The poor widow
We who are saved have everything in Jesus.
We read here in Mark 12:43 that the poor widow placed all
that she had in the sacrificial box in the temple.
"Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.They all gave out their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-all she had to live on."
„What is "Everything"? Let's look at the word "everything" in the Bible.1 Cor. 3,21 says So no man glories in the sight of men, for everything is yours. It is Paul or Apollos or Cephas, it is world or life or death, it is present or future; everything is yours, but you are Christ's, but Christ is God’s.Everything is yours because it is God's. Everything belongs to God. It is his property. He did not rob it. The earth belongs to the Lord, all animals, all gold, and ultimately all human beings. But God must reclaim man, because Satan robbed him and made him his property. The devil is your father, says the Lord in John 8. The widow's heart belonged to God. She had confided in him. And she also knew God's promise that God cares about widows. Ps 68.6 A father of the orphans and a widow's helper is God in his holy dwelling 5 Mo 10 17. For the LORD your God is the God of all gods and the lord of all lords, the great God, the mighty and the terrible, who does not look upon the person and takesno gift 18 and creates justice for the orphans and widows and loves the strangers that he gives them food and clothes.Let's look at Abraham. How did God win his heart?Genesis 17: 1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD Abram appeared to him, saying, I am the almighty God; run in front of me and be perfect."I am the Almighty God." Hebrew "El Shaddai". El Shaddai means much more than the All-Power, he also has the role of a breadwinner. El Shaddai the Almighty blesses his people with "blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the depths below, blessings of the breasts and the womb" (Genesis 49:25). Just as a mother nourishes her children with the milk of her breast, so the Lord, our God, El-Shaddai, tenderly nourishes his own chosen ones with the fullness of his being. In fact, the word "Shaddai" comes from a word that means "breasts". Paul too has this nature of God. In 1 Thess 2.7although we could have been weighty as the apostle of Christ; but we have been tender in your midst, as a nursing mother cares for her children.El-Shaddai also means "God who pours out". Our God is like a fountain that overflows with grace and more grace and grace that flows to us with constant abundance, like a mighty river from the throne of God.Rom 5,17 For if by the transgression of the one death has been ruled by the one, many who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.Jn 1,16 For we have received all out of His fullness, and grace for mercy.El-Shaddai means to us: "God is perfectly sufficient." God alone is enough.Like the Hebrew YHWH Hebrew יהוה; Engl. YHWH can also be translated: "I am here for you". Moses got to know "Ichbin" in his actions. Abraham knew him as "I am Almighty God".He who lives in confidence has faith that he needs nothing but God.Because, "who is like God"? "Who is like God?" - in Hebrew מיכאל = Mikha'el1. God does not need anything from anyone.2. God is able to fulfill all our needs.3. God is perfect.V.41-44: "And Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and saw how the crowd put money in the treasury and many empires put in a lot. And a poor widow came and laid two mites, that is a penny and he called his disciples and said to them: Verily, I say to you, this poor widow has invested more than all those who have lodged in the treasury, for all they have invested their abundance, but they have their livelihood from their want, everything that they had invested. "The age of Israel and the law was rapidly coming to an end. But in those days this temple was still recognized by our Lord as his father's house. It is very important. Even though God could no longer glorify himself in this temple, the Lord Jesus said at the age of twelve that it was his father's house.Yes, she was a poor widow, it is attested by the word of God. She was poor, but her heart was connected to this temple. The temple was the dwelling of God. The poor widow was connected to the temple. That's what matters, the connection. Also in our life it depends on the connection, the connection to Jesus, our Lord.There are many ties to which we can be bound, if not in bondage, as Paul says, "I, a bound Jesus Christ."Acts 20,22 And now behold, bound in the Spirit, I go to Jerusalem and do not know what I will encounter there,Philemon 1: 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, the brother, Philemon, the Beloved and our associate,Philemon 1, 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and fellow workerActs 20, 22 And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit of Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall afflict me there:All other ties that are not binding on Jesus should be hated. As long as these other connections have not yet become a sin for us, which we have recognized and which we hate, we will not avoid these sins, but seek.This widow, she put two copper coins in her treasure chest from her livelihood. She did not think about her condition in her poverty. She gave all her current possessions to the preservation of the House of the