Matthew 26: 11 (New Living Translation)
You will always have the poor among you,
As I began to discover God’s heart for the poor several years back, I came across the occasional person that would say something like, “the poor you will always have with you.” They were quoting Matthew 26: 11: “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” These biblical scholars would mention this to me in an attempt to shift my focus from talking about God’s desire for social justice and that all of my time and energy should be on saving souls. I would always point them to a deeper look at the story.
The story was simply this: Jesus was about to die, and a woman poured expensive perfume on Jesus as a symbol of his coming death. The disciples still did not understand what was about to happen, and one disciple, in particular, Judas, protested this waste of resources and stated they could have used the money to help the poor. It was at this point that Jesus threw down the famous passage, “the poor you will always have with you.” John 12:6 shed more light on Judas’ real intentions of his protest: “Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.” Judas didn’t care about the poor; he was dipping into the pot for his greedy desires.
So why did Jesus says, “The poor you will always have with you.” Jesus was quoting the Old Testament passage in Deuteronomy 15. In the text (Dt 15:4), we are told that there should not be any poor among us at all because God has given enough for our needs, just not enough for our greed. Poverty is a people problem, and it’s a greed problem rooted in people’s lack of imagination, where we live in a world where everyone is important. God is a realist, and further along in Dt 15:7, God informed us, “if” there happens to be poor among you, then don’t be tightfisted or hard-hearted towards them. God calls us to be generous to those in need. Finally, God speaks the famous passage in Dt 15:11: There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor. Jesus quoting this verse was not a call to apathy towards the poor but a call to action. The poor will always be among us is a command to share freely and to do justice.
As I look at the current landscape of white America, I see a similar mindset as I did when I started discovering God’s heart for the poor but in terms of racism. Many white folks have a “racism will always be among you” attitude with a “let’s be apathetic about it” mindset and lifestyle. Just as poverty seems overwhelming and unsolvable, many white people face the giant of racism and feel it is a worthless battle to have. God loves people and wants us to do something about racism that divides us and gets people killed. Racism has always been among us; therefore, let’s change our ways.
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