(Audio Version)
Introduction
I really
wish God wouldn’t make me the object of my own weekly lessons so often. But I
suppose the best way for me to try and teach these lessons to you is to
experience and learn them myself first. I have to make a disclosure and a confession
in this lesson that might shock and disappoint some of you who don’t know me—sorry.
You can see my personal disclaimer at the top of the site that I don’t have all
the answers and still make lots of mistakes. Well I made one (or maybe I should
say another one or maybe I should say I made the same mistake again) this week.
Disclosure: I don’t make a lot of money nor do I have a lot of money in savings
or a retirement fund; well actually I have no money in savings or a retirement
fund—especially after this week. As part of my work, I haul a trailer from
project to project with all my tools inside. Until last week, I used my large
SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) that I’ve owned for almost 15 years. My wife and I
originally bought it before I started this particular business when my girls
were still small to give us a family vehicle that could transport our family
plus all my girls’ friends when necessary. It turned out to be a wise purchase
because before the girls could drive, my truck served as everyone’s favorite
mass-transit vehicle for school friends and soccer teammates. However, once I
started my carpentry business, I needed the truck to haul my trailer and for
the last 10+ years, that has been its primary purpose. It was an extremely
reliable and useful vehicle and after nearly 15 years, I managed to put 260,000
miles on it without any major mechanical failures. I knew its useful life was
coming to an end because more and more of its systems gradually began failing
(and my driveway looks like an oil tanker ran aground). Nevertheless, I was
convinced it would last one more year. Actually, I was less convinced and more
hoping it would last one more year until my girls were both finished with
college. During the last few months of living in a fantasy land, I was able to
put a little money into savings—I’m sure pocket change for some you out there
but at least it wasn’t zero which is usually what my bank account reads.
Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about having a few dollars set aside; like I
had everything planned out and under control for once. It’s funny how having a
few dollars in the bank can make a person feel like they’re in complete control
of their lives; like they can manage and even direct the circumstances of life;
like they don’t need to rely on anyone for help—including God. I’m sure that
doesn’t happen to you, but here’s my confession: It happened to me—again! I had
everything planned out. With a few dollars in the bank, what could go wrong?
Well what went wrong was my truck didn’t get the message that it needed to last
one more year and instead quit working last week. And just like that, my plan
went up in smoke and so did the little bit of money I had in the bank. I
managed to purchase a suitable replacement but I felt really stupid thinking
that I had it all planned out and was in complete control merely because I had
a little bit of money in the bank. As I was driving the new (used) truck home,
I had to laugh at myself because I got caught, again, Trusting In My Own Mite instead of trusting the One who is really
in control of all things. In this week’s Subject
Text, we get a picture of what it looks like to put your full faith and
trust in the Creator and not in created things.
Subject Text
Luke 21:1-4
1As he
looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper
coins. 3“I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor
widow has put in more than all the others. 4All these people gave
their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had
to live on.”
Context
I remember
the story of the widow’s mite being told in church when I was growing up. I
look back at it now and have to laugh at how badly it was being used to
manipulate people. Every year the priest would dust off his sermon on the
widow’s mite and you knew to hold on to your wallet because you were about to
receive a verbal bludgeoning on the merits of giving until it hurts. Then, this
past week I read an article in the Christian Post about prominent pastor and
author John Piper’s warning on the pursuit and accumulation of wealth by
ministry professionals and its inherent dangers. So as I was preparing for this
week’s lesson, I became increasingly convinced that the only organization that
is more interested in getting their hands on your money other than the
government is the church. Is it any wonder that the two organizations don’t get
along since they both seem to be competing for the same thing—your money? In
any event, I submit that the story of the widow’s mite, although containing
aspects of sacrificial giving, is not really a lesson in money or giving until
it hurts as much as it is a lesson in faith and trust. Let’s see if we can
figure out the context for Jesus’ teaching in our Subject Text. It’s a little difficult trying to connect our Subject Text with the text immediately surrounding it so we need to do what
I have tried to teach you before—take a few steps back and see if the picture
becomes clearer and continue stepping back until the context for our Subject Text comes into proper focus. If
we go all the way back to Chapter 19 we can find where the fuse is lit. Jesus
rides into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to cheers and shouts of blessings
to the “King that comes in the name of the Lord” in v. 38. We see in v. 39 that
the Pharisees aren’t about to stand for someone trying to butt into their
religious monopoly as they insist that Jesus rebuke the disciples for saying
such things about Him. But Jesus makes it clear that His time had come and
nothing and no one would be able to silence the announcement of God’s arrival
even if they refused to recognize it (v. 44). The struggle for power and
control had begun and Jesus demonstrates exactly who has the power and control
in v. 45 when he clears the temple of profiteers and overturns the tables
belonging to the money changers. Jesus has now challenged the establishment’s
power and one of their sources of money. There are three great enticements that
have led to the fall of countless people including many religious leaders—power,
money, and sex. And Jesus was challenging the status quo of two of those enticements—power
and money. From this point forward in Chapter 20, the religious leaders challenge
Jesus’ authority and begin to question Him in order to try and lure Him into
saying something they could use to have Him arrested and brought to trial. Finally,
in the verses leading up to our Subject
Text, Jesus puts a nice neat bow on
His indictment against the religious leaders. In vv. 45-47 of Chapter 20, Jesus
warns the people against the example being set by the religious leaders—their
love of power demonstrated by their desire to dress like they’re important; to
be popular and powerful public figures, and especially to be treated as such.