Lord.This widow was an old woman. And how precious, if we look, is this devotion to the house of God. But she has grasped it, not in her head, not in her mind, but in her heart. Yes, that's why Jesus does not look into our minds, but Jesus looks at our hearts. This is written here. We should live more in the Word of God, so that we also have part in the tremendous overflowing joy that is already given to us in Jesus, not just in eternity. There in eternity Divine things will certainly happen to us, because we can not grasp eternity here in the flesh. But we should already be overflowing here in the fullness of Christ, even in the necessary joy.The Lord Jesus drew the attention of the disciples to this poor widow. How precious was this devotion to his house, as we see from this, that the Lord mentions the widow's sacrifice. What seemed so small in the eyes of men was precious in the eyes of the Lord, more than precious. He says here in God's Word that their two copper coins were more than anything else placed in the treasury of God. He says clearly, she has invested more in this treasure chest than all, as David was there too. This is the image that Jesus wants us to see, that it does not depend on the quantity, on the quantity, but on the quality and quality we find only with this widow. Here she is the only one who sacrifices here according to God. The widow is thus a picture of God, for God has given us everything in His Son Jesus. This widow has not denied anything.We also read this from our God after Rom.8.32:He who does not spare his own son, but has given him for all of us - how will he not give us everything with him?That's the statement: how will he not give us everything with him! He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all-how will he hey so, along with him, graciously give us all things?God has not denied anything. Our Father in Heaven has given us all Jesus needs, what we need, through Jesus. We should now live in the fullness of Christ. Because God's Word says that in him, in Jesus, the whole fullness of God dwells bodily and we are in Christ, we are, from God's point of view, eccentrics when "in us" the abundance given by God can not be seen. I want to say it so clearly that we realize what the word of God says. The Children of Light have the mission to be like Christ. The lost people should recognize in us what that is, Christ in us.Jesus left everything, his honor, his power, even his life. Therefore, according to Rom.8.32 everything is given to us. Everything means: the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus is a gift to us. If this has not yet become visible in our lives, then Christ is not responsible for it. It is not lacking in the mercy of God, but lacking in our thinking. If we live only as we understand ourselves, then this prevents the faith required of God.If we live in the faith of Christ, then something happens. We are challenged to total dedication. We have no right to demand anything from others, but we have only the duty to surrender ourselves to the order of Jesus.Where is the temple, the house of God today? Hebrews 3: 6 says that "Christ the son is over his house." So that, as we said in 1 Timothy 3:15, "we should know how to behave in the house of God." That's why the victim of the widow is here told to us. Precisely because many of God's children do not know how to behave in the house of God. Already in the Old Testament, God complains about his earthly people: "My people perish because of lack of knowledge". We should not find that with us because of lack of knowledge we do not know how to behave in the house of God.Acts 16:15, Lydia, the purveyor, invited into her house, "So enter and abide in my house." That's what matters. If we stop somewhere in a house, we are guests. The children of God, who belong to the family of the Lord, are loaded in his house. And in there they have their house right through the blood of Jesus. And here we shall find our way in this house of God.In this house there is a paragraph that means: Sin has no place in here. It is quite logical that we do not need to make any great theological studies; sin has no place in the house of the Lord. Why? Because Christ redeemed us from damnation and the sin of people is ruin. That does not fit together anymore. Christ has atoned for the sin that we have caused on the tribe of the cross, and with it the love of the Father is placed in our hearts, and because we are allowed to love Jesus in answering because he first loved us, therefore we love him and his commandments. Do you love his bid? It is the question for us. Then obedience will be your visible part.This is also the secret of his will, of which Paul spoke in Ephesians 1: 9, that is the secret of his will. It's a secret to know how to behave in his home. There is no room for anything the Lord has not allowed through his order, through the order of the house.This house is at the same time his body, made up of those who were once dead in sins and now destined to be the fullness of all things, according to Eph.1,23. We are destined to the fullness of Christ, that the fullness of Christ may be seen in us, because we come out of the house of the Lord, because we are put into it, even if we are not in the daily back and forth in everyday life directly in the house of the Lord yet we are spiritually still in the