People Watching
RCL Year B • Sermon • Submitted
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I would like to see a poll by the raising of hands as to who has ever people watched? What is it about people watching that is so enjoyable?
Bekkah and I sit around and people watch all the time. In fact there are times when I talk to my wife and I know she is not listening. That usually happens when we are out around town or on a trip having a bite to eat while we are shopping or when we are at a restaurant sitting and having dinner. In fact it usually happens when we are eating food. It took me a while before I simply asked her if she heard what I was saying. She said she was sorry but she really wasn’t paying attention to me. How could she not pay attention to me? What was it that was so important that she was not hanging on the very words that I was saying? Well it turns out that she was busy watching other people and their interactions with each other. Things they might be saying to one another or things that people might be doing that caught her attention and took it away from me. There are also times when the both of us will just sit and people watch. You can spend a lot of time looking at people wondering what in the world they are doing and creating your own scenarios of what is going on. The limits of what you can do with people watching seem infinite and sometimes the time just flies when you take up the pastime of people watching.
Just this last week I was in the car with some of our youth while we were driving back to the church and one of them told the car that she loves to watch people in the car and wonder what they are doing and begin to come up with random stories of their lives based on what they appear to be doing or saying. I have to admit I have wondered and come up with my own ideas of what it is that make people do or behave in certain ways when they are in the car and assign some kind of story to them as well.
In fact, in our text today we have Jesus participating in this very pastime. Jesus sits down facing the treasury and watches the people as they place money inside. He decides to watch the people and see what is going on in the Temple of the Lord. Jesus sees a typical day in the life of the Temple. People come to the Temple to put their money into the treasury and go on their way. It is very similar to the hobby that many people enjoy each and every day. So obviously the lesson of the story is that people watching is a wonderful pastime because Jesus did it 2K years ago.
Most of the time when I people-watch I just see people walking around interacting with each other and I don't really remember anything that I saw throughout the day and none of it is really worth keeping in my memory. Sometimes, however, I think there can be some wonderful things that we can learn about our nature and about people when we people watch. I have watched people interact with their children and thought to myself; I could really use that idea. There are also times when I see people interacting with each other and I make a mental note that I should try to never do that to someone else because it seemed hurtful or mean to the person they were interacting with.
During a typical day at the treasury Jesus simply sees all the rich people pouring their money in to make sure that they are in good with the scribes and priests that are watching them put the money into the treasury. You see, Jesus wasn’t the only person who was people watching. Placing the money into the temple offering was supposed to be a personal act, but everyone knew that everyone else was watching so it was actually quite important in some people’s eyes to make sure that the money they put in was a large offering and that it made a lot of noise as it went in so that others and most importantly those in charge of the temple knew how generous a person was with their offering money.
Jesus doesn’t find any of that interesting at all. It is typical for some of these people to just pour out money into the offering so Jesus doesn’t think much of any of it until he sees an old, poor widow walk up to the treasury. He sees someone who he is not used to seeing. Someone who does not have the resources to come to the Temple and give money to the treasury is now in the Temple giving money to the treasury. It would seem to me that Jesus who is sitting down is probably in a relaxed position just casually watching people pass by, but when he sees that widow, however, he moves to the edge of his seat and leans forward looking intently on her. He watches her reach into her pocket and pull out two small coins. He realizes it is all that she has. What he also realizes is that anything less than those two coins would not be considered a worthy offering to the treasury. This widow is giving what is expected and trusting that the scribes will make good use of the money.
Jesus sees something that he can use to teach a lesson. During his typical day of people-watching he actually sees something so incredible that he must share it with the disciples. This seemingly casual pastime becomes a teaching moment for Jesus and the disciples. Jesus is not concerned with how much you really put into the treasury, he is looking at the fact that this woman just gave her money to the men that Jesus just described as the ones who take the money and the houses away from widows like her so that they can have long flowy robes. This woman, this widow, who has nothing and has possibly been a victim of these scribes in their long robes has come to the treasury to put in the money that she may not have to spare. And yet she puts it all in.
She has actually put her trust in the Lord she puts that money into the treasury, into that offering not because she trusts the scribes, but because she has faith in her God. She trusts that the Lord will provide for her as she has done what she has been asked to do. She gives her all to her Lord because in her life, some way somehow, despite all of the possible abuse and being taken advantage of that has happened in her life she has experienced the love of God and knows that God has provided for her. So she places her money in there, not for show and not for the people of the temple, but for God.
It is truly amazing the kinds of things you can learn from people watching. There was a time when I was watching this man who was dressed in all black and had the chains all around his pants and I looked at him while I was just watching people and I thought to myself, this guy must have some bad streak in him or something. I had formed an opinion of this man even before I knew anything about him simply on his looks. Well as you can guess this man surprised me. He was walking out of Starbucks where I was sitting and he ended up helping this old lady to her car and make sure she was safe and secure before he left her. She said something to him and he told her to be safe and “God bless her too”. To say the least my heart sank as I realized what I had done to this man in my own head. I learned that day that there is a lot more to people than what you simply see when you walk by them. There is much more to people. Watching people can help you learn about others and about yourself and can teach you some incredible lessons in life.
This seemingly regular old woman was so much more than a widow. She taught those disciples what it means to put their trust in the Lord. It was never about the money for the widow, or for Jesus. The text might seem to say otherwise with all the references to the treasury, the rich people putting in their abundance, and the widow putting in all that she had, but the real lesson here is to trust in the Lord. I forgot where I heard this but it is a good saying to keep in mind. When you are lost…trust God. When you are troubled…trust God. When things go wrong…trust God. I could go on and on with things in our lives that we should put our trust in God.
I didn’t trust God when God used that “gothic” man to help that old woman out to her car. I was fearful for that old woman, hoping that the man would not take advantage of her or hopefully just ignore her. I did not trust God to let the Spirit work through that man to help the old lady. The old lady was the one who had the trust. In both my story and the story of the widow in the treasury they had trust that others did not. They knew that God would care for them. We do not know the end of the story for either of these old ladies, but I do know that the trust that they had was put in the Lord.
Trust in God. God watches over us as we do our people watching. God is the ultimate people watcher. God has eternity to watch over each and every one of us. As I think about the fact that God is the great people watcher I feel comforted by that fact and hope that I can trust in God as much as the women of both of our stories. God is watching over us all whether or not we always fully put our trust in God. What a blessing we have to have a God that trusts us and watches over us even if we cannot always do the same back.
AMEN!