This sermon was preached at Lebanon Valley PCA. For more information, visit www.lebanonvalleypca.com
Introduction and Context
If you’re with us for the first time, we welcome you! To catch you up on what we’ve been doing as a church, we’ve been going through the Gospel of Mark on Sunday mornings, starting from Mark 1:1. Now, we’ve reached a significant milestone in the middle of a longer goal, coming to the end of chapter 12. Chapter 12 has been quite long, hasn’t it, and a bit intense in its content. As we come to the end of chapter 12, starting with verse 38, Jesus has been repeatedly questioned. He goes on the offensive in the previous passage by asking the scribes a question, and now He continues teaching. He gives a warning in His teaching and then an observation that day in the temple.
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:38-44
Mark, chapter 12, verse 38. This is God’s holy, inspired Word. It is without error; may we yield and submit to it.
And in His teaching He said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” And He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And He called His disciples to Him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
Jesus Exposes Hypocrisy and Celebrates Devotion
As we come to the end of Mark, chapter 12, Jesus exposes the emptiness of outward religiosity and celebrates the beauty of a heart that is fully devoted to God. We see an interesting contrast here: the scribes who flaunt their status, but a poor widow, unnoticed by the world, captures the attention of God incarnate. We see a vivid contrast between the scribes, who seek their own glory, and this widow, who offers her all to God in sincerity. There’s also a contrast between the scribes and Jesus. The scribes are self-seeking predators, while Jesus is the Good Shepherd who loves His people. This striking difference reveals Mark’s third question. Remember, we said that Mark is answering three questions in his Gospel: Who is Jesus? Why did He come? And what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? By the end of chapter 12, we’re seeing a clear answer to that question: What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
Jesus’ Warning Against the Scribes
Jesus is teaching in the temple, and the first thing He does is give a sobering, serious warning: “Beware.” Beware of the scribes. Watch out. Pay attention. Be on the alert. Be cautious, be careful. This isn’t the first time Jesus has given a warning like this. Go back to Mark 8:14, where He said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” Watch out for the corrupting influences of bad doctrine and bad ideology of these groups. Now, Jesus says, “Beware of the scribes.”
More than likely, this warning doesn’t apply to every single scribe. Jesus, just a few passages earlier, told one scribe that he wasn’t far from the kingdom of God. Later, we will see that some who joined the church were once Pharisees and priests. But as a group, something was very wrong with these men, and from the lips of our Lord comes a call to be cautious. Watch out, beware.
Who Were the Scribes?
We’ve already mentioned who the scribes were: experts in the law, experts in the Scripture. Through our contemporary lens, we can call them the theologians, those in the academy, the professors of the Bible in their day. Jesus calls His people to discernment, especially discerning those who have been appointed to leadership and to teach God’s Word.
When I was a young Christian, I thought every book with a Christian label on it was a good book. I thought every preacher who stood behind the sacred desk with the Bible laid out on it was going to offer something good for my faith, my Christian journey. But, of course, we learn to be much more cautious than that, and we are called to cautious discernment. Recently, Gigi and I were in a store, and she picked up a book and said she wanted it. I said, “I don’t know anything about that author. Let’s do a little research first before we get that book.” I told her I’d get her a book—in fact, Gigi, I put it on your nightstand this morning, a book about Amy Carmichael, the great missionary. But we need to have discernment about what we read and what we listen to.
Discernment in Our Hearts
Jesus tells us here, but there’s also discernment not only of who we listen to and the content of what we listen to, but Jesus’ warning provides an opportunity to check our own hearts. Do we, like these scribes, want to boost our reputation? Do we love to gain praise from people? Particularly those of us given the sacred task of leading God’s people, we carry a heavy responsibility. When such leaders go astray, they not only mislead themselves but risk misleading the flock, bringing confusion, harm, and pain to those Christ has purchased with His own blood. So we must check our hearts: Do I want to be seen? Do I want to boost my reputation? Do I want everybody to know who I am? Particularly as a church in its years of formation, and as people come into leadership positions, we must always check our hearts to be servant leaders, not like these men.
