JCSLK 64 Jesus and The Widows Memorial Mark 12:41-44

 

JCSLK 64 Jesus and The Widows Memorial
Mark 12:41-44

 Introduction: 

The full story of the widow’s mites is, in my eyes, the climatic lesson at the end of a very long day of Jesus teaching the people, debating and then challenging the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians and scribes. The story of this poor widow is the final lesson on that day that Jesus brings before the disciples. Jesus wanted them to see her as the antithesis of the Pharisees and scribes. Jesus tells them, “look at this woman.” He wanted His apostles, his church then to take note of her, to learn from her act that day. I believe on this Memorial Sunday in 2026 we as Jesus’ church today, should once again “look at her.” The purpose of Memorial day is to honor those who gave their all for our country, and this unnamed widow was honored by Jesus because she gave her all to the Lord that day in the Temple.

Timeline

As we have built this section of sermons around a timeline, let’s look at that timeline.

All of this is taken place during, “The Passion Week” the last week of Jesus life, that week begins with the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. When the Pharisees tell Jesus to make the people quit praising “the son of David,” Jesus tells them, If they should be quiet even the stones would cry out.”

On the next day (Tuesday) – Jesus curses the barren fig tree on the way into Jerusalem from Bethany. Once there He cleanses the Temple for the 2nd time, There is another confrontation with Pharisees, as the Children begin singing Hosannas to the Son of David. Again the Pharisees tell him to make them stop singing, Jesus quotes the Old Testament, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hath he ordained wisdom.”

In the middle of the week is “The Busy Day”, this will be the last day of Jesus’ public  ministry - In the morning, the cursed fig tree is now withered, Mark 11:20-21 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. Jesus then teaches them about faith in pray. The fig tree for us also stands as a symbol of the nation of Israel barren, without fruit, without faith and soon to be judged by God.

Then in the Temple, Jesus’ authority is again challenged by Pharisees and chief priests. Mark 11:28 By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?

Jesus now in the Temple courtyard, begins uses parables to teach. He tells the parable of the Two Sons, the Parable of the Talents, and Parable of the Wedding Feast, we covered these last Sunday.

After hearing these parables which were against the Pharisees, Jesus is challenged again.  Mark 12:13-14 And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?

After answering that challenge, with “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.” He then is challenged by another group of religious elitists, the Sadducees, Mark 12:18-23 Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise. And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.

He silences the Sadducees by telling them there is a resurrection and in the resurrection, marriage will no longer exist in heaven.  Then a Scribe approaches and asks about the greatest commandment in Mark 12:28 and that is where we will begin the sermon this morning. 

The next day, Thursday, brings the Passover, Lord’s Supper, the Upper Room Discourse, Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Betrayal, Arrest, Trail, and Crucifixion and burial just before sunset.

And then on Sunday Jesus rises from the dead at Sunrise.

The story of the widow and her giving takes place right in the midst of all that is happening during the Passion week, and it is the last thing that Jesus publicly teaches on. It is vastly more than just a quick observation. As the fig tree acts as a symbol of faithless, unbelieving Israel, this widow is a symbol of faithful believers in Israel.

Let’s go to Mark 12:28 to the immediate context that ushers in the widow’s story.

The Savior’s Answer - Mark 12:28-34

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

The Sincere Scribe

Who was this man asking Jesus, the famous, miracle working, itinerate Rabbi, about the greatest commandment? Originally, the scribes were a class of Levites that were needed to copy and recopy scripture. In a society before the printing press, this was a highly skilled, important job. After Israel returned from captivity in Babylon and Persia, the scribes became even more important both as recorders of scripture but also as interpreters of scripture. They were the experts on the law and were often called lawyers as well as scribes. As far as we know all the scribes were also Pharisees, though they seemed to be a sect of specially trained for this role.

Now Jesus has just shut down the Sadducees who had asked the question about marriage and the resurrection that was meant to make Jesus look foolish, instead He completely silenced them. The Pharisees, who viewed the Sadducees as enemies, approved of Jesus’ answer since they believed in the resurrection, while the Sadducees did not. That may have been why this scribe seems to be sincerely seeking an answer to an eternally important question.

Mark 12:28, “Which is the first commandment of all?” According to those who have counted them, there were 613 commandments in the Law, 365 were negatives, and 248 were positive. Of all these which one is the most important? That is a good question, one we all need to know the answer.

Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. This is the “Shema,” Israel’s statement of faith about Jehovah their God. It is quoted every day and evening by the Jews. Jesus quotes the passage but adds the phrase with all thy mind, to heart, soul, and might. The meaning of the command is to love the Lord God with all man’s powers, abilities and capacities. The whole being is to be poured out in love to God. This is the truth that forms the foundation of man’s total duty and relationship to God.

Jesus then adds the 2nd most important commandment from Leviticus 19:18 “…thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.” The most important commandant is the basis for our obligation to God and the second is the basis of our obligation to our fellowman.  In Matthew 22:40 We read that Jesus summed up the answer by saying, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” They are the foundation of everything the Law asks of us.

