{"id":484,"date":"2025-09-26T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=484&2025"},"modified":"2025-09-23T18:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T00:00:06","slug":"the-ultimate-giver-mark-12-41-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/the-ultimate-giver-mark-12-41-44\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Giver: Mark 12:41-44"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Mark 12:41-44 (NCV)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\">\r\n<p><sup>41\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus sat near the Temple money box and watched the people put in their money. Many rich people gave large sums of money.  <sup>42\u00a0<\/sup>Then a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which were only worth a few cents.<\/p> <p><sup>43\u00a0<\/sup>Calling his followers to him, Jesus said, \u201cI tell you the truth, this poor widow gave more than all those rich people.  <sup>44\u00a0<\/sup>They gave only what they did not need. This woman is very poor, but she gave all she had; she gave all she had to live on.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Mark 12:41-44&amp;version=ncv\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Mark 12:41-44<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>In our passage for this entry is a pretty well known example of giving, but what many people don\u2019t expect to find is a picture of Jesus hidden within it. Sure, Jesus is the one making the point and drawing our attention to God\u2019s truth about giving, but in a subtle way, He is also drawing our attention to God\u2019s character \u2013 and His upcoming gift to the world.<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201c<strong>Calling his followers to him, Jesus said, \u2018I tell you the truth, this poor widow gave more than all those rich people.\u00a0They gave only what they did not need. This woman is very poor, but she gave all she had; she gave all she had to live on.\u2019<\/strong>\u201d (v. 43-44)<\/p>\r\n<p>While this widow has been held up as an example of sacrificial giving, part of me wonders if doing this also steals the spotlight away from Jesus, the ultimate Sacrificial Giver. In this event, the widow gives all the money she has to live on, but she still has her life \u2013 at least for the moment. In contrast, Jesus gave His life \u2013 which is very literally \u201call <em>He<\/em> had to live on\u201d.<\/p>\r\n<p>Stepping back to look at a bigger picture, we can also see a picture of God\u2019s character. While God is the richest Being in the entire universe, the gift He chose to give was Himself, and One who was most loved by Him. In this way, God showed us \u2013 the actively sinning human race we are a part of \u2013 how much He loves us.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>God, the richest Being in the universe, gave the ultimate sacrificial gift, which in turn allows us to accept the gift of forgiveness, grace, and eternal lives even though we have sinned.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--484\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '484');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our passage for this entry is a pretty well known example of giving, but what many people don\u2019t expect to find is a picture of Jesus hidden within it. Sure, Jesus is the one making the point and drawing our attention to God\u2019s truth about giving, but in a subtle way, He is also [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Ultimate Giver: Mark 12:41-44 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/the-ultimate-giver-mark-12-41-44\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ultimate Giver: Mark 12:41-44 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In our passage for this entry is a pretty well known example of giving, but what many people don\u2019t expect to find is a picture of Jesus hidden within it. 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