The Lutheran Hour

"Jesus Sees What’s in the Heart"

#92-13
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on November 24, 2024
Guest Speaker: Rev. Dr. Hector Hoppe
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: Mark 12:41-44

Mark 12:41-44 – And He [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

We begin under the blessing of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

For quite some time now, I have had to undergo a medical examination that monitors the state of my heart. I still remember the first time I was able to see through a medical instrument the insides of my body’s engine. Now, every time I do it, I marvel at how clearly a small device can show what is happening inside the ventricles and how the valves of my heart work. I can see everything from my stretcher. I can see how my heart pumps blood and how it opens and closes one of its main valves. How incredible is science applied to medicine! With the same technology, mothers who have a baby in their womb can also see their child taking shape inside them, they can hear their heartbeats, they can even know what gender the baby is.

Thanks to the wonders of science, we can see much more than what our eyes show us with the naked eye. Sonar can see the depths of the sea and draw sunken ships on a piece of paper or on a monitor. X-rays can show us our bones, and CT scans and MRIs can reveal many things about our bodies that we cannot see with our eyes.

Our divine Physician, the Creator of life, the One who generated the beats of our hearts brings us today, in this story, a magnificent lesson. These are the last days of Jesus on this earth. It is his last visit to Jerusalem and the temple. That is what makes this story more extraordinary. St. Mark records that Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched how the people put their money into the offering box. If we would sit to watch how much people give, we would probably do so because we love gossip. We would probably even criticize those who give little and envy those who give large amounts of money, thinking that they do so to show off. Without a doubt, there were those who liked to show off to others with their expensive clothes and their big bank accounts. It is very interesting that Jesus’ last teaching in the temple, just before Jesus began to watch those who were putting money into the treasury, had to do with those who were showing themselves to be superior to others. Jesus addresses the many people who were listening to him and warns them with these words: “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers” (Mark 12:38-40a).

Many rich people put in large amounts of money. They were immediately recognizable because they wore fine clothes; they dressed stylishly; and put in the offering large sums visibly, so that it could be seen by others. A poor widow emerged from the crowd. Jesus, being God, knew of her condition and her poverty, and her situation must have been very obvious. She was not accompanied by anyone. She put in two small coins of little value. Perhaps those coins were worth what someone would earn today with half an hour of work in one of those jobs that are quite poorly paid.

Then Jesus called the disciples and said to them: “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

We have to notice how many times Jesus uses the words: “all” and “everything.” All those who put in large sums put in what they had left over. It was no effort to bring that to the temple, because they had enough in the bank and in the safe, so they had nothing to worry about. They trusted in their abundance. But the sad thing here is that Jesus points out that the offerings that were put in the temple were from what the people had left over. What a horrible situation! Those who came to the temple brought God their leftovers!

The widow did not bring what she had left over. She never had anything left over. She brought what was her livelihood. Why did she do that? Jesus helps us understand why she did it: because she trusted that God would be her Provider, as He had been until that moment. She did not have a single coin left to buy food. She put God first and, in the words of Jesus, “She put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” But Jesus goes even further and compares the offerings and the attitudes and generosity of those who gave. The widow, who gave everything she had with her two small coins, gave more in the eyes of God than all the rich people together who had given large amounts, perhaps even exorbitant, but from what they had left over!

How did Jesus know all this? Because when Jesus sat in front of the temple treasury to watch how people brought their offerings, He was seeing their hearts, not their hands or their coins or their luxurious clothing. Jesus could read the heart. Like an ultrasound machine or a CT scan, Jesus can read what’s inside people. And He goes much further, because Jesus reads intentions, and the deepest motivations, something that neither we nor any sophisticated machine can do.

The book of Hebrews firmly states: “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). And Jesus is the Word made flesh, the living Word that reads the intentions of the heart. The Word of God is an ultrasound, a CT scan, an MRI that leaves no molecule of our body and soul unchecked. God can read our intentions, our motivations, our interest in our neighbor, and in the work of God.

What is striking here is the time in which this episode takes place. Jesus is in farewell mode, making the last arrangements and uttering the last teachings. He calls His disciples and teaches them what happens to the rich and the poor widow. The disciples do not know that within a few weeks after Jesus’ ascension, they would be dispersed everywhere. They would go to regions of the world where they had never been and with no other economy than that offered by the good will of the people to whom they preached. The disciples did not have to trust in the rich, nor in the poor, but in God who is the Giver of all goods, and who will never allow anyone to lay a finger on His children without the Father in heaven allowing it. Even in poverty, the cup of persecuted believers will overflow with God’s generosity.

