It's the Heart That Counts
By Rev. Heidi L. Barham | November 10, 2024
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Read Mark 12:38 – 44 (NIV)
For just a few moments this morning, I want to invite us to think on the subject: IT’S THE HEART THAT COUNTS.
Now, by way of full disclosure, as I reflected on this passage that was part of the Lectionary... I had originally planned to use the title “It’s the Thought That Counts,” but as events unfolded this past week my thoughts shifted... and I realized that it is not just the thought that counts... it is really the heart that matters most.
So, as we come to this passage in the gospel of Mark... we find Jesus warning His disciples to be on the lookout for the teachers of the law... the religious leaders... the ones who He describes as walking around the marketplace as if they were truly larger than life.
In fact, in the Message Paraphrase, it says:
They love to walk around in academic gowns, preening in the radiance of public flattery, basking in prominent positions, sitting at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they’ll pay for it in the end.Can you picture it for just a moment?
A group of men parading around the marketplace, oblivious to the “common folk” right in front of them... all while the song, “Pomp and Circumstance,” is playing from the loudspeakers overhead. However, while those religious leaders may have thought they were the best game in town... they could not have been further from the truth.
The garish displays of their fine wardrobes coupled with their long prayers did not impress anyone... and certainly not Jesus. He could not have cared less about their outward appearance... as far as Jesus has always been concerned... IT’S THE HEART THAT COUNTS.
Now following this passage that cautions the disciples to watch out for the ostentatious religious leaders... the Gospel writer shifts focus and we read about Jesus observing a widow as she puts her offering into the temple treasury.
The rich people had already put their money into the offering box when this poor widow came up and put in two copper coins... two very small copper coins that added up to only a few cents.
It doesn’t sound like much at all and yet, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.”
But how could that be? Don’t the scriptures tell us that all the rich people had put in large amounts already? Surely their combined contributions to the treasury had to equal more than two very small copper coins... their gifts must have added up to more than a few cents.
On the contrary, Jesus said, “They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
The others may have “thought” they were giving generously... but their generous thoughts were no match for what was in the widow’s heart.
This poor widow gave her all to the Lord out of the abundance of her heart... and she did so without ever expecting to be recognized for such an extravagant gift...
In fact, I doubt if anyone other than Jesus even noticed the woman. But in the grand scheme of things... He was the only one who needed to see her anyway. He was the One who saw the true size of her heart and after a;;...IT’S THE HEART THAT COUNTS.
Now, if we were to look back to the beginning of our text for the morning, I think we would see that the size of the religious leader’s hearts could not measure up to this poor widow’s heart. In fact, reading this passage, I could not help but think of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Why?
Because as the story goes:
The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!And so, thinking about these religious leaders who spent all their time flouncing around in their finery...taking the best seats in the house... making long drawn-out prayers just to gain attention... all while they were busy taking advantage of the hospitality of the widows... I couldn’t help but imagine that their hearts... like the Grinch... must have been two sizes too small.
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
And at the end of the day... IT’S THE HEART THAT COUNTS.
In comparison to the widow, the religious leaders’ hearts were seemingly too small to contain a spirit of generosity like that of the widow.
Back in biblical times, the teachers of the law did not get paid, so they were dependent on the hospitality of the devout Jews. And as a result, some of them would cheat the poor out of everything they had while also taking advantage of the rich.
Now had their hearts been less filled with greed... perhaps they would have been more generous in meeting the needs of the very people that they were so busy exploiting. But when it comes to having a spirit of generosity... IT’S THE HEART THAT COUNTS... and let’s just say the religious leaders were suffering from a serious heart condition.
Now, there is another aspect from which this poor widow and the religious leaders saw life from different perspectives. The widow knew what it meant to be self-less rather than self-ish. She could have said very easily, “I am not about to give up my last two coins, everything that I have, just to make a point of putting something into the temple treasury.”
But she understood that her giving was in reality a means of serving others... she knew that the money that was put into the temple treasury could ultimately be used to help take care of people in need... people who were not so unlike herself.
In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul wrote, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you” (Romans 12:3) and a little further on he wrote, “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10).
In other words, stop thinking so much about yourselves and put the needs of others ahead of your own. But when we think about what it takes to be able to do that... the reality is that IT’S THE HEART THAT COUNTS.
Now, it is probably not a far stretch to say that there are some people who felt disheartened this past week by the results of many of the elections... at the national, state, and local level. But just because things may have turned out differently than what some people may have hoped... it does not change who God is calling us to be and how God is calling us to live.
God’s command to love has not changed... and God’s command has no regard for political affiliation and leaves no room for partisanship.
Looking at 1 John 4 (20 – 21), we read:
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.Or as it reads in the Message Paraphrase:
If anyone boasts, ‘I love God,’ and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.As you heard me say last week, “It’s not that complicated.” We have been called to love God and love the people of God.
But in order to do that, we have to be less like the religious leaders in our text and more like the poor widow... understanding that we need to take our eyes off of self and look to the needs of others instead.
If we think about what Jesus said about the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 and about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless and visiting the sick and imprisoned... the moral of the story comes down to the fact that whatever is done for the marginalized and the ostracized... it is ultimately being done for Christ...
And in contrast, whatever we do not do for the marginalized and the ostracized... the ones that society views as the last, the least, and the lost... we are not doing it for Christ... ouch.
By way of true confession... when I see people standing on the exit ramps of the highway with their signs asking for money... I have to admit that I wrestle with concerns for my own safety... as stories come to mind abuot people being robbed or carjacked when they have rolled down their windows... all while their intention had simply been to be kind to someone in need.
And in those moments as I weigh my options... I wonder to myself if that is really Jesus on the side of the road... and I ask myself the question, am I missing an opportunity to do something for Him by keeping my window rolled up?
Now as a rule, I don’t keep a lot of loose change in my car but there have been times, especially in the summer months when it is hot... I have offered the individual a bottle of cold water. And so far, none of them have refused it... so, I do feel just a tiny bit better... but it is still something that kind of just sits there in the back of my mind.
It saddens me that we live in a day and time when thoughts for our own safety preclude us from doing something for someone who may genuinely be in need. This is even more of a struggle for me when the person appears to be a veteran.
Tomorrow is Veterans Day, when our country will pause to honor veterans who have served honorably during war as well as peacetime. The day will be marked by parades and other celebrations in addition to the official laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
It is an opportunity for us to say thank you to those men and women who have heard and answered the call to serve... not out of selfish ambition but as Paul said... serving in humility... valuing others above themselves... not looking to their own interests but to the interests of others...
Simply put... they answered the call to serve with a humble heart... and let’s remember, IT’S THE HEART THAT COUNTS.
And I don’t think it’s a far stretch to think that those brave women and men who said yes to the call to serve our country did so, at least in part, to help ensure peace would prevail.
It is something that I think we should all be willing to work towards as well... and so this morning, on the eve of Veterans Day... and in the wake of so much that is going on in our world right now, I want to invite us to join in a Prayer for Peace.
It is also known as the Prayer of St. Francis which is #468 in the Chalice Hymnal:
Prayer for PeaceAnd may our prayers for peace bring us ever closer to the heart of God... because it really is THE HEART THAT COUNTS.
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
And with that thought in mind, let us stand and join in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: Near to the Heart of God #581. Back
