So don't be impressed by those who get rich and pile up fame and fortune. They can't take it with them. Fame and fortune all get left behind. Just when they think they've arrived and people praise them because they've made good, they enter the family burial plot where they'll never see sunshine again.
We aren't immortal. We don't last long. Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.
(The Message Bible, Vs. 16-20)
Happy Friday the 13th! The message from The Message is sobering and could start the day all wrong except that it teaches about focus. There is something wrong in the heart that envies the rich. We all want to be comfortable and not to have to worry about money. A friend of mine told the story of his work day yesterday. He is an electrician and was working in a boom about thirty feet in the air when he noticed a newer model Toyota pull up into a nearby parking lot. Out of the car stepped a nicely dressed woman who proceeded to get into her back seat and change clothes. The next time she stepped out, she was wearing the trappings of a homeless woman and carrying a sign as she headed to the street corner to beg for money. A couple of hours later she returned to her car, changed clothes once again, and drove off. It's a job. Making people feel good about giving to the poor. I'm sure that is how she justifies it. Perhaps the money she cons from well-meaning people pays her car payment. Hopefully it feeds her kids. Maybe it buys her drugs. Who knows? Maybe she lives out of her new Toyota. Perhaps it was stolen. But on some level her earnings are the result of a scam.
Jesus took a seat opposite the Temple treasury in Jerusalem and watched as people came by with their offerings to God. Many rich people, with much fanfare, put in large sums of money in a show of piety and righteousness. Others simply dropped from their earnings the tithe demanded of them by the Law. The thing is, Jesus knew their hearts as they walked by. Unaware that the God Who had made them was sitting on the other side of the street watching them give, they performed the function as normal. Then she walked by. Her husband had recently died. She had nothing to give but the last two copper coins in the jar in her kitchen. Those she clasped in her hand as she followed the rich and middle class Jews in front of her down the line to the box into which all put their alms and tithes. No one else but God would have noticed her. She was nobody giving nothing. The coins represented a day's work for a laborer....a fraction of a cent. Laughable really that she thought the pittance would somehow be of value to the church. It would buy pretty much nothing to grace the golden interior nor buy any significant thing for even the poor of Jerusalem. Why give it? Jesus knew. She needed her money, BUT she loved God more.
Jesus couldn't take His eyes off her. "Come here." He waved His disciples over to the curb to sit with Him. "Look at that widow," He said.
They saw a widow. Nothing more. A little confused at the rapt attention she was drawing from Jesus.
"She just gave more than all of these people."
Oh, now they get it. She looks like she has nothing but she's really rich! "Wow! How much did she give?"
"Everything she had." Jesus has a half-smile playing on His lips. "The last two coins. She needed them to live on but gave them anyway."
Okay. He lost them again.
"The others gave out of their surplus. I love this woman's heart because she loves God enough to trust that even if she gives it all, He will take care of her....but even if He didn't..." Jesus is shaking His head at how amazing this is. At the heart of the woman who loves God more than she loves her own life. Actually. No fanfare. No, "Look at me!!! I am giving it all for Jesus!!" Just a widow walking by an offering box and giving, then walking away. But He saw her. Knew her. Admired her. Praised her. Showed her off to those closest to Him. And she never knew it.
I am certain God took care of her. There is nothing in the Bible that says what happened to the widow, but there are promises connected to the heart that gives back to God in reciprocal love. The others? He didn't speak of their hearts. One way or the other. The fact that this woman was willing to give Him everything was important to Him. Would she have given it all had she vast wealth? Don't know. Would that have meant more to Him than her giving of her last two coins? No, I don't think so. It was why she gave, not what. The humility and reverence in her heart that says money is not as important to me as He is. Had she had more, perhaps wealth would have gotten in the way of her devotion. But that is not the way the story went.
If money is so important to us that we will do anything to make it or keep it, it is an idol. It can be wielded as a weapon, used in a scam, given for self-glorification or squandered in hedonism. If we know it is fickle and fleeting, we will not attach our hearts to it so that we cannot let it go before death takes it from us anyway. We will sow with it. We will handle it lightly as we do all earthly treasures allowed to us by God. For ultimately it is my heart He weighs, not the coins I put in the box.
