Having the poor with us - ie, Jesus' words are for me

I said something in my last post about using Jesus' words about always having the poor with us. I called it a cop out.

It's actually more than that even. It is a fundamental misunderstanding of the context in which Jesus spoke those words.

A woman came to anoint Jesus with alabaster. Some of the disciples grumbled. "We could have sold that and given it to the poor." What the disciples don't get - because they can't get it through their skulls that the Messiah is going to be killed - is that this is a burial annointing. Jesus corrects them. "The poor you will always have with you, but not me."

Most of those around the table would have heard that and known that Jesus was putting a twist on Deuteronomy 15. "...there will, however, be no poor among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord of God is giving you...if only you will obey the Lord your God..." In his book Jesus, Justice, and the Reign of God Bill Herzog says that the only logical conclusion we can draw from Jesus' statement is that poverty exists among us because people don't obey God. Herzog writes, "Far from being a saying about the prevalence of the poor, it is a wry saying about the omnipresence of oppression and explotation." We always have the poor among us because in a game of winners there are going to be losers.

But here's where things hit home for me. When Jesus says you can always give to the poor he ain't talking to the Herods of this earth. He's talking to a bunch scruffy-faced, corn-footed, fishermen-turned-itinerate-preachers. And that's the rub for us not destitute but definitely not rich folks. We do always have an abundance out of which we could give to the poor.

That's why I'm taking one of my extra snow coat to JUMP today. Because Jesus' words are for me.