A Father’s Day Message: The Role of Godly Men
Perhaps you read this text and echo what we hear much in our culture today: “See, men are not good.” Perhaps we hear that from radical feminists. It’s interesting; we can agree with that statement. Men are not good. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately sick. Who can understand it?” The sinful nature we all inherit through Adam is lethal in the bodies and minds of all men. But when God works grace in men to develop them into godly men—men who love their families, men who seek to provide and protect, men who lead their families in the Lord—oh, friend, rejoice! Give thanks, give honor, not because there are any perfect men, of course, but because there are men who have bowed the knee to Christ, and God is working in their hearts, who has justified them and is sanctifying them. We give honor to God for the godly men and fathers who defend and protect us against the roaming ravages of evil men who are truly wolves. That’s my Father’s Day message here. We’ll continue on.
The Scribes’ Behavior: Seeking Glory and Exploiting Widows
Who are these men? They like to walk around in long robes. This is not a prohibition against wearing clerical robes, as Martin Lloyd-Jones said we should wear robes to hide the man. But as Hendrickson says on this passage, these were men who relished parading about in long, flowing robes, men who liked putting on airs, who liked greetings in the marketplaces—not just a friendly greeting, but a demonstration of respect, public recognition of their prominence. Jesus says they loved the best seats in the synagogues. While the common people sat on the floor, there they were at the front, in a comfortable place of honor and recognition, not only in the place of worship but at feasts, seated at the head of the table, honored in that way. Jesus says, “Be careful of these kinds of people. Be careful of these kinds of men.”
And then, as we continue in verse 40, they “devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers.” J.B. Phillips and Ken Taylor, in their paraphrases of the Scriptures, capture the spirit of what’s being said here: “These are men who grow fat on widows’ property and cover up what they’re doing by making lengthy prayers. They shamelessly cheat widows out of their homes, and then, to cover up the kind of men they really are, they pretend to be pious by praying long prayers in public.”
How Did They Devour Widows’ Houses?
How these men did that, we’re not told. Perhaps they had funds under their control where they could draw upon, and they were asking widows to contribute more than they reasonably could give. Perhaps they were offering to settle estates that fell to widows but took them for themselves. Whatever it was, there was fraud going on, there was evil going on. They were predators, though wearing the clerical collar, if you will, though holding the Bible in their hand. They used long prayers, the Scripture says, to cover these things up.
The Danger of Long Prayers as Pretense
I wanted to mention there’s nothing wrong with long prayers. I remember hearing Sinclair Ferguson say that when he was a young man and first went to church in Scotland, the pastor got up, and the prayer was so long, so full of the Word, that when the pastor finally said, “Amen,” Sinclair started standing up. Someone put a finger on the back of his shoulder and said, “Sit down. That was just the prayer. The sermon’s still coming.” It was a long prayer, full of the Word, full of sincerity. These men were using long prayers, almost like peeking with their eyes, seeing who’s looking while they pray, trying to hide their extortion.
Jesus’ Evaluation of the Scribes
Jesus gives a very frightful evaluation of these scribes: “They will receive the greater condemnation” (verse 40). The immediate application for us, particularly as leaders in any regard, as men, as servant leaders, is that God would keep our hearts pure before Him, that we would not be people of mere talk, that we would guard our hearts and have sincere devotion.
I was reading about Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and there’s a character in that book named Talkative. He’s a man Bunyan writes who talks about the vanity of earthly things, the benefit of things above, the necessity of the new birth, the insufficiency of our works, the need for Christ’s righteousness, about what it is to repent, to believe, to pray, to suffer. But Christian, in the book, soon learns that this Talkative’s Christian confession is all talk. Christian says to his companion, Faithful, “He talks of prayer, of repentance, of faith, of the new birth, but he knows only to talk of them. Religion has no place in his heart. All he has lies in his tongue.” May it not be so of us.
