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Tag: poor

  • 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 – 3

    For you will always have the poor – 3

    For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ – Deuteronomy 15:11

    Certainly Jesus could have been referring to this command of Moses.

    Thus far we have examined two of the three reports of Jesus telling us that the poor are always with us. (Our Lord means no disrespect.) Before moving on to His point in the anointing with oil and returning to the final quote, let’s take a brief Biblical look at the needy.

    Psalms

    9:18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
    and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

    10:2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
    let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

    14:6 You would shame the plans of the poor,
    but the LORD is his refuge.

    113:7 He raises the poor from the dust
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap

    Proverbs

    14:21 Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner,
    but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.

    19:1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity
    than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

    28:6 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity
    than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.

    Judge rightly between the words of Jesus  and the integrity of the one who remarked that the extravagant anointing of Jesus kept help from the poor.

    “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” tweet=”Luke 6:20
    Luke 6:30-36

    Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.

    And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

    30 hour famine - prayer for the poor“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.

    But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

    Who has the LORD chosen?

    Has the Lord not chosen the poor, the humble and the least of those among men a His own servants?

    “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” tweet=”But you have dishonored the poor man. James 2:5-6a 

    Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. – Colossians 3:12-14

    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…