Reflections

What’s most important?

One of the more puzzling but I would suggest most profound and helpful statements Jesus spoke was this: “For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have Me,” recorded in the gospels of Matthew (26:11) and Mark (14:7), and John (12:8). 

What had happened was a woman crashed a dinner party Jesus had been invited to and pulled out an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She broke the jar open and poured the aromatic perfume upon Jesus’ head and feet.

Because the perfume was so pricey – a year’s wages so the equivalent of $40,000 in our day – Jesus’ disciples grumbled asking “Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.”

It seems to me this is one of those instances where most of us think the disciples were on the mark in their observation of the situation and criticism of the woman. 

How could anyone, sensitive to the plight of people hopelessly mired in poverty, and with any sense of conscience, condone blowing $40,000 on the fleeting frivolous pleasure of smelling the rich sweetness of the perfume and feeling its soothing balm on the skin?

That’s why Jesus’ reply to the naysayers about “always having the poor with you” is so puzzling. Why did Jesus not see the logic of prioritizing the $40,000 for the poor?

Indeed it is not uncommon in our day for folks within and beyond the church to think in similar terms, suggesting Christians should stick to spending their time and money less on airy-fairy spiritual pursuits and more on things that actually make a real difference in the lives of people, especially the poor and needy. Some even suggest the government should no longer give tax credits for church donations and/or cancel the property tax exemptions of church facilities unless the church can demonstratively show their primary purpose is being of practical service to the poor and needy.

This brings to mind the address the famous Soviet era dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn delivered at Harvard University in 1978. He challenged the modern assumption (which I suggest most of us take for granted) that the primary purpose of societies (and churches?) is the reduction of human misery (prioritizing $40K for the poor?) and promotion of human happiness. Instead Solzhenitsyn pronounced “If humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die.”

In concluding, “We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.”  Solzhenitsyn, a Christian, was echoing the lesson Jesus was trying to make.

Jesus explains it thusly: “‘Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have Me. By pouring this ointment on My body she has prepared Me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’ (Matt. 26:10-13)

Jesus is not saying giving $40,000 to the poor is not a good thing to do, just that it’s not the most important thing. Another way to put it is the woman was seeing what the disciples could not. To her eternal credit, and why “what she has done will be told in remembrance of her,” the woman saw the big story- the gospel story – unfolding in front of her. 

She was the only one who got it! 

She saw that an innocent Jesus was going to suffer being unjustly killed in a most horrible manner, all while being deserted by His closest followers. 

She saw, given her political powerlessness, that the most important thing she could do in the inevitable circumstances was attend to spiritually encouraging and strengthening Jesus with a visceral outpouring of extravagant, tender love and care. 

The disciples were so focused on their “helping-the-poor-is-the-most-important-thing” story they were unable to see the deeper, bigger story unfolding before them. They couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Suffering, poverty, illness, untimely death, injustice – are all important matters Christians need to address. But they are also inevitable – “you always have the poor with you” – and will never be eradicated. 

Jesus’ gospel is not primarily about eliminating these scourges from the world, but about nurturing a spiritual life, rooted in Jesus, able to strengthen humans to find the peace and power of God in order to face whatever horrors life throws at them.

The most significant gift Christians can offer the world is not our well-meaning humanitarian works to alleviate suffering, important as these are. 

The most significant gift Christians can offer the world is the invitation to know and love Jesus, with this assurance: 

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us.” 

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)