The Widow’s Offering: A Contrast of True Devotion
Beginning in verse 41, the focus of the text shifts from the scribes to the contrast between those who serve God with hypocrisy and those who serve Him with true devotion. Mark draws our attention now to Jesus sitting opposite the temple treasury. The treasury was located in the Court of the Women, the outermost court accessible to both men and women. There would have been 13 offering chests there, each designated for a specific kind of temple contribution. These gifts supported the needs of worship and temple life.
The Historical Context of Offerings
This was not a new practice. From the days of Exodus, God commanded His people to bring offerings, not because He needed them, but because He desired a dwelling place among them. The people would bring gold, silver, bronze, fine linens, colored threads, and all had a purpose. They were used to craft garments for the priests, reflecting holiness and service to the Lord. Moses instructed the people to bring grain, oil, wine, and incense—fragrant spices. Aren’t you glad we don’t do that today? Lugging around the little kids, with a vial of oil, incense, fragrant spices—all these things. The oil was for the lamps, the wine for the drink offerings, the spices for the incense of prayer. All the worship there in the tabernacle was adorned because God is worthy of such costly devotion.
By the time of the Herodian temple, where we’re reading here, these offerings continued, and gold, silver, wine, and garments were still being brought in. The temple was the financial and spiritual heart of the nation. So central was the temple treasury that the official who oversaw it was second in authority only to the high priest himself.
The Widow’s Two Coins
This is happening that day, and Jesus is sitting there watching all the giving. Here comes a poor widow. Mark says, “Many rich people put in large sums, but a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.” It’s the Greek word lepta, or two lepton. They were the smallest coins in circulation, smaller than what we would even call a penny today. Some estimate it was about 1/30 of a day’s work. Imagine that—you came, almost embarrassed to drop such a meager offering in compared to all the others.
The Most Famous Donation
Think of all the famous donations throughout history. In our day, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Dale Carnegie, the Rockefellers. I read Michael Bloomberg just last year gave 3.7 billion to various causes. MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of the Amazon founder, gave 2.5 billion. But here, it’s the most famous donation ever made by a human being in the history of the world. God Himself, God incarnate, was in the treasury that day, and He watches it, and He says, “She has given more than all those contributing to the offering box.”
We say, “What does Jesus mean? How can this be?” But He explains to His disciples in verse 44: “For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” In other words, when the rich gave, they gave out of their margin.
Not a Text About Poor vs. Rich
A quick side note: this text is not a text supporting poor versus rich. This text, like any other text in Scripture, is not supporting class warfare, which we see bubbling up and rampant in our world today. There were many wealthy people in Scripture who gave nothing. Remember the man who said, “I’ll just keep building bigger and bigger barns.” So these wealthy were giving something, but the point Jesus is making is that when the wealthy gave, they gave out of their margin.
I think we can understand that typically, when we give, we give out of our margin. In other words, I’m not going to eat any less tomorrow because of what I gave today. I’m not going to dress any less, travel any less, be entertained any less. We give out of our margin, and that typically means our giving is not very sacrificial. It doesn’t really cut into our lives. It doesn’t really make us bleed.
There was a man who called a pastor a while ago and said, “I’m angry.” The pastor said, “Why are you angry?” He said, “Because Sunday’s sermon was all on tithing. The whole sermon was on tithing.” The pastor said, “We’ve had hundreds of sermons, hundreds of worship services, and there have only been two sermons on tithing.” But the man was mad. They gave money, but it was more than that.
The Widow Gave Her Life
Jesus said this woman put in her last discretionary cash. What she was doing was taking food out of her own mouth, and even more than that, she was giving up what little control she had of her life. In the original Greek text here in Mark, what Jesus actually says, when He says she gave out of her poverty, is that she put in everything—she put in her whole life. In fact, the word He literally says, that she puts in, is her bios. Look at the second-to-last word in the chapter; that’s bios, the word for physical life. He says, “She put in everything. She put in her whole life.” She gave her life away, and it so strikes Jesus that He calls His disciples over and says, “Watch this. Look at this. She’s giving her life away, and she has given more.”
