Plans, Priorities and Poverty

When Jesus said, “the poor you always have with you,” was He diminishing the importance of His followers' doing good in reaching out to those in need?  Was He implying that it should not be a priority in our lives since poverty will never go away?

That would hardly seem consistent with the themes of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments.  In Exodus, for example, the Israelis were instructed to let their fields rest every seventh year and not to harvest whatever it produced but to leave it for the poor.  There were many similar laws to protect and provide for the poor.  Proverbs 19:17 says, “One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed.”  And didn’t Jesus Himself say in regard to serving the needs of the poor and disadvantaged, “…to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me?”

In recent years, a great controversy has sprung up over a statement made by a well-known Christian leader and author at an international missions conference held in Switzerland.  He simply said, “As believers, we are concerned about all human suffering, especially eternal suffering.”  Many leaders were upset by the statement because they believed that equal, if not greater, priority ought to be given to the social and cultural responsibilities of the church. 

My intent is not to enter that debate here except to say that while Jesus came to reveal the true nature of God, especially His love and compassion, it was always with the objective of kindling faith in Him as Savior and Lord.  He did not come to feed the poor so that they could enter a godless eternity with full stomachs.

What, then, would Jesus be trying to teach us through the statement, “…the poor you always have with you?”  To understand any passage accurately we must look at its context.  In this case, Mary has just anointed Him with the costly perfume, and some of the disciples are questioning why this was not sold and the money given to the poor. 

Our first lesson, it seems to me, is that if Jesus is truly Lord of our lives, He is Lord of our plans and priorities.  When we bring Him into any situation (as we should), everything is on the table.  We give Him rightful access to all aspects of our lives.

Jesus, as the Lord of creation, was both worthy of the anointing gift and also quite able to raise up for the poor an infinitely greater amount of provisions than even the expensive perfume could have bought.  He was not minimizing our duty to the poor, as there will always be a need, but rather was recognizing Mary’s act of devotion as having a higher priority at that particular moment.

As we boil the implications of this teaching down to our own daily lives, one thing stands out to me.  If I have trusted my life into Jesus’ hands, my plans and priorities are His.  And, if, as I claim, He is sovereign, then when someone or something unexpectedly enters my schedule, I need to let go and remember Who is in control. 

What I tend to call an interruption, He places there as an opportunity, a mere change in my priorities.  May we all learn to see by the eye of faith each interruption as His opportunity.  It could dramatically change our attitude!

“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  -- 1 Thessalonians 5:18