited and dead in sin, we come to Jesus and receive from Him a resurrected life.
When we give all we have to Jesus, we gain everything in Jesus Christ, who provides the desires of all things upon the opening of his hand.
These are the acts of faith of the people whom Jesus treasures and who will enter the Kingdom of God and become the temple themselves, where God’s presence dwells and his provision will pour out.
Application:
When Jesus sits across from you, what will He see? Will He see a faith that He treasures above all?
Do you give to God only out of your surplus or also out of your poverty?
Are you all in with Jesus, or are you holding back a little something for yourself in case something terrible happens?
Does your faith in God resemble that of the Widow who Jesus treasures?
Jesus has made a new wine with his blood, and only those who put all their faith in Him will get to drink it. Do you hunger and thirst for Christ’s righteousness? Then you will be satisfied!
Peace be with you!
Pastor Bruce