Imagine what the disciples must have thought: “Jesus, do you need to go back to school? Given more? Can you add, Jesus? Do the math. She hardly gave two cents.” How could it be that all the rest of the money being poured into the treasury was less than hers? But, friend, the lesson is more than a nice lesson about stewardship and giving. This is, in living color, the answer to Mark’s third question: What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
What It Means to Be a Disciple
Here’s the answer: A disciple of Jesus, like the poor widow, trusts Jesus so much as to give their entire life, their bios, to Him. She was trusting God. She was giving so much that she had to trust God. She was losing the very little control she had of her life, and she gave it away.
Let us use our imaginations to pretend we were the original audience of this Gospel of Mark, which we’ve talked about frequently—those sitting in the catacombs of Rome, the original audience of this gospel. They’re staring down the lions in the Colosseum, and perhaps every time they hear a knock on the door, they’re wondering if Roman soldiers are about to whisk them away to be burned in Nero’s court. You’re reading this text, and you hear what Jesus is saying when He calls His disciples to Him and says, “Look at this. That’s devotion. That’s what it means to be a disciple. That’s what it means to love My kingdom.”
The widow gave herself as a living sacrifice, which Paul would later say is the only appropriate response for every Christian who has received the pearl of great price in the gospel—that there is no gift big enough that we could ever outgive what we have received. This is what it means to be a disciple: to throw your very life into the strong and caring hands of the Savior.
The Heidelberg Catechism: Belonging to Jesus
We read Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 1, but this text reminds me of what we just worked through recently, the Heidelberg Catechism Question 1: “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” Answer: “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood. He has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.”
Friends, let us entrench ourselves in that reality, that experience, that understanding: I belong, body and soul, in life and death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
Applications for Believers
I want to give you, just quickly, some applications that this text presses upon us.
1. All May Come to God with What They Have
The first is this: All may come to God with what they have. We serve a God who, the Scripture says, “accepts not the person of princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of His hands” (Job 34:19). All may come to God with what we have. Micah 6:6-8 says, “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Oh, no. Go to God and give Him your heart.
This text is telling us that your penny will be more acceptable than the greatest treasuries of the wicked. Riches and poverty make a big difference in our world and the respect of men, don’t they? But none at all with God. Whether rich or poor, we must come the same way—through Christ—and He will accept and love and honor you as the greatest person in the world.
This text assures us that poverty is no barrier to Christ or heaven. Need is no barrier to it, that we can do away with all our vain pretenses, all our focus on outward conditions. This woman gives us a beautiful example that we come with what we have, who we are.
There’s a story in pagan writings where many wealthy and learned men brought gifts to Socrates, the great philosopher, each according to his status and fortune. But a poor young man approached Socrates and said, “I have nothing of value to give you, nothing worthy of you. But I will give you what I do have: myself. Others who gave to you still have much left for themselves, but I give you all that I have, and now I have nothing left but the gift itself. I give you myself.” Socrates replies, “You have truly given me a gift, and for that, I will make it my aim to return you to yourself better than you were when you came.”
Oh, how much more our loving and awesome God! Come to God, not because He needs us, but it is for our benefit that we should give our hearts and selves to Him. How much He knows it is to our advantage that He should have our hearts, and that He will make them better and sanctify them and save them. All can come with what you have.
2. God Accepts Our Weakness
This passage tells us something about how God looks upon us when we are weak and don’t have much to give. One of the Puritans said it like this: “Certainly in times of strength, God looks for much, but in times of weakness, God bears much.” Oh, I love that. And perhaps you’re feeling like that now. You’re feeling weak. You’re not in a time of strength. Your God accepts what little you have to offer. This pertains not just to money or substance, but in times of emotional weakness, weak faith—God bears much and accepts little.
The comfort is to know that God accepts the weakest endeavors of His people, that God accepts and values even the small acts of service and devotion. I think so many people disqualify themselves when it comes to serving in a church like this, serving in the kingdom of God. They would say, “Look, so-and-so is more educated. Look, so-and-so has more substance. Look, so-and-so has more talent, so-and-so has more personality.” But look, my friend, at this text. When we come with the little means or abilities we have, God accepts them and blesses them. Give God your soul. God takes more pleasure in that than in all the external and costly and pompous ceremonies, the adorned temples, all of the external devotion.