 The scribe after hearing the Lord’s answer replies, Mark 12:32-33 Well (spoken), Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. That is a wonderful response to the teaching of Jesus, he doesn’t argue, he doesn’t try to ridicule or set a trap. He simply acknowledges the truth.

Now, look at Jesus’ response to this sincere scribe, in Mark 12:34 “And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”  The word discreetly means with intelligence, with wisdom, with understanding.  The thing that kept this man from being in the Kingdom of God, is what Jesus next teaches there in the Temple.

Sincerely Seeking

I can’t help but think, as I read of this scribe and his question, of so many people who ae seeking in this world. Seeking for something greater than what they see around them, something more lasting, something that would fill the emptiness in their heart and soul.

I wonder how many of them attend church, or can quote Bible verses or have been baptized but if they could have the conversation this scribe had with Jesus, it would end with the same statement, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

It is such an encouraging statement and at the same time that encouragement is limited because the scribe is only close. He yet stands outside the kingdom, the scribe know there is something greater, something more,  but in all their seeking they haven’t come to the place where they can enter in. But the scribe asks no follow-up question. He doesn’t ask, “If I am close how do I get in?” Jesus in John gave that answer, “I am the door. No man enters in but by me.”

“You are not far from the kingdom of God” I wonder if it could be said of anyone here today? You are not far, but you are not there. The door is still closed. The path is still not taken, until you come to Jesus in faith and He opens that door to salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Mary O’Donal’s Dad

A Catholic man, who said he believed the Bible, believe Jesus died on the cross for his sins but had never prayed directly to God. He knew he was a sinner but had never confessed his sin to God, only to a priest and had never repented and directly asked God to forgive him.

He was not far. He believed in God, believed Jesus died for His sin, believed in heaven, in hell, but still he stood outside. This morning each of us must know, where do I stand? Am I close to the kingdom of heaven or do I still stand outside of salvation?

Once Jesus answers these questions, Mark records that no man dared to challenge him or ensnare Him with their questions of theology, law or taxes. He had utterly defeated them. He was utterly intellectually victorious, but Jesus did not come to earth in order to be the world’s greatest debater. He come to be man’s savior.

Then Jesus has a question for them. It is a question that brings into focus the one thing that kept the scribe outside the kingdom. It is the single most important answer of time and eternity. Look at the question in vs. 34-40

The Savior’s Question - Mark 12:35-40

And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.

The Questioning Christ

Jesus has silenced the scribes, Pharisees, Herodians, chief priests and elder of Israel. They don’t dare challenge Him again. They are finished with Him, but Jesus is not finished with them. He asks, “How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?” In the parallel passage in Matthew, it is even clearer that he is now directly challenging them, in Matthew 22:41-42, “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.” Then Jesus springs His own trap, not to win the day, He has already done that, but to show all how to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The quotation in Mark is taken from Psalms 110:1. The Jews knew that this passage was about the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ. They knew that the Messiah would be the son of David, he would come through the lineage and family of David.

Then Jesus asks the question of the ages for the Jewish people listening that day, How can David call the Messiah, Lord. How can the Messiah be both David’s exalted Lord and his son? Matthew states in Matthew 22:46, “And no man was able to answer him a word,” Nor did Jesus answer the question for them. Do you know why? Because He was the answer. He was David’s son and at the same time, He was David’s Lord. Standing before them, was the incarnate Son of God, their longed for, prayed for Messiah of Israel. Jesus, himself was the answer personified in their presence. They couldn’t answer His question because the only answer they could give was for them to fall on their faces before their Messiah, Savior and King. The only answer was to worship the Son of God.

Jesus then warns the crowd listening to Him of the poison of these corrupt elitist hypocrites. They could not stand before Him intellectually, they are so spiritually blind that they will not bow before Him. Mark has three verses of warning against these hypocrites, but Matthew records the entire sermon in the harshest, most condemning chapter in the New Testament. In the 23rd Chapter of Matthew we hear Jesus’ words ring out over and over again. Matthew 23:13 “… woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”

I can’t imagine, when it was over, that there was a single pharisee or scribe left anywhere in the Temple grounds, but like the money changer the previous day, Jesus had driven them out, this time not with a stinging whip of cords but with the sharp cut of truth in His words.

That truth Jesus asked the scribes about, is the key to enter the kingdom of heaven. That question is the one we must answer if we are to cross open that door. Here it is, the question of eternity, …

“Who Do You Say I Am?”

I believe the question Jesus challenged the Pharisees with that day, is the same question each of us must answer in this day. Who is Jesus or as Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?

In Matthew 16:15-16, as Jesus and the disciples were withdrawn from the attacks of the Pharisees back in Jerusalem, Jesus turns to them as asks, “whom say ye that I am?” Listen to the answer that Peter gives, “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter answered the question the Pharisees could not answer. You and I must also face and answer that same question. Jesus asks each of us, “Who do you say I am?” What is your testimony? What is your confession of who Jesus is? We either answer in faith, with Peter, that Jesus is the Christ, the savior, the son of the living God, or we must retreat in silence and shame with the unbelieving Pharisees and stand outside the Kingdom.