We aren't immortal. We don't last long. Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.
(The Message Bible, Vs. 16-20)
Happy Friday the 13th! The message from The Message is sobering and could start the day all wrong except that it teaches about focus. There is something wrong in the heart that envies the rich. We all want to be comfortable and not to have to worry about money. A friend of mine told the story of his work day yesterday. He is an electrician and was working in a boom about thirty feet in the air when he noticed a newer model Toyota pull up into a nearby parking lot. Out of the car stepped a nicely dressed woman who proceeded to get into her back seat and change clothes. The next time she stepped out, she was wearing the trappings of a homeless woman and carrying a sign as she headed to the street corner to beg for money. A couple of hours later she returned to her car, changed clothes once again, and drove off. It's a job. Making people feel good about giving to the poor. I'm sure that is how she justifies it. Perhaps the money she cons from well-meaning people pays her car payment. Hopefully it feeds her kids. Maybe it buys her drugs. Who knows? Maybe she lives out of her new Toyota. Perhaps it was stolen. But on some level her earnings are the result of a scam.
Jesus took a seat opposite the Temple treasury in Jerusalem and watched as people came by with their offerings to God. Many rich people, with much fanfare, put in large sums of money in a show of piety and righteousness. Others simply dropped from their earnings the tithe demanded of them by the Law. The thing is, Jesus knew their hearts as they walked by. Unaware that the God Who had made them was sitting on the other side of the street watching them give, they performed the function as normal. Then she walked by. Her husband had recently died. She had nothing to give but the last two copper coins in the jar in her kitchen. Those she clasped in her hand as she followed the rich and middle class Jews in front of her down the line to the box into which all put their alms and tithes. No one else but God would have noticed her. She was nobody giving nothing. The coins represented a day's work for a laborer....a fraction of a cent. Laughable really that she thought the pittance would somehow be of value to the church. It would buy pretty much nothing to grace the golden interior nor buy any significant thing for even the poor of Jerusalem. Why give it? Jesus knew. She needed her money, BUT she loved God more.
Jesus couldn't take His eyes off her. "Come here." He waved His disciples over to the curb to sit with Him. "Look at that widow," He said.
They saw a widow. Nothing more. A little confused at the rapt attention she was drawing from Jesus.
"She just gave more than all of these people."
Oh, now they get it. She looks like she has nothing but she's really rich! "Wow! How much did she give?"
"Everything she had." Jesus has a half-smile playing on His lips. "The last two coins. She needed them to live on but gave them anyway."
Okay. He lost them again.
"The others gave out of their surplus. I love this woman's heart because she loves God enough to trust that even if she gives it all, He will take care of her....but even if He didn't..." Jesus is shaking His head at how amazing this is. At the heart of the woman who loves God more than she loves her own life. Actually. No fanfare. No, "Look at me!!! I am giving it all for Jesus!!" Just a widow walking by an offering box and giving, then walking away. But He saw her. Knew her. Admired her. Praised her. Showed her off to those closest to Him. And she never knew it.
I am certain God took care of her. There is nothing in the Bible that says what happened to the widow, but there are promises connected to the heart that gives back to God in reciprocal love. The others? He didn't speak of their hearts. One way or the other. The fact that this woman was willing to give Him everything was important to Him. Would she have given it all had she vast wealth? Don't know. Would that have meant more to Him than her giving of her last two coins? No, I don't think so. It was why she gave, not what. The humility and reverence in her heart that says money is not as important to me as He is. Had she had more, perhaps wealth would have gotten in the way of her devotion. But that is not the way the story went.
If money is so important to us that we will do anything to make it or keep it, it is an idol. It can be wielded as a weapon, used in a scam, given for self-glorification or squandered in hedonism. If we know it is fickle and fleeting, we will not attach our hearts to it so that we cannot let it go before death takes it from us anyway. We will sow with it. We will handle it lightly as we do all earthly treasures allowed to us by God. For ultimately it is my heart He weighs, not the coins I put in the box.
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