January 24, 2016: Always With Us – Michael Hidalgo

Without question one of the most often quoted passages of Scripture regarding poverty is, “The poor you will always have with you.” Not only is the verse quoted with zero regard to context, but often quoted as an excuse for shrugging off poverty. The problem is, it takes very little time at all to recognize Jesus was not saying this as a way to ignore the poor – just the opposite.

 

Jesus is at the table of a leper and a woman, in an amazing act of service, anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume. Perfume that would have cost her most everything she had to get. This story takes place in proximity to the poor – as a leper would have been. Jesus’ assumption seems to be that if we are his followers we will always be around the poor. But when we have little proximity to the poor we find this verse hard to understand.

 

And Jesus’ quote was not just a passing thought. He quoted from Deuteronomy where two things stand out. First, there need not be any poor among his people, but if there is we are to to be generous and open handed toward them. All this makes me wonder why we misuse these words of Jesus about caring for the poor as a way to not care for them.