Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – 2 Timothy 3-4
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 12:43-44
Jesus (calling His disciples together): Truly this widow has given a greater gift than any other contribution. All the others gave a little out of their great abundance, but this poor woman has given God everything she has.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
I haven’t seen one in a long time, but I remember you could find them at least while my kids were little. Okay, stop the suspense. What I’m I talking about. I’m talking about those big yellow or red plastic or metal barrels with a funnel shaped top that you put a coin at the top and it spins around and around until it falls into the hole in the funnel and disappears into the big barrel. It’s fun to see how many times you can make the coins spin around the outside of the conical shaped top before it finally disappears into the cavern below.
We tried to limit the size of the contribution to those things to pennies at those amusement centers whenever we found them, because of course you’d never see the coins again and the only excitement was watching the coin spin around and disappear. But on the metal ones, nickles sounded so much better than pennies, and when dimes and quarters were real silver, the difference in sound was really incredible. The coins seemed to sing as they spun around that metal cone before the barrel gobbled them up.
So what does that have to do with Jesus’ words. Well, at the entrance to the temple, there were these contraptions similar to the devices I just described from my childhood that you’ve probably seen as well. But these were made of brass. They were designed so that when coins were dropped into them, the coins would fall into the container at the bottom, but no one could put their hand into the opening at the top and steal any. But this conical shape at the top made it easy to just toss money in without much fear of missing the opening. Surprisingly, the word used to describe these vessels in Hebrew, was the word trumpet.
So get this picture. When Jesus talks about not sounding your trumpets before men, picture these scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees dressed in their fine linens and purple robes. Picture them in all their tapestry and finery walking into the temple gates and brushing aside all those layers of robes to unveil their money purse. They watch in your mind as they loosen the ties and reach into that purse to find the right silver coin. He holds it up to the light and checks to see if it well rounded with no rough edges.
Then with years of practice, he puts a special spin on that coin and it twirls around and around that brass trumpet singing to the crowd as gravity finally pulls it into the hole and into the treasure chest. Finally, the clink of the coin echoes in the chamber and he looks around to make sure everyone heard that familiar sound. He has paid well. His trumpet has sounded before men!
Contrast that to the widow Jesus describes. She comes to the temple in her rags. She barely has enough to eat. Remember, women have no place in society. Without a husband, she is left to beg and hope that some family member will have mercy on her and give her some means of sustenance. But she still comes to the temple and as she approaches that same trumpet, she has already been holding tight to the only two coins in her purse. It’s only two pennies, but it’s all she has. It’s not much, but it’s everything.
She’s almost embarrassed to walk among these great men of prominence who have made their money sing in the trumpets, but she is determined to give what she has and so she reaches far over into the middle of the device and slips the coins into the hole, careful that they don’t touch the sides. She would place them on the pile of coins at the bottom so they would make no noise at all if she could. She wants no attraction. She just wants to give her offering and get to the court of women to pray.
Jesus admires the woman and her gift. Not so much those who want the fanfare for their “generosity”. He says they have already had their reward, the praise of men. But what is that worth? I’d much rather have the favor of God. When we do things to please men, we lose because we can never please everyone. And the next time, they will expect more anyway. But when we do things to please God, He knows our heart. He knows the motive behind the action. He doesn’t care about the size of the act, but about the heart behind the act. But remember He does know the heart behind the act.
God will be thrilled when He gets “C+” work from His “C” student. But don’t expect Him to get very excited when He gets that same “C+” work from His “B” student. He expects us to give Him our all, to work hard for Him, to commit everything to Him. After all, He is God and He deserves it. Don’t sound your trumpet, just do it.
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