Treasures from God’s Word and Digging for Spiritual Gems – “She Put in More than All the others” (Mark 11-12)

Mark 11 & 12 deal with the following events:

  • Jesus triumphal entry to Jerusalem.
  • Jesus second occasion of overturning the money changers tables.
  • Jesus answers a question about his authority from opposers by asking a question of his own that the opposers dare not answer.
  • Jesus parable about the owner of a vineyard who sends his son and the cultivators kill the son.
  • Jesus gives principle and answer to pay Caesars things to Caesar and God’s things to God.
  • Woman who had seven husbands, whose wife will she be in the resurrection?
  • The greatest of the Ten Commandments.
  • The widow’s small coins given to the Temple treasury.

So out of all these noteworthy events to comment on, what event(s) does the organization choose for the 10 minutes “Treasures from God’s Word”? 

  • Did it chose something about Jesus, God’s son and the head of the Christian congregation? No.
  • The two greatest commandments of the Ten Commandments? No.
  • The split between obedience to Caesar verses obedience to God? No.

I am sure you will have spotted the only one left by now. Of course it is the widow giving everything she had to a temple treasury that had more than sufficient funds.

Why do we say ‘of course’? Out of all the options, why did the organization choose to spend the whole ten minutes of the ‘Treasures from God’s Word’ item to discuss this point?

The w87 12/1 30 para 1 reference quoted gives away the reason for this choice by the organization. It says “The most outstanding one [lesson], perhaps, is that (while) all of us have the privilege of lending support to true worship by means of our material possessions…our giving what is valuable to us.” Yes, that is right, the organization is not satisfied with “our giving what we can do without” but wants “what is valuable to us…our giving [to be] a real sacrifice”. In other words, even though they have hundreds of millions in cash and billions in assets, please give the organization’s treasury everything you have so that God will bless you, even down to your last cent. How does this attitude differ from that of the Catholic Church and other religious organizations?

It is yet another subtle attempt to garner funds from the brothers and sisters, by guilt-tripping them in to giving even out of their own dire need.

 

Tadua

Articles by Tadua.
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