9/15 Sermon - Two Pennies Worth More Than Gold

Two pennies worth more than gold – Mark 12:38-44

How much could two pennies buy you today? Not much?

I remember when I was younger you could ride a purple dinosaur at Walmar for a penny.

If you found a penny on the ground, would you be happy? Probably not? 

Pennies are pretty worthless, aren’t they? 

In our story for today, we read about a widow who gave two pennies to God.

But there’s a contrast. Mark in our Gospel, contrasts two sides.

On one hand, you have the teachers of the law and rich people.  

Look at what Mark says in vv. 38-40.

The teachers walk about in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect

They like to have the seats of honor in church and at banquets.

They steal money from widows while saying prayers to God.

So, if a widow’s husband died, they’d often go to the priest for ‘help.’

The priests would pressure them to give most of their money to the temple, leaving none for the widow or her children.

The priests and teachers got paid, and got more money then, from the temple.

How would you describe someone like that?

Greed and pride filled their hearts.

Worldly people. They focused on material “stuff.”

They wanted glory, money, respect.

Then there’s also the rich people on the same side.

Jesus sat down and just watched the temple treasury.

The way they did offering in the temple was with a big, locked box.

You would come to worship. On the way in, you’d drop your offering in.

We could do it that way, I suppose.

But Jesus sat down and watched all these rich people throwing lots of money.

Not that they were necessarily as outwardly bad as the teachers of the law, but still rich.

On the other hand, the second side Jesus saw, was a widow.

She walked up to the temple treasury and dropped in two small copper coins, a few cents.

Her offering was worthless, right? Two cents? How could two cents help anybody?

Her offering wouldn’t have been noticed by anyone.

It was, figuratively, a drop in the bucket. 

But Jesus says something incredible about it.

“Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Two pennies worth more than gold.

How can that be? How can Jesus say that two pennies are worth more than all the gold thrown into that offering box?

This story teaches us so much about what giving to God is really about.

This story gives us two big warnings when we give to God.

1. “We can do the right things for all the wrong reasons.”

That’s what the teachers of the law did!

They taught God’s Word. They led God’s people. But for the wrong reasons.

Respect and honor from others > Respect and honor from God.

We see this in our culture, don’t we?

People love to brag, especially on social media about the good they’ve done.
We praise billionaires who publicize the millions they give, which, for them, is pennies.

We ourselves can be tempted to give to God or help others to earn something: to earn praise and glory from others or, in our minds, earn God’s favor.

2. “We love material possessions.”

Again, that’s what the teachers of the law did.

They walked around in flowing robes and beautiful clothing.

They would steal they inheritance from widow’s when their husbands died.

They loved stuff and money. Stuff/money > God.

We can love “stuff” too, right?

It’s fun to eat good food, have nice clothes, lots of hobbies, go on vacations.

And those things are gifts of God. But when those are first in our life, that’s not good.

We also are not too concerned with the poor, the needy in our world.

The rich people, we’re told, gave “out of their abundance.”

God blessed them so much, they had gold coming out of their hears.

They took a little bit of that and gave it to God.

Why? They maybe wanted to keep the majority for themselves. Stuff/money > God.

That can be out attitude as well. We can have a death grip on money to spend it on us.

And we only give to God what’s left over.

 It doesn’t matter how much we give, even if we gave billions to church.

If we give for the wrong reasons, if we give to God but love material stuff more, that offering is worthless in God’s eyes.

There is also comfort here for us when we think about our relationship to God.

Just take a step back and think about this whole story.

The Son of God, in his mission to save the world in three hectic years, slowed down.

Jesus gave time to a lowly widow.

That’s the gospel in a nutshell, isn’t it?

Jesus cares about all of us, as individuals. He cares about you.

He cares so much that died for our sins, to cover our greed and pride and sin.

Jesus cares so much about you that he suffered, bled, and died in our place.

When he did all of that, he was thinking of that widow. Of you.

That is God’s amazing, gracious love on display in this story.

To God, you are worth more than all the gold in this world.

You are loved, precious in God’s eyes, you are redeemed, forgiven, and saved.

Two pennies worth more than gold.

With a few pennies from a widow, God gives us some powerful encouragements and lessons in how we give to God.

Here are a few take-aways. I’ll limit it at three.

1. It’s about trust.

We’re told the widow gave “out of her poverty, she put in everything she had to live on.

She was putting her life in God’s hands.

(By the way, this doesn’t mean that WE give 100% of our money away. God commanded the temple provide food for orphans, widows and the poor.)

We should probably miss what we give.

If my family gave $5 a month, that would be a terrible offering for us. We wouldn’t miss it.

Some families might be barely scraping by, and a $5 offering would be amazing for them.

If a much wealthier family gives what my family gives, probably wouldn’t be good.

And offering that is worth more than gold in God’s eyes trusts God. 

2. It’s about giving glory to God.

Giving to God and helping others is not about glory for ourselves, it’s not a show, we don’t earn anything in God’s eyes. We’re not better people because of it.

Most of our good actions, deeds, words, money should be, generally, as far as it depends on us, anonymous.

And it’s good to give to God! It’s good to help others, to help the needy, the poor, the homeless. When we do that, God sees and praises our actions done in secret.

3. And I can’t stress this enough, giving comes from a forgiven heart.

The temple was the place the Jews went to see sin and grace, guilt and forgiveness.

God wanted them to give as forgiven children of God.

Our offerings, any offering, is worth more than gold when the one who gives it gives freely and willingly, when they see Jesus as Savior and redeemer.

When we give offerings that trust God, that give God glory, that look to Jesus as our Savior, then it doesn’t matter if we give a bag of gold or two small pennies. Jesus says, “Those two pennies are worth more than gold.”

Amen.