Jesus exposes their love for money when he demonstrates that they will stoop so
low as to cheat a widow out of her home if it means more money for them. We
love to hate the Pharisees but they’re really the prototypical human being who
when they achieve a certain level of power or accumulate a certain level of
wealth, no longer feel the need to be accountable to anyone, including God. The
Jews believed that power and riches were a sign of God’s blessing so Jesus’
teaching must have been confusing for His hearers. What Jesus is trying to say
is that God isn’t interested in how popular or powerful we are or how many
trinkets we’ve been able to accumulate during our lifetimes. God is interested
in us and our relationship with Him. God is interested in where we put our
trust—in Him or in our own power or wealth. We demonstrate our trust by our
attitude toward power and money. Does money and how we use it or give it away
point to our self-sufficiency and the desire for greater power or does it point
to our trust and faith in God?
Text Analysis
The setting
for v. 1 is the Temple courts generally and the court of women specifically.
Located there, or perhaps in an adjoining area where all would have been
permitted access, were thirteen boxes where worshippers to the Temple could
deposit the mandated Temple tax and free-will offerings. It is here that Jesus
begins His lesson for the disciples as he observes the rich coming and putting
their gifts into the treasury. The fact that Jesus describes the deposits as
“gifts” seems to indicate that he was talking about free-will offerings and not
the mandated Temple tax. The setting was perfect to illustrate the point Jesus
was making in vv. 45-47 of the previous chapter where Jesus presents the
religious leaders as greedy and power-hungry frauds who were like preening
peacocks putting on a show for all to see. “We should not think that it is
impossible for rich people to give appropriately, but in line with Luke’s
general view of the power of riches to ensnare, the text assumes that the
giving of the rich, even if considerable, was giving at a level that remained a
token and therefore gave no expression to any deep commitment to God. Jesus is
accusing the rich of not being serious with God…To be rich in ancient societies
made one automatically part of the leadership classes, and so Jesus, in the
last of the present series of critical engagement[s] with segments of the
leadership classes, now turns his gaze upon the rich. He criticizes their
comfortable piety, contrasting the minimal demand made upon them by their
giving to the temple with the extravagance of the poor widow’s commitment to
the cause of God.”[1]
That
contrast, created by v. 2, should hit us all like a ton of bricks. The widow
Jesus uses as his illustration represents everything the rich of v. 1 are not—poor,
vulnerable, marginalized, and forgotten. The copper coins that Jesus is
referring to were probably 2 Lepta which, combined, represented approximately
one fiftieth of a Denarius. One Denarius was the equivalent of one day’s wage.
Consequently, the economic value of 2 Lepta was negligible. But God isn’t
interested in the economic value of our giving as though he needs our money or
something. God is interested in the value of the gift in relation to its level
of personal sacrifice and what that sacrifice says about our relationship with
Him. “How does one measure giving? The point of this story is that true giving is
directed toward God. Jesus highlights two types of giving, both of which are
appreciated, yet one speaks far more than the other. Giving out of abundance is
appreciated, but it costs little. Giving out of life means that basic things
may be given up in order to honor God.”[2]
As usual,
Jesus turns the common belief and practice of His culture on its head in vv.
3-4. Wealth as a demonstration of God’s favor and the public display of
generosity to advertise one’s personal piety take a back seat to the depth of
love for God and degree of trust and faith in God that giving should represent.