house of the Lord. This is our home.And just as the Lord once sat opposite the offerings of the Israelites, so today he sees our sacrifices, who are now primarily victims of obedience, victims of praise, victims of thanksgiving. He sees your sacrifice as once the widow in the temple. Therefore, Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, says that we should also know that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So God has let us share in his spiritual house, in this spiritual temple, where the Lord is again looking at what sacrifices we bring in: victims of obedience. It's not that we make sacrifices, but that we bring them to the Lord's order according to the house rules of God. It would have been an impossible state if web-sacrifices had been made, and we would have said that I was just taking a young cow through the forecourt, which still has to be slaughtered. Yes, then the priest would have said, that's not the case, now web victims are off. It does not matter, I have that here now ... We see that simply in the house of the Lord must be an order. And so we should also show order in the Lord's house, that we obey in the smaller things. This goes right down to the order of the local community. That goes into the order of the family. This goes into the order of professional life, of dealing with other people. It also goes so far as to find punctually the hours in the communion of the saints, who are his spiritual house. Punctuality prevails as far as possible, as far as possible, if we are not prevented by service or sickness, that we have no excuse before God, for a long time I wanted to sleep so long on Sundays, but we are servants of the service Lord. So that the Lord waits and the servant does not come. It is not an order of the house. We are children of light in our calling. Our Heavenly Father should not see us as disobedient children. He wants to be happy about us. We should strive to present that joy through our obedience because that is the sacrifice God loves. He sees if they are brought joyfully, these victims, or even forced.When you pray for a loving presence of God in your heart, then happily give your sacrifice. For the word of God confirms in 2 Corinthians 9: 7, "God loves a joyful giver." How this happened when this poor widow gave abundantly.The Lord Jesus showed the love of this widow to the disciples.Jesus had a disciple who carried the treasure box. It was Judas. And the Lord Jesus also said to Judas, look at this widow, she has put in two copper coins. Judas, he does not say a word. We read nothing, not a word, but something may have happened in his heart, for the Bible, God's Word, confirms that he was a thief. For he did not give to the Lord what belonged to the Lord. That's why he was called in the name of Lord Thief. We realize that we no longer belong to ourselves when we follow Jesus. We no longer belong to ourselves and therefore because we no longer belong to ourselves, the entrusted by God no longer belongs to us. God then sees us outside the path of obedience as a thief. How God sees the matter, that's what matters. But because he loves us and because he wants to show his divine, gracious love to his children, we have the wonderful task of letting the Lord have the freedom to show his love for us. Give no obstacle to the work of the Spirit of God. We should ask the Lord to give us all grace, and we can go in the blessings of God: "Lord, take away all inertia from my heart, I know that I can not stand before you so that you may praise for me in the day when I stand before your judgment seat. " There at the Judgment Seat of Christ we become manifest. There are also the reasons why I have given something in the treasure chest of the temple. The Lord Jesus says in his Word, it shall be given cheerfully. Everything that we do not give joyfully is not required from the loving heart of the Lord. And so it is a sacrifice that God does not accept anyway. Therefore, the many funds put in by the rich were not demanded by God and not pleasant. God could not bless the many because it was not connected to the house of God with a devoted heart. The Lord Jesus wants us to have made it clear today that we see ourselves in his light, in his image, because we are to be conformed to his image. The way he wants to see us, so that we are like him in everything, because Christ has withheld nothing from us when he carried his sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. Through this, eternal life has come to us from the face of the Lord. We are saved children of the light by his goodness, by his grace. We praise him, the great God, and we want to be at his disposal with all that he has given us.We praise Him for wanting to be in our hearts. He wants to take first place there, as with this widow. The Lord Jesus sees us just as he was watching this widow. He saw her sacrifice and he sees our sacrifice, whether we are humble, if we have patience. He sees whether we show willingness to provide the witness service of Christ Jesus, to whom the Lord has called us: "ye shall be my witnesses". This widow was a sincere and living witness of what God was able to do in the human heart.We are grateful to the Lord that we have this image, the image of this widow, as a role model for us. We want to imitate this widow so that the heart of our Lord will be pleased. Amen.