The time when Jesus offers this teaching to His followers is the most appropriate, because in a few days He will give Himself up as an offering, in all His poverty, to carry out the most important rescue in human history. Jesus offered His life, in silence, without protesting the injustice or the physical and emotional pain caused by the thorns, betrayal, and abandonment. He was executed on a cross. They left Him hanging from nails, naked. Someone provided mortuary clothes and a tomb. Jesus died with nothing. He had less than the poorest widow. But we have to borrow God’s eyes to see Jesus’ motivation and intentions.

The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us the sight to see beyond the circumstances and understand that Jesus offered Himself as a sacred offering for our rescue. St. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians: “Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2b).

What does God find when He reads our heart? He finds much more than we can imagine or understand. He reads our life story; He can see our misery, our hidden thoughts, those thoughts that we do not want anyone to discover, because they would fill us with shame. Jesus sees our need for cleansing, forgiveness, hope, peace. He looks at the heart and discovers the damage caused by sin. He sees our condition of being lost. He sees that we are aimless and without light. He also sees our inability to present ourselves before God and be accepted.

The book of Hebrews insists on the surrender, the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. In chapter 10, it says that “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. … For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10b, 14). Here we again have in mind the words “all” and “everything” used in Jesus’ teaching when He says: “All contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Jesus had nothing, none of those things that we treasure so much in this world. Jesus left His riches in heaven. He came down from the Father’s throne with the bare minimum to carry out His ministry. When He offered Himself on the cross as a ransom offering for our sins, what did He offer? Everything He had: His life, His precious blood, innocently shed to save us who were lost in our sins. Jesus Christ, the richest of all the rich people in the world, the absolute Owner of creation, of the universe, and of life, gave everything to save us who had nothing, nothing but sin and misery. His perfect life, His perfect fulfillment of the will of God, were His everything, the everything that He left on a cross for the benefit of all humanity.

How do you see your life now, dear listener? How much do you possess? What do you consider your everything? What do you have to offer God that He does not have? These questions make me think that, certainly, God does not need anything, but our neighbors do. And our neighbors multiply day by day, and among them there are many who do not know about the perfect offering with which Jesus bought us forever. In this story, the rich who had everything gave with their offerings nothing more than those two coins of the widow who gave everything. Jesus’ disciples had to remember this teaching, and the entire church reminds us of it because this story is fundamental to understanding the heart of God.

For that Holy Week, when Jesus was teaching and observing everything in the temple, God had prepared a poor widow to give us a great lesson for life. Never underestimate who you are, dear listener, how much you have, or how little you have, how God can use you to teach others, or who God can use to teach you what is most important: seeing Jesus, who gave everything on the cross, seeing His resurrection, His triumph over death, and through Jesus and the power and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, seeing the heavens open to receive us in the mansions of God at the end of our life.

Dear friend, if today’s topic has sparked your interest and you want to know more about the Lord Jesus and His offering of love for you, I invite you to look for yourself in the Gospel narratives of the New Testament and the teachings and the works of our Lord and Savior Jesus. And, as we come to the conclusion of this devotional time, I ask you to join me in prayer.

Dear Father, thank You for sending Jesus to pay for our sins on the altar of the cross. Help us to recognize in Your Holy Son the most powerful and graceful offering that You have sent down from heaven to rescue us and to bring us into Your presence. Help us to share the love of Jesus with all those around us. We need Your wisdom and Your power. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Reflections for November 24, 2024
Title: Welcoming Rev. German Novelli

Mark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources, archived audio, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. Once again, here is Lutheran Hour Speaker, Dr. Mike Zeigler.

Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark, and thank you to Pastor Hoppe for bringing us a message from God’s Word today. I’m visiting with Pastor German Novelli here in the studio. He is our new director of Hispanic Ministries. Welcome, German.

German Novelli: Thank you, Mike. Thank you so much for having me.

Mike Zeigler: So you’ve joined us from being a pastor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and you were a pastor of a bilingual congregation there, and now you are the director of Hispanic Ministries and you are our Spanish Speaker of The Lutheran Hour. It’s a different program called “Para el Camino.” Had you always wanted to be a pastor when you were growing up? How did this desire come to you?

German Novelli: I think that my journey to become a pastor began right before I start college. Unfortunately, my congregation did not have the means to support that, and I remember that after speaking with my pastor back then, he said, “German, I will recommend you to think about something else.” So I remember going back home, writing in a prayer like, “God, I really want to serve you, so if You want to use me, I’m here.” The following year, start college. I became a journalist after five, six years in college for that. Then when I was in my last year of college, the opportunity to come to the seminary and to become a pastor came. So I immediately knew that it was God answering the prayer that I did five years before, and here I am. The rest is history.

