Wednesday, September 21, 2016
While Jesus
was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the
collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in
two small coins. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus
said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For
they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has
given everything she has.” Luke 21:1-4(NLT)
As Jesus sat watching people enter
the Temple, human nature paraded our common instinct to get a bargain. The rich pared-off a little of their surplus
to put in the collection box, so as to satisfy cultural and religious rituals. They bought God out of their lives
for another week.
C.S. Lewis quoted the great preacher
George MacDonald:
“’God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.’
[And then Lewis explained:]
I think every one who has some vague belief in God,
until he becomes a Christian, has the idea of an exam or of a bargain in his
mind. The first result of real Christianity is to blow that idea into bits.”[ii]
Real Christianity!
What did Lewis mean by real
Christianity? His answer (in
his book Mere Christianity), was the
analogy of a child who begs his father for a little money so he can buy Dad a
birthday present. No matter what present
is forthcoming, the child may have handed a store clerk some cash, but it was
the father who paid for his gift.
In the same way, everything we have
is given to us by God: breath, life, family,
home, job…it is all His; it is amazing how we think we can strike a bargain
with God using any of that, promising to be good, give this, do that, be something,
cease going there, or accomplishing a revolution. The question remains: are we trying to buy God? What part of “not mine…His” do we not
grasp?
Real Christianity understands Who
is God…and who is not!
I think I fail that most days. I have a nature that wants to organize things
into a neatly-framed structure that separates this part of life into that box,
that concept into secular, those days into religious. I see actions as approved in Scripture, or
condemned, and leaving little room for gray area. Above all, I want to cover all the bases, in case
I forgot something important. That’s my nevertheless,
not my will, but thine part of the prayer.
And that’s me, putting into the
collection plate my tithe check – and a little more, thank you very much – to
buy God’s friendship.
And then, there’s that disturbing widow
who takes everything she has and dumps it in the collection plate. Show off; quite annoying, really!
Real Christianity begins when I realize the widow has
preached a better sermon than whatever passes for my preaching. She accurately represented who God is in her
life – the one and only hope for her past, present and future. God is her all, so she acts like it. She stopped trying to buy God and placed
herself in His care.
And Jesus said: BOOM….THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!
That, of course, is a loose
translation, but accurate nonetheless. Jesus
saw the humility of thankful worship in this poverty-stricken woman and highlighted
for His followers what a genuinely powerful influence for God will look
like.
The widow didn’t blow her own trumpet;
REAL
CHRISTIANITY never has to.
For You Today
If you have a tendency to tally-up
what you’ve given to the Lord, try not-looking at what you’ve
given, try looking at what you have left.
Go to VIDEO
NOTES
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