Here, Jesus saw into a woman’s heart, and it was more pleasurable and costly to Him than all of that. Man boasts of his prosperity. He boasts of what he has. But we serve a God who says, “Heaven is My throne, the earth is My footstool. What is the house that you’ll build for Me? What is the place of My rest? All these things My hands have made, and so all these things came to be,” declares the Lord. “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:1-2).
Perhaps one day, God will be pleased to give us a building of our own. I look at churches with stained glass, and I’m always a little jealous of that beautiful stained glass. But God is not pleased with magnificent temples or adorned altars. He said, “Heaven is a more glorious throne than anything you can build Me, but I delight in the contrite heart that trembles with holy awe and reverence at My word.” Even those with limited resources can contribute significantly through their actions and dedication to God. What she had was not great, but it was greatly accepted by the Savior.
3. Jesus’ Ultimate Sacrifice
The reason God can receive even our weakest efforts is because, not long after this moment in the narrative, Jesus Himself will make the greatest deposit into the treasury of His Father—offering the richest contribution possible. Even the widow’s testimony pales in comparison—that Jesus would give His life. Nobody took it from Him, but He gave it, and He laid down His life for His sheep.
4. Trust Jesus Completely
This leads us to a third and final application: Let us learn to trust in Jesus completely. No matter how young in the faith you are or old in the faith, we can learn to trust Jesus more, to trust Him like this widow did, to throw it all on the line, to give our soul, to say, “Lord, I am Yours. Help me to trust You in the midst of the afflictions I’m going through. Help me to trust You when dreams have been dashed. Help me to trust You when everything is moving in the opposite direction of what I think it should be moving. Help me to trust You when You call upon me to do something that really confronts my comfort. Help me to trust You that all that I have is already Yours. Help me to trust You more completely and thoroughly.”
Illustration: Charles Blondin and True Trust
In closing, I was reading about, in 1859, a French acrobat named Charles Blondin. I had to look this up to see if this was accurate because it was so bizarre. He was a French acrobat in the 1850s who amazed the world by walking a tightrope stretched across Niagara Falls. Crowds would gather while he crossed with some of the most daring stunts—blindfolded at times, on stilts. He even carried a stove to cook an omelet midway over the roaring waters. That’s what I had to look up to see if that actually happened—it did. His fame grew, and so did his challenges. For his grand finale, he announced to the world he’s going to carry a man across on his back. He offered $1,000—that was a huge sum of money at the time—to anyone who’d be willing to be carried on his back on that line across Niagara Falls.
Many showed up from the advertisements in the paper. He demonstrated his skills to all of them, carrying heavy sacks across the rope with ease. Then he turned to all of them—there were a lot of people, a lot of men, volunteers. He said, “Do you believe that I can carry a man across the falls?” Every one of them said, “Yes, absolutely.” Then he asked, “Will you let me carry you?” One by one, they all backed away. No one would entrust themselves to him.
You see what’s going on. They believed with their words, but not their lives. There’s a great difference between intellectually affirming something and being willing to put yourself on the line. This widow teaches us, to be a disciple of Jesus, faith is not just saying Jesus can carry us. It’s getting on His back. It’s entrusting your whole self, your whole body, your whole soul, to the only One who can safely carry you and me home.
Like the widow who gave not out of her abundance but out of her poverty, offering her whole life into the hands of God, may we follow in such footsteps, because Jesus has given Himself for us.
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray.
Father, how we need You. How quickly our hearts are bent to follow the way of the scribes, wanting the accolades, wanting the attention. But truly, we have nothing to offer, but we can only rejoice in You. Help us as disciples of Yours to trust You completely. You have done nothing to prove that You’re unfaithful, and so may our hearts be found safely in Your hands. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Let’s stand together.
This transcript has been edited for readability