WhAt Iz SaCrIfIcE??
This is a word we throw around often, but what does it really mean? The answer is found in a simple picture of the widow’s mite in Mark 12. As Scripture recounts in verses 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 fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, 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.”
Sacrifice is not about giving less than you are able to give or even about giving according to what you are able to give. Sacrifice is giving beyond what you are able to give. Sacrifice is about giving what hurts to give. So the question for us as individuals, families, and as a church is not really about what we can spare in order to help our brothers and sisters around the world. Instead, it’s about what we can sacrifice – what we can do without, even if it hurts. Are we willing to put in, like the widow, what it costs us to give? This is sacrifice. The question is, “Are we willing to do it?”
