Lent 5: The poor

Judas said,  "[instead of anointing Jesus] with this oil [why didn’t Mary contribute it to be] sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" Jesus said to Judas, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.”

In strictly legal terms, Judas is correct: why would you spend everything you have on a costly perfume wash a guest’s feet when you could have contributed of your means to the common purse in order to serve the poor. We see that this is commanded by God in both the OT and the NT. 

The text tells us that Judas really didn’t care about the poor, but was instead a self-serving thief of the common purse. So clearly he tries to hide his sinful theft under the appearance of nobility: I care about the poor here. It’s unlikely that any of the disciples knew about Judas’s thievery because none of them said anything.

On the other hand, given that Jesus is God, we know that he sees straight through Judas’s claim. And yet oddly, he doesn’t call Judas out and say, “you’re a liar and a thief.” Instead he seemingly plays along with Judas’s deception: Judas, leave Mary alone, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

In these words, Jesus establishes that poverty is not just a condition of not having money or possessions: those who betray Jesus, who try to hide their sin, who falsely judge others as Judas tries to do with Mary, those who betray God by betraying other people, seeking to harm them or cut them down, to trample on them in order to get more of what they want - whether as individuals, a business, a church, or as a country - often presented in the guise of a false righteousness - these people are most to be pitied in their poverty of faith, hope and love. They are the poor who will sadly, always be with us. And they are poor because God sees through their words and actions right into their hearts and at the end of time, they will be judged accordingly. 

Of course we will also always have people who are poor in possessions. Oftentimes these folks are actually rich in faith and hope because they can’t hide behind possessions that seem to fuel an endless desire to have more or to guard what they have from others. It is in fact only when we are willing to stop trying to possess more, to control more, to have more, to be more and force everyone around us to conform to what we want or what makes us look good; when instead we are willing to actually give lavishly of what we’ve been given, like Mary, or the widows with a little flour to Elijah or the two coins that we will be able to let down our guard against others, our doubt and our fear that God is really at work in and with and for us. 

When guests were received in the days of the disciples, usually the guest’s feet were washed with water and the guest’s head was anointed with just a dab of oil or perfume. But in her recognition that she is loved by Jesus, she realizes that it is actually not she who is welcoming him into her home; rather Jesus is welcoming Mary into his home; his life, his kingdom, the mansion of heaven with many rooms. And in recognizing Jesus’s love for her, she is willing to let go of everything she possesses, to spend everything she has, to receive him.

This humble act of returning God’s love with everything she has is a recognition that it is she who is receiving rather than being the one who gives; who can give, whose sacrifice or offering or food would ever be enough; like the woman at the well whom Jesus tells, “I will give you water that will not run out if you follow me.” Mary realizes that it is she who needs to be 'filled up.”

And so it is that unlike Judas whose deception becomes visible to the world; Mary’s faith, hope and love in Christ shows us what true discipleship looks like: the abundant love of God that, when received, pours out so that it can be shared with everyone who encounters it. So you and I, generations upon generations later, see what it is to love God first, so that we might be able to feed the poor; both those poor in possessions and the poor who so struggle with love, faith and hope in God, that they take the path of Judas. Like Jesus who makes Judas a disciple in the first place - knowing who he is at the core - so too are we called to exercise the love we have received in God, to speak God’s truth to them with wisdom grounded in love. AMEN