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Tag: Matthew

  • For you will always have the poor – 5

    For you will always have the poor – 5

    Help the poor later or honor Jesus now?

    Sell everything you have and follow me. Leave your hometown and follow me. Give up you job and follow me. These things Jesus had asked of his followers and for three years they all followed on foot.

    The culmination of events, so it seemed, came two days before when Jesus entered Jerusalem like an anointed King. Then nothing.

    Today is Tuesday and the Lord foretells his death to the Apostles, that which they have feared. Another choice.

    MATTHEW 26

    2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

    3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

    Bethany and Jerusalem

    In two scenes related by Matthew we see Jesus and the Apostles and learn of what Matthew would know later about the leaders of the Temple.

    6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”

    Recall that the Apostle John has told us that the ‘why this waste?’ question came from Judas Iscariot, though it seems others joined in.

    In Bethany, near Jerusalem, notice first the anointing honoring Jesus takes place. Then discontent and criticism from those present, opposition no different than in Jerusalem from those who seek to crucify the Lord. As always, Jesus cuts to the quick with the truth.

    The poor are with you always.

    10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

    12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

    How would you have responded to Judas?

    Would I have said something like,

    ‘Come on, Judas, focus on the significance of the worship of Jesus, the Lord your God, here; will you?’

    Probably not! And we dare not accuse the other Apostles for joining in on ‘save it for the poor.’ Jesus was not so abrupt here as you or I might have been, but you get the point.

    We examined one incident prior to Palm Sunday where John dissects the motives of Judas. We began with the gospel of Mark reporting a second incident just prior to the trial of Jesus. Matthew adds some additional detail to this report. We judge these scenes of unfamiliar experience based on our distant understanding of practically nothing about these oppressed men and women of a conquered Israel of the first century.

    After-dinner betrayal

    14 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?”

    And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

    The greatest story ever told does not end there. We know that.

    The Gospel is Good News to us! Yet do we proclaim Jesus? Does our faith fade into our own hopes and not the calling of Christ?

    [ctt title=”Casual \’christians\’ are no less vulnerable to Satan than Judas.” tweet=”Do you believe that? Is your witness of Jesus vulnerable? https://ctt.ec/tea44+” coverup=”tea44″] 

    Even knowing the ending, a glorious resurrection of Christ Jesus in the flesh, we offer similar excuse, don’t we?

    ‘I am saving up to help the poor.’

    ‘Someone else will have to help this mission.’

    ‘I may be the poor in my retirement.’

    Worship or excuse?

    How do I compare to when called on to witness Jesus?

    A humble woman, lowly in station of life and offering a worship of her highest value, anoints the Lord Jesus. Are we too involved in something else to do the same? For you will always have the poor.

     

  • For you will always have the poor – 4

    For you will always have the poor – 4

    ἀλάβαστρον – alabastron

    The alabaster receptacle of the anointing oil

    To understand why Jesus would say, “the poor are with you always,” we must understand anointing as commonly understood in the culture of the day.

    People traveled to and from homes with no running water mostly by foot and anointing is often associated with washing or cleansing. Jesus instructs us to give to the poor. He cautions not to neglect washing or anointing ourselves with oil when we fast for the Lord.

    MATTHEW 6:17-18

    But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

    A common anointing

    Anointing with oil along with washing up was part of hospitality, a godly attribute commanded of the Jews. Of course these various oils and ointments needed kept in some sort of container.

    On special occasions a newly opened, expensive fresh oil was most appropriate. The ancients considered alabaster to be the best material in which to preserve their ointments. Breaking the box, probably means breaking the seal of the box. 1. 

    An earlier anointing

    This scene takes place in the early days of Jesus’ preaching of the Good News in Galilee. Jesus cleansed lepers. Jesus healed a man who could not walk and a man who could not use his hand.

    Crowds came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled with unclean spirits cured and all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

    LUKE 7:

    Jesus heals the servant of a Roman soldier by command from afar. Amazingly, Jesus raised the son of a widow to life from a coffin at his funeral! Healing – healing of every imaginable sort, cleansing of the body and soul by the hand of God!

    36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

    Jesus accepts our common anointing

    There it is again, earlier in Jesus’ ministry, the alabaster flask of ointment. How does Jesus react here in the presence of his esteemed host?

    44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

    Consequently, Jesus admonishes his host for neglecting the very least of hospitality commonly extended to guests. He corrects Simon’s hesitation to honor a guest by instead praising the anointing by this woman. For she has done what Simon was obliged to do. And the Lord further emphasizes his authority by his peace of dismissal.

    ” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

    50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

    Anointed as a welcome guest, healer, one who revives the soul of one dead in the flesh. Jesus, anointed as a King given His due. And finally, anointed for his own burial, only to rise again to rule eternally.

    To be continued…

  • For you will always have the poor

    For you will always have the poor

    Why mention the poor?

    Once again, Jesus makes what appears to be an offhand remark about the poor. Jesus often criticized the leaders of Temple and Pharisees for their treatment of the poor; doesn’t this remark catch you off guard?

    It would be easy enough to lose the context of Jesus’ apparent ambivalence toward the poor in the rush of events surrounding Passover week. Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem has many seemingly more important things going on than what to us would first appear to be a slip of the tongue (sort of like cursing the fig tree).  Yet like in our previous series you may find some subtleties worthy of note that impact more than just the poor.

    The Gospel Quotes:

    Prior to examining Jesus’ point of the comment, which we will do later in this series, let’s begin quotes from the view points of three different gospel writers.

    Mark 14:7

    For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them.

    Matthew 26:7

    For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

    John 12:8

    For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

    The 5 W’s

    Now to discover the context we must examine all three stories asking:

    Who, what, where, when and why?

    You will find some variation in the three Gospel stories and some similarities. We begin today with Mark’s gospel.

    Mark 14:

    It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, 2 for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

    We have the ‘when:’ two days before the Passover, which in this particular year with the Passover on a Thursday, was Tuesday.

    3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.

    4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

    Where? In the house of Simon the Leper, in Bethany, near Jerusalem.

    Bethany is today el ‘Azareyeh (“the place of Lazarus”- the L being displaced to form the article).

    Who is present? Jesus, of course; Simon, host of the meal (who Jesus had likely healed from leprosy; ‘some,’ likely the Twelve and others; and an unidentified woman who enters Simon’s home.

    What happens? She pours out some very expensive oil on Jesus, an act of great humility and worship.

    (More about her and her gracious act later.)

    To be continued…