“A Holy And Acceptable Offering”
Text: Mark 12:38-44
11-10-2024
In the name of Him who offered Himself up as a perfect sin offering for us, dear friends in Christ. 3 weeks ago, we heard Jesus say in the Gospel lesson that it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Some of you may recall that I said how tempting it would be to twist that passage into a sermon about giving money to the church rather than hanging onto it yourself. But that would totally miss the point of what Jesus was teaching. As we saw, that illustration focused on the faith issue rather than money per se. Well, in today's Gospel we've got a similar situation. Even though Jesus is speaking directly about monetary offerings this time, He’s more interested in teaching about the attitude that drives such giving because that attitude speaks volumes about a person’s faith or the lack thereof.
As always, if you want to understand the true meaning of a passage then you need to examine the context of it. So that’s what we'll start with. This incident took place on Tuesday or Wednesday of Holy Week right before Jesus died. Just a few days earlier, He had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with the crowds shouting His praises. The very next day He forcefully chased out those who were selling animals and exchanging money on the Temple grounds. And do you remember why? Jesus said that this holy place was supposed to be a house of prayer, but these hawkers had turned it into a den of robbers by ripping people off. They were distracting and hindering people from offering up holy prayers and acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.
But worse than that, the religious system was teaching that righteousness before God could be bought by their offerings and pious living. And so, the common worshiper would try to imitate the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees because they were viewed to be in the "holier than thou" club. There was even a vigorous competition between these groups to outdo the other guy with their acts of holiness. They added layer upon layer of manmade rules and rituals for achieving that goal. But in the process, they distorted God's purpose behind the sacrifices and offerings, and here I mean only the ones that the Lord had commanded. In the opening verses of our text, Jesus makes it clear that it’s all a façade. Their external acts of piety were merely for gaining prestige and honor from their fellow man, not to honor God. And Christ makes it clear that they were condemned rather than praised, especially for misleading God’s people.
It’s no coincidence that He then sat down near the treasury where the offerings were received to further teach His lesson. These “offering boxes" were tall, metal containers. Think of it as a large, brass, 30-gallon vase. Since they didn't have any paper money, as you can imagine, it was rather noisy when they dropped their coins into it. Now, if your attitude in giving your offering was to show off then this was ideal because a rich person's deposit would make everybody ooh and ah. It rang out the message of “Look at me!" The two little copper coins of that widow, though, would make a pitiful, unnoticed clink-clink sound. Most people witnessing this certainly would judge that the rich person had given much more than this poor woman did. But Jesus turned the tables on that way of thinking. You see, the amount wasn’t the issue. The attitude of the heart was. This woman had given her offering out of sincere faith and love for God while the others had not. Therefore, her offering was holy and acceptable. Theirs wasn't. Her offering reflected a total dedication of her life to the Lord. She didn’t have much but she was grateful to God for it all the same, especially the spiritual blessings He had bestowed on her. Jesus commended her for it. And that's a powerful lesson for us.
A faith that recognizes the gifts of both body and soul that God gives to us produces this kind of attitude. And quite frankly, that's what makes the difference between your offering being holy and acceptable rather than an unholy stench to our heavenly Father. No one except you and God knows what’s in your heart so I can't judge if your offering is acceptable to Him. However, sometimes people make their hidden motives clear. Longer ago in one of the congregations that I served we received an offering in the mail from a former member who had moved away. So far, so good, right? Well, not so fast. You see, she was disgruntled about something and sent a snarky letter with her check. It basically said, “I hear you’re a little short on money down there in your puny congregation so here’s my contribution to the cause.” After discussing it, the Elders and I decided to send the check back with a polite, “Thanks, but no thanks” note. Her attitude made the offering unacceptable to God and therefore we too had to reject it. Folks, even though your offering in the plate may not make a loud noise, if you go out of your way to let people know how much you give to the church or if you give with an attitude like this lady I just described, then forget it. Your attitude makes it unacceptable.
However, I would point out to you that we’re not just speaking of monetary offerings here. As Jesus teaches us in our Gospel reading, your holy living is also an offering that is directed by the attitude of your heart. If you serve on a church board or offer your time in some other way because you’re hoping people will acknowledge your piety and admire you for it, that’s unacceptable. If you’re hoping that people will notice your worship attendance and think of you as a holy person who’s better than all those other “common” sinners, then that’s an unacceptable offering to God. If you pray in public, like at a restaurant, because you want to be noticed, that too is unacceptable. Elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus says that with that kind of attitude the praise you receive from your fellow man is all the recognition you're going to get. God will certainly not look at it as holy and acceptable.
On the other hand, if you’re doing any of those things with a humble and grateful heart while not expecting any praise or recognition then that makes all the difference in the world. It starts with the understanding that we can’t buy our righteousness with the things we do or say. You could never give enough if your money to God in order to pay for the salvation He bought for you with the blood of Jesus on the cross. When we come to worship, God is the giver and we are the receivers. Our offerings of money and time, worship and praise are merely our grateful response for all the blessings of body and soul that we’ve already received. It's with an attitude of gratefulness that we offer them to the Lord for the undeserved forgiveness He so richly pours out on us. With gratitude we offer them up for the grace He richly poured out on us in our Baptisms and for the gift of faith just as we witnessed Ara receiving today. Holy Communion is sometimes called the Eucharist, which comes from the Greek word for “thanksgiving.” That’s because we are to humbly receive the body and blood of Christ with an attitude of thankfulness for our salvation that He purchased with His sacrifice.
Consider that sacrifice and you’ll see the attitude that God is looking for. St. Paul tells us that Jesus, the Son of God, “emptied Himself” of all His Divine privilege in order to become a man. He humbled Himself by living a perfect life, suffering, and then dying for our sake. And as our Epistle lesson says, He offered the blood of that holy sacrifice in the heavenly sanctuary “to bear the sins of many.” He dedicated His innocent life, not for adulation and praise {which He certainly deserves} but He did it to save us because of His unending love. The offering of His perfect life on our behalf is holy and acceptable because His attitude was one of total submission to God’s will. As believers in Him, pondering on that fills our hearts with humble thankfulness, which seeks to dedicate our lives in a like manner to the will of God. From that flows our other holy and acceptable offerings of faith.
Did you ever wonder what might happened to that poor widow after she left the Temple? Since she offered to the Lord the money she would have used for food, did God let her experience a miracle like the widow in the Old Testament? It’s possible but we don’t know for sure. What we do know is that God continued to supply her needs of body and soul because that’s what He has promised for those whom He loves. She may never have had an abundance of material possessions, but she certainly had spiritual blessings filled to the brim and overflowing. And if her attitude remained that way throughout her life, you can be sure that her offerings to God continued to be holy and acceptable. You know, it’s fitting that we never learn this widow’s name because her offering was not about bringing attention to herself. In loving gratitude to our Savior, may all of our offerings be given humbly and without fanfare. And may they always be holy and acceptable to our benevolent God who has so richly blessed us in every way. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!