No other name - Acts 4:8-12

Scripture: After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Peter along with John, heal a man sitting by the Beautiful Gate. When they are arrested the same Pharisees that challenged Jesus, now challenge them, about their authority. Their answer in Acts 4:8-12, “Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

The answer to eternity is Jesus. He is the key that opens the gates of the kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees would not believe it, the Sadducees could not accept it and the scribes could not see it but you and I know the answer. It is Jesus, who is creator, savior, lord and king.

Listen to this transition from AT Roberston’s NT Word Pictures, “The storm is over. The Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, scribes, have all slunk away in terror ere the closing words. Mark draws this immortal picture of the weary Christ sitting by the treasury. - A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Mk 12:41.

This widow exemplifies all the teaching Jesus did that day. Her act is what Jesus wants us to remember.

The Savior’s Sight - Mark 12:41–44

And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

The Wonderous Widow

Jesus was the master teacher of parables, and the master of seeing the truth of God in all the events of life and creation. Whether it be a wedding or a wineskin or the wind blowing, Jesus could turn it into a sermon. And now that is what He does here.

 Jesus with his words and teaching has driven away those that oppose Him and the Bible says he is sitting across from the treasury. He must be weary, He has been teaching and debating all day. Jesus is sitting, resting from the conflict and contention of the day. He is sitting in the temple was called the Court of the Women, where women were allowed to enter. The Treasury or we would say Offering area consisted of thirteen trumpet-shaped chests that stood here for the monetary offering brought by the people. You can see a depiction of them in the PowerPoint background.

Jesus sees many people casting in their offering, there are millions of people in Jerusalem for the Passover. The giving goes on and on, rich, poor, men, women and then Jesus sees a poor widow woman. The same kind of woman that Jesus had just preached were the targets of the Pharisees and scribes, who would devour the widow’s house while making a long pretentious prayer. A widow just like his mother, Mary.

Jesus sees he watches her, this poverty-stricken woman as she walks by one of those treasury boxes, He sees her pull two coins out and cast them in the treasury. The KJV calls them mites which was a coin being used in the KJV translators’ times. In the Greek the word is lepton and it was the smallest of all copper coins, equal to one-eighth of a cent. In fact, the word lepton literally means peeled or stripped because it was so thin. It was just a thin scrap of copper. I’m glad to know the original word, but I don’t think calling them the Widow’s leptons has the same ring.

To Jesus that weary late afternoon, this widow’s offering is important, note-worthy and should be seen by those who follow Him. Jesus calls his disciples and points her out. Mark 12:43 (Notice, Jesus precedes his declaration with the qualifier of absolute truth, “Verily, I say unto you, this poor widow has cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury before her.”

The rich of all the Jewish nation had been walking by and throwing in what may have been their yearly tithes and offering, but Jesus didn’t call the disciples to look at them. No, Jesus called them to look at a unpretentious, unnamed, unknown, unimportant widow. He tells them, this is the truth I want you to see, an example of the truth from all that day’s teaching, the truth of giving and living faithfully.

Here is what Jesus saw and what he marks as a memorial, for them and for us to remember. Mark 12:44 “For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”

It may have been the smallest monetary offering given that day, but in the Lord’s eyes it was the greatest life offering given that day. It was a true example of what that scribe had asked earlier. What is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord they God with all you have, and that is what this woman had just done. The money she gave was her living, she needed it to buy food, or clothing or something else that would sustain her life, but she gave it away. Jesus saw her love for her God, poured our of her hand, out of her life and into the service of God.  She loved the Lord, her God with all she had.

Jesus tells the disciples, “Look, here is truth. Here is love. Here is the greatest commandment being lived right before your eyes.”    

Are We Willing To Give All?

Is there anything I can say or add this morning that would be more convicting that what Jesus has just shown us? What Jesus would have us remember. That lesson, that memorial is just as real today as it was that Passover week 2 thousand years ago.

I have to ask myself. When have I ever given away my all? When have I ever given my living, my sustenance as a gift to the Lord I love? Aren’t you convicted, aren’t you challenged as the disciples must have been that day?

Is Your All On The Altar

Oh, we never can know
What the Lord will bestow
Of the blessings for which we have prayed,
Till our body and soul
He doth fully control,
And our all on the altar is laid.

Who can tell all the love
He will send from above,
And how happy our hearts will be made;
Of the fellowship sweet
We shall share at His feet,
When our all on the altar is laid.

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest,
And have peace and sweet rest,
As you yield Him your body and soul.

Conclusion: 

We have a replica of the widow’s mite to give to you this morning as you leave. Take it home, keep it in your pocket or place it on a desk or table where you’ll see it in the next few days and weeks. And every time you see it, or put your hand in your pocket and feel it there, I want it to be a memorial of this woman who gave her all that day to the Lord, and may each of us ask ourselves, “What can I give?”

It may not be money, it may be time, it may be commitment, it may be obedience, it may be your life, it may be your heart. When that happens, let me urge you, or as Paul said beseech you, give whatever it may be to God. Cast it into the treasury of heaven.

For as Jesus said, Matthew 6:19-21, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.