Mark 12:41-44 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.… I. THAT THERE MAY BE MORE SPLENDOUR IN SOME OBSCURE THING we never stop to notice, and would not care for if we did, THAN THERE IS IN THE THINGS THAT DAZZLE OUR SIGHT AND CAPTIVATE OUR HEARTS. 1. We have all tried to notice this among children. One little child runs all the errands, makes all the sacrifices, but beyond that is a little nobody; plain, small; not brilliant. This is the two-mite child of the family; the small piece of home heroism, of a worth surpassing all the gifts and graces of the household besides; the little one Christ would see if He came and sat down in the house. 2. We notice this again in the Church. Some naturally attract applause by their gifts; others no more attention than this widow with her two mites. They say their poor word. It is their sorrow that they cannot do more; but the joy of heaven that they do so much. 3. This is true of the whole life we are living. There are many never seen or known who cast in more than the brilliant characters who cast in of their abundance. II. It was an illustration of this law of our life, THAT THE MOST GOD-LIKE DEED IS THAT WHICH BELONGS TO THE SACRIFICES WE MAKE, giving for sacred things and causes that which costs us most, and is most indispensable, and yet is given back to God. Nothing was worth a thought in this poor widow's gift, but the sacrifice it cost her to give. The whole worth of it lay in that piece of her very life which went with it, but that made the two mites outweigh the whole sum of silver and gold cast in by the wealthy, which cost nothing, beyond the effort to give what a very natural instinct would prompt them to keep. They gave of their fulness, she of her emptiness; they of the ever-springing fountain, she, the last drop in her cup. It was not the sum, but the sacrifice that made the deed sublime. III. We learn, in this simple and most obvious way, of that whole world of grace and truth that culminated on Calvary. (R. Collyer.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. |
    |