Jesus and the Poor

Gospel: John 12: 1-11

"The poor you will always have with you, but me you will not always have." 

John's Gospel is filled with ironic comments like this one. Those who preach neglect and indifference to the poor love this passage as an apologetic for their neglect and indifference, but such misses the irony of the statement in the Gospel.  This neglect and indifference, seen in Judas using money set aside for the poor for his own personal use, is why we will always have the poor with us always.

For we know that Jesus is present in the poor (Matthew 25) as we will realize on judgment day.  We also know that the highest form of worship we can provide to God is in our care for the poor, marginalized, and abused as we see in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37), a parable Jesus proclaims just before visiting Martha and Mary.  

Again Holy Week is election season.  Lent called us prioritize our care for the poor by direct support of them and our detachment from worldly goods in our lives.  We can choose to care for the poor and by extension the Lord Jesus as a priority, or we can neglect and show indifference to the poor.  We can create structures of support for the poor, or structures that give priority to subsidizing opulent episcopal residences while closing parishes and schools for the poor.  It is our election week, a time to make different choices than we have previously.