I have come to the conclusion that God is thoroughly unimpressed with us!
Today’s reading has an unintentional but very interesting juxtapositioning of verses. Mark 12:38-44 along with Psalm 49. In Mark 12, Jesus was watching people give their offerings at the Temple, and apparently the rich were making quite a show of it. As they did, a poor widow put in a pittance of money, just a few cents—if that. Yet Jesus noticed her and told His disciples that though poor, she gave more than the others, because she “gave out of her poverty.”
Psalm 49 is a scathing rebuke not to those who are rich, but to those who boast and trust in their riches. The essence of the Psalm is this: everyone dies alike and no one takes riches with them, but those who trust in their riches instead of the Lord die without understanding and are “like the beasts that perish.” It goes far beyond riches, though. It is trusting/boasting in anything that we can control, or that makes us feel significant in our own eyes. I have _____!” “I am a _______, aren’t you impressed?” “I accomplished _______!” Such things are not inherently evil, but when they become our source of identity and security instead of the Lord, then they become our idols.
Whether we are rich or poor, extra-talented or ordinary, God is unimpressed with all of us. It is like a computer. When it is newly bought, the only things on it are things that come from the manufacturer, but it is largely blank. Somewhere out there is a software engineer who wrote lots of useful programs that can be downloaded into the computer to make it functional—to make it exceptional! If the computer could talk, would it have a right to boast in its great capabilities? I don’t think so! It only does what it is programmed to do, but someone greater than it gave it that capability! There is no such thing as “the self-made person!” We are what we are because Someone greater than us made us what we are. What can we boast about that He did not first give to us? What can we possibly put our trust in that He did not first create?
The Lord does not want our riches or our talents—He gave those things to us. He wants our hearts. That is what Jesus saw in the poor widow. If anyone had an excuse not to give, it was her. But Jesus was touched by her heart to give the little that she had—that is the way to live a transcendent life! When our hearts are aligned with God, and our trust is in Him, then everything will fall into its proper place—our talents, our money, our families, and everything else about this life. Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things will be added to you!” Life is not about us….it is about Him FIRST!
Putting Him first with you,
Pastor Kyle Bauer
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