Have any of Jesus' sayings been more often misconstrued, with more devastating consequence? When Judas protests that the price of the ointment Mary “wasted” on Jesus could have fed the poor, Jesus defends her: "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
That one reference to the persistence of poverty has led some to a “so, why bother?” stance about remedying economic inequality. Others have gone so far as to see in those seven words a mandate for poverty, despite the record of Jesus’ pronouncements about justice and giving in the gospels. I actually heard someone quote these words and say Jesus does not want us to help those who are poor.
Such an interpretation makes a mockery of the Good News, which Jesus said he came to proclaim to the poor, as well as to those marginalized in other ways. The imperative to share our resources so that no one is in need (an ideal reached briefly in the early church, according to Acts 4…) should be a driving force for Christians engaged in God’s mission of reclaiming, restoring, and renewing all people to wholeness in Christ. In God’s realm no one is defined by how much or how little she has, but by her belovedness.
An even deeper distortion of the first seven words of that sentence can result when the second seven are ignored. Jesus' main point was that his presence in human, embodied form, was finite, and soon to end. Those who emphasize the “social gospel” and Jesus’ love for the poor, as though he did not equally value the humanity in people with resources and privilege, can be as much in danger of misinterpretation. It is Jesus who matters, more than his teaching and example and ministry and power. When we reduce him to “teacher” or “moral example,” social worker” or even “healer,” we miss the most important aspect of his identity: Son of God, Redeemer, Lover of your soul right here in your living room.
Mary, better than anyone else, seemed to grasp what was happening; that Jesus, in the way they had known and come to love him, would soon be dead and gone. She alone seemed to understand that it was about him, all about Jesus, and she expressed that insight in a profoundly sacramental action.
Can we value him that much? Can we make Jesus our priority? Spend time with him, seek his counsel, ask to be filled with his Spirit, make him known among the people whom we encounter, whether their needs are material or spiritual? I’m pretty sure that if more Christians put Jesus first, our hearts would be so transformed we could not tolerate poverty or injustice, violence or warfare. As Gandhi famously observed, if Christians were more like Christ, there would be a lot more of them. (That’s a paraphrase; the actual quote and its context can be found here.)
When all who claim to follow Christ put Jesus first, there will be no rich or poor, only sister, brother, beloved community.
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