Mark 12:41-44 - “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ’Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-all she had to live on.’”

In this section in the gospel of Mark (11-12), we are shown Jesus cleansing the temple, where he is confronting people in their approach to worship. The Israelites during Jesus’ time were so accustomed and focused on doing the acts of worship, that it most likely became just a perfunctory act, and they were satisfied by how well they performed these acts. So in this section of Mark, Jesus comes into the temple, and he goes through each step of worship that is happening in there, and he teaches the people when they were thinking wrongly, he cleanses and takes away things that were hindering worship (like money tables, etc.), and re-establishes what worship is, especially in light of His death and resurrection.

In verse 41, it says that, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.”

Jesus is here to correct/reorient his disciples on what offering was, by first sitting opposite the place where the offerings were being given, and he watched!

Imagine this-that as people were coming to give their offering, the one to whom they were giving the offering to-the Lord, His watchful eyes were on them! What this shows is that this was a deliberate act of Jesus, where the Lord is the one who watches and sees us during our time of offering. This is in contrast to what the people were probably concerned about, which was how the crowds were viewing their giving.

This is the first reorienting in our approach to offering, which is to approach the offering before the watchful eyes of our Lord!

Today, let’s approach the Lord as we offer our lives, our time, and our everything before His watchful eyes.  Spend time in worship with this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDP5GgBTRE4

-GK