Mike Zeigler: All right. Now you’re serving with us with Lutheran Hour Ministries and you’re carrying on a long heritage of ministry to Spanish speakers. We had a Spanish Speaker of the Lutheran Hour as early as 1941, Dr. Andrew Melendez. He was a native of Puerto Rico, if I remember correctly, and served in that role for 31 years. We’ve continued to have ministry to Spanish speakers all over the world since then. What drew you to our mission with Lutheran Hour Ministries?

German Novelli: I will say that love for my people, understanding the need to hear the Gospel, and also the amazing products, and resources, and materials that are being produced by Lutheran Hour. I think that that drew me to come and serve, to be able to support that work and bring those tools to people so they can know Jesus, hear the Gospel, and be saved through Him.

Mike Zeigler: So 100 years of Hispanic Ministries with Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. I didn’t realize it was that long, and you have had a role in that national leadership, correct?

German Novelli: Yes. I am the former president of the Hispanic National Convention and the Hispanic Missionary League. The new board that took over, they are now getting ready for the next convention that will happen in 2026, which is actually the year in which they will be celebrating, and we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Hispanic ministry within the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Mike Zeigler: So what do you know about your listening audience as you begin in this role as speaker for “Para el Camino,” which is The Lutheran Hour in Spanish? What do you know about your audience?

German Novelli: When I think about our audience and the people that are listening our products or reading our materials, I always think about two big segments of population here. Number one: the church people, people that know Jesus Christ, people that may be Lutheran or maybe in other Christian denominations, and they want to hear the Gospel. They know about “Para el Camino” sermons. They know about the Daily Devotions they receive in their emails, and they share with one another through WhatsApp, text messages, and everything.

So I think about them a lot and always bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to them to affirm their salvation and to talk about grace and all those important and loving elements that we find in the Gospel. But at the same time, I think about the unchurched people, and they might be the majority of the people that somehow they get our materials, somehow they get into our website and can listen to our sermons, and they like it.

We got thousands of people listening to us every week. I think a lot about them, people that are in need of Jesus Christ, need about His grace, and also may be interested in starting to go to a congregation. So, what we do–bringing Jesus to the nations and the nations to the Church–that’s the important thing to keep in mind when we think about those people that are listening and receiving our messages.

Mike Zeigler: So the name of the program, the Spanish version of The Lutheran Hour, is “Para el Camino,” which means, roughly translated, “for the journey.” Is that correct?

German Novelli: Yes. Yes. “On your way.”

Mike Zeigler: On your way. So whether the person, whether your listener has been on the way for many, many years or is just learning of the way now, you’re inviting everyone to come on the way with you.

German Novelli: Yes, yes. Enjoy the ride.

Mike Zeigler: Very good. What are some past ministry experiences that will inform and inspire you as you continue on in this role?

German Novelli: Well, I have been doing different activities. So I have been teaching classes to our seminarians in our Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. As you said, I also serve the church as part of the Hispanic Missionary League and the Hispanic National Convention. When I go to places, when I visit congregations, when I talk to my fellow pastors and church leaders, deaconesses, and all the people that are out there doing the work of the missions, that really inspires me to continue moving forward, to continue supporting them and building this huge family that we have become, that are united in one mission, to bring Jesus to the nations. Go to all nations and baptize them and teach them, because that’s what we do. That’s what God wanted us to do as part of His mission.

Mike Zeigler: So seeing this big family gathering together to bring more and more people to know Jesus that will inspire you.

German Novelli: Yes.

Mike Zeigler: Very good.

German Novelli: Absolutely.

Mike Zeigler: Well, thank you, German. We offer God’s blessings to you and expect God to do great things through you in the years to come.

German Novelli: Well, God is good all the time, and we are just a little piece of His master plan to bring salvation to the earth. As we just finished the celebration of the Hispanic Heritage Month, the last few weeks have been amazing. It’s a good time to celebrate all the amazing materials, booklets, sermons, products that we are creating to bring Jesus to the peoples and to all nations. So whenever people see a Hispanic or Latino, we should celebrate that they are here with us and also see them as an opportunity to share the Gospel.

Mike Zeigler: I appreciate that—even though it’s a different language, different culture, different customs—same mission, one Lord, one faith, one God, and Father of us all.

German Novelli: And one mission.

Mike Zeigler: Amen.

Music Selections for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.

“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.

“Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.