GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:41
Coins into the Trumpet
After his confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees, the inquisitive scribe, and the lesson for the disciples, Mark presents the picture of Jesus at rest. He went to the Court of the Women, not the place where only women could go, but the place where women could go no farther. In this court were thirteen offering boxes with openings shaped like trumpets. Each box bore an inscription designating the use of the money deposited within: 1) For the price of two turtledoves or two young pigeons; 2) For the burnt offering of birds…; 5) For those who offered gold for the mercy seat…; 10) For the residue of a leper’s trespass offering; etc.
It is possible to imagine Jesus sitting opposite the row of offering boxes, weary but observant. Crowds passed through the two-hundred-foot-square court with its colonnades. Some people were rushing through for important appointments, others for medication, and others to cast their offerings into the boxes. There were people, apparently men and women, who were well dressed and recognizable as wealthy donors. The word Mark used was “plousioi” (πλούσιοι), meaning “rich.” (One may recognize in it the root of the English word “plutocracy,” meaning government by or for the wealthy.) Mark wrote, “And sitting opposite the offering box, he saw the crowd putting money into the offering box. And many wealthy people were putting in much.” (Mark 12:41)
While it is not the point of Mark’s paragraph, it is noteworthy that Jesus did not disparage the gifts of the wealthy; in fact, he said they were “putting in much.” They were giving of their abundance, certainly, but they were giving—much. Many wealthy people have expressed a sentiment similar to that of Andrew Carnegie, who wrote in The Gospel of Wealth, “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”
Gifts by the wealthy to the work of Christ, when given from a heart surrendered to Him, are precious in the Father’s sight.
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