Broken Finances, part 1
On a Sunday when Erwin McManus was out of town the sermon was given by one of the Mosaic elders, Greg Soohoo. The topic was “Broken Finances” so for his text he took the story of the widow in Mark 12:41-44. The question we must ask ourselves is, Does the story of the widow’s mite teach about giving?
Greg uses it as such, in fact he asks the question, “How can her giving be more valuable?” His response to that question is not to teach on the text and what it says, instead he spends nearly 10 minutes telling a story of a missions trip he had been on. In fact he spends more time on telling that story then he does teaching on the passage of scripture which makes me wonder if he actually spent time studying the context of the passage, but I don’t want to speak about his preparation since I have no knowledge of such things.
Greg’s conclusion of this story is to encourage everyone to emulate this widow. That it’s not about the amount you give, but about your priorities.
If we were to take Greg’s conclusion as being correct – in that we are to emulate the widow – then his application is totally incorrect, for if Jesus was telling us to emulate this widow we should be giving all that we have, 100 % of our finances, to the cause of God, but that’s not what Greg says. His application is about priorities, but the passage says nothing about priorities at all, it only speaks about how much she gave. So if you really want to make the correct application, according to Greg’s conclusion, give it all away. But Greg doesn’t do that. Instead of coming up with the logical application of his conclusion, he softens the application by simply telling his listeners to examine their priorities.
The problem is not Greg’s application, it’s his conclusion, which is based upon the false premise that Jesus is talking about finances, which he is not, because that’s not the context of the passage. John MacArthur makes a great point concerning those who claim that this passage is speaking about giving or how we should give. He says:
Now at this point I will confess to you, in spite of the popularity of these views, in spite of the universality of these views, none of these explanations makes any sense to me….none. In fact, all of those interpretations are imposed on the text and you know how I feel about imposing things on the Bible text….not good. You say, “Why do you say they’re imposed?” Because Jesus never made any of those points. Jesus never said anything about what’s left behind, what percentage, what attitude, or do the same and give everything. He didn’t. Jesus never makes any of those points. He does not say the rich gave relatively too little, they had too much left over. He doesn’t say the rich gave too low a percent. He doesn’t say the widow gave the right amount. He doesn’t say the rich had a bad attitude and the widow had a good attitude, or good spirit. He doesn’t say that. In fact, He doesn’t say anything about their giving except that she gave more than everybody. He doesn’t say why or with what attitude, or whether she should have, or shouldn’t have, or they should have, or shouldn’t have. Her outward action is all that you see. It is no more or less good, bad, indifferent, humble, proud, selfish, unselfish than anybody else’s act. There is no judgment made on her act as to its true character. There is nothing said about her attitude or her spirit. She could be acting out a devotion. She could be acting out of love. She could be acting out of guilt. She could be acting out of fear. We don’t know because Jesus doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t say anything about the rich, doesn’t say anything about the widow, doesn’t draw any conclusions, doesn’t develop any principles, doesn’t command anything, doesn’t define anything. Why? Because none of that matters.(online source)
So what is Jesus talking about? Let me put it simply, he’s talking about the judgment of a religious system that destroys the life of the poor, the widowed, and the needy. How do I know that?
First, the greater context of this passage goes all the way back to Mark 11:27 as Jesus walked into Jerusalem and into the temple. From that point on to verse 40 of chapter 12 Jesus is dealing with the wrong theology of the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. In verse 38 he warns the people to “Beware of the scribes” and then proceeds to give a long list of things that he condemns about their actions. In that list is this statement: “who devour widows’ houses” (v. 40). Then Jesus proceeds to provide an illustration of their sinful teaching that devours the poor and the widowed all in the name of religion in Mark 12:41-44. Beginning in chapter 13 Jesus teaches on the destruction of the temple, the symbol of the Jewish religion that he will bring to an end through his death on the cross. So in reviewing the greater context it should be clear to you that Jesus in the midst of speaking against the false doctrine of the religious leaders and the destruction of the temple, was not interjecting a statement about giving. To make that claim does damage to the context and draws wrong conclusions and wrong applications – BEWARE!
