John 12:1-8
There has been something that has
really been driving me crazy as of late.
It seems that the new group to pick on is the poor. I see petitions floating around talking about
how all people who receive welfare should have to take drug tests. Even when it is pointed out that the majority
of people who take drugs are not on welfare, this has no impact. Even when it is shown that it cost more to
test people than what is saved by denying benefits to those who test positive,
the excuse is that the tests just need to be made cheaper because we KNOW that
THOSE people are on drugs. Or when we
come up with plans to help the unemployed, the response is that the people
should just get off their duffs and get a job.
And I wonder why there is such a mean attitude to those who are in
need. The usual response is, “I work for
my money, so should they!”
Yeah, the poor will always be with
us. And since they will always be with
us, what is the use of doing anything to help them. And besides, shouldn’t they be going out and
helping themselves? God helps those who
help themselves! (Actually, that is no
from the Bible at all, it is from The Poor Richard’s Almanac.)
Still, in our gospel reading for
today, we have Jesus saying these exact words, “you always have the poor with you…” It sounds kind of like a slap in the face of
Judas. Judas was commenting on how the
money for the perfume could have been spent to help the poor. This sounds like a good thing, doesn’t
it? But then Jesus comes back with this
smack: You should spend the money on me
(that would be Jesus) because those poor people will always be with you. You can feed them tomorrow or whenever. And I will grant you, Jesus’ words are a smack
to Judas, but not for the reasons we normally assume.
Being a good Jewish boy, (and definitely before
our age of distraction), Judas would have been familiar with the law. He would have been familiar with what was
written in Deuteronomy. He would have
known that what Jesus said was a reference to Deuteronomy 15. And he would have known that his plan to
steal the money had been recognized for what it was; not a plan to help the
poor, but a plan to line his own pockets.
To understand this, we need to look at
Deuteronomy 15. Deuteronomy 15 DOES say
that the poor will always be with us, but it is not a statement of
resignation. What it is, though, is an
indictment on how we live. The people
are told that the land they will be given by God is a land of abundance. And in the face of this abundance, there
should be no hunger or poverty. We are to
be truly loving and generous. We are to share our God-give abundance and, as
such, prevent poverty from ever entering the land. But the quote says that the poor will always
be with us. Again, this is not that God
makes poor people, but we are NOT be generous and loving. We will NOT share the abundance we find. We will keep the abundance for ourselves and
come up with excuses as to why the others are lacking. We are presented with a real possibility end
hunger and poverty, but the statement of resignation is that we will continue
to practice our selfish ways while shifting the blame to others.
And lest we think this is just some past thing,
not something that applies to us today; since 2001, the US has spent more than
$1.4 trillion dollars on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This could have bought groceries for 660
million people in the US
So when Judas says that the money for the perfume
Mary is putting on Jesus’ feet could be given to the poor, Jesus’ response is a
smack to Judas, saying, “It could help the poor, but you would never use it for
that.”
It may seem weird that I would be talking to you
here, this morning, in Statesalvania, State , about what is spent on
war, but unless we talk about it, and do something about it, it is not going to
change. It is easy to say that we are
too old to do anything, or that we are just one person. But we don’t get off that easy. The new pope, Pope Francis, is 77 years
old. The Catholic Church must assume
that older folks are capable of something!
And what about Mother Teresa? She
was one person who made a lot of difference!
And Gandhi: When he started he was
both one person AND old! We are capable
of making a difference! To say “we
can’t” says more about our faith in God than in God’s ability in the world.
So Jesus is smacking Judas for trying to look all
holy when, in fact, Jesus knew that Judas intended to keep money; but what are
we to make of the “but you do not always have me” part? I couldn’t find anything in the commentaries
about this part, so I will venture a guess:
Even if we don’t want to help the people around us because God has
blessed us so richly, we should be helping others because in doing so we
worship Christ.
Christ is saying that it is okay for us to lavish
affection onto Christ. And that we in
fact NEED to do this because Christ will not always be with us. So, if we believe that Christ lives in each
of us, because of our baptism, then we NEED to be lavishing affection upon each
other because we do not know how long this person will be with us! Instead of calling each other lazy or
foolish, or prodigal (remember last week??!?), we should be looking for ways to
show love, honor, and respect to all the people we meet. Can you imagine what the world would be like
if we all followed this? Can you imagine
what the world would be like if even a simple majority followed this? What a different would we would have!
My challenge for you for the rest of Lent is to
not look at the poor and needy as the takers of society, but to see the spark
of Christ within them. I challenge you
to follow the example of Mary and lavish them with love and affection. I challenge you to not think of it as giving
to the poor but as worshiping our Savior.
Will this be easy? No. Will we want to do it? I don’t know, quite possibly not. But we are called to share the abundance we
have been given, and we are called to do it while we still have Christ among
us.
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