The point that Jesus is making is not how much we give. It’s not only about the
degree of sacrifice our giving represents although that begins to get closer to
the heart of the matter. Ultimately, Jesus’ point is really about “why” we
give, what our giving represents in our relationship with God, and how wealth
and riches can replace God as the object of our faith and trust. Are we willing
to give up everything for God? What does the level of our giving say about our
trust and faith that God will care for us even if our bank account reads zero?
“[Jesus] did not romanticize the small gift or strike out against the large. He
weighed all the gifts not by sentiment but by a standard that was the same for
all: How much does one have remaining after the offering is made? Thus
measured, the widow’s gift was by far the greatest, because she had nothing
left. The offering of everything, whatever the amount, is the unexcelled gift.”[3]
Application
I’d like to
clarify a few things before I finish. I want you to understand what I’m trying
to teach you. It isn’t better to be poor than it is to be rich. It isn’t better
to be rich than it is to be poor. Whether your bank account is measured by lots
of zeros or just one zero, it doesn’t represent the level of your generosity or
your faith. I know lots of people who are wealthy who daily seek to surrender
their lives, including their finances, to God’s will. And I know just as many
people who are not wealthy who daily seek to surrender their lives to the
accumulation of greater wealth. I can’t judge whether the level of your giving
is appropriate or not. That is a matter between you and God. I cannot say that you
should give all of your money or only some of your money away. I can say that
your attitude toward money and how that impacts the level of your giving says
everything about your level of trust in and commitment to God. So before you
congratulate yourself on your generous giving, look in the mirror and be honest
with yourself because God already knows the truth. I can say one thing for
sure, if you are attending a church, you must support that church with your
finances. If you cannot attend a church for whatever reason, then find a
charitable Christian organization or a neighbor or friend in need to support
financially.
Throughout
Jesus’ ministry, He offered countless warnings about the inherent danger in the
love of money and the fact the following Him might mean divesting ourselves of
all our worldly possession. However, he never quantified how much money was
acceptable to save and how much money we were required to give. We can find
giving guidelines in both the New and Old Testaments, but Jesus’ ministry and focus
was about relationship; our relationship to God and our relationship with
people and removing any obstacles to those relationships. Nevertheless, Jesus
spoke volumes about what our attitude toward money and riches says about our
trust and faith in God and about the level of our love for people.
Getting back to the lesson I had to
learn again this past week—I was comfortable with giving because I had a little
money in the bank as a cushion—you know, just in case. However, now I’m back to
being uncomfortable giving because I’m back to having no money in the bank. I’d
be lying if I said it’s easy to give money when you have nothing to fall back
on in case something goes wrong. Giving feels like walking across a tightrope
without a safety net. It feels like jumping off a cliff and trusting God when
He says ‘don’t worry I’ll catch you.’ The truth is, God isn’t caring any less for
me now than he was before. In fact, I could make an argument that God is caring
more for me now because when I had a little money in the bank, every day brought
with it the possibility of my truck going up in flames (literally) leaving me
without transportation to get to work and support my family and this ministry.
Now I have a truck that is safe and reliable and although I have no money in
the bank, I don’t have to worry about the possibility of coming out in the
morning to a big pile of ashes on the driveway in place of my truck. God has
provided for me while teaching me a valuable lesson again—putting my trust and
faith in God’s provision is far more enduring and reliable than Trusting In My Own Mite.
Some of you have asked if you can
send money to me to support this ministry and as much as I appreciate your thoughtfulness
and willingness to support me, I do not and will not accept financial
consideration of any sort for this ministry. If you want to do something for me
to show your appreciation for this ministry, please pray for continued strength
and greater wisdom for me and please share the link to the ministry website with
as many people as possible every week. Nevertheless, if God has moved you to
give as a result of this ministry, I encourage you give what you can to the
Denver Seminary Scholarship Fund at www.denverseminary.edu/give. However, please
remember to always give to the church you are attending first. If you believe
the church you are attending is unworthy of receiving your financial
contribution then you should consider moving to a different church that you
will support financially.
[1]
John Nolland, Luke 18:35-24:53—Word
Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1993), pp. 979-980.
[2]
Darrell L. Bock, Luke—The NIV
Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996),
p. 527.
[3]
Fred B. Craddock, Luke—Interpretation:
A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (Louisville, KY: John Knox
Press, 1990), p. 242.
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