SCRIPTURE: John 12:1-11
“You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” (John 12:8)
Some people use these words as an excuse not to address the problem of poverty.
But the real issue is that they are looking for excuses not to love.
It was the same for Jesus; it’s not his concern for the poor that motivated him.
Mary on the other hand was motivated by love, love for Who Jesus was and what He represented.
She was not just honouring His person, she was honouring His purpose.
My guess is that long after Jesus was gone, Mary would still be loving Jesus by loving people.
While Judas, who to the end loved himself more, ended up losing his life for it.
Because we live in a sin-messed world, we will always have poverty and suffering.
This is why Jesus came, and this is why Jesus left us behind, to address these issues.
The sad thing is that through history the church has more often shown the self-love of Judas.
Claiming to collect money ‘for good purposes’, we then spend most of it on ourselves.
Those who truly love Jesus will also truly love the poor, the needy, the suffering.
And when we do not love the poor, the needy, the suffering, we show our lack of love for Jesus.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25:45)
If we say we love Jesus, then let’s show it by loving His brothers and sisters.
Yes, the poor are still among us… what are we doing about it as Jesus-followers?
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, You have made it clear that words are not enough. Expose the signs of Judas love in us, and expand the Mary love in and through us.
Jesus follower
trying to find His way
There are two things that stand out for me in this passage. First is the dynamics of hanging around with the 12 disciples, as well as others that tagged along. Just as you might expect today, if there were a small group of people working as a team somewhere, there was conflict. Jesus did not pick 12 people who agreed with him on everything. These people had character. It is written here that Judas helped himself to the money that was used to support the twelve. We do not often think about the fact that even this group had to take care of it financial needs, and Judas was the treasurer. Although he had selfishness in mind when he suggested that Mary could have sold the expensive perfume to give money to the poor, the statement does give insight to what this group of people around Jesus would want to hear. Taking care of the poor, and caring for others would have been ingrained into these men. And yet, just when you think that Judas is exactly correct with his thinking, Jesus turns the whole situation around, and lets Judas know that Mary’s act of worship is a precious thing. How often are we generous in our acts of worship. How often do I give my all, without worrying about what else could be done with what I am giving.
The second thing that stands out for me is that many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him, because he had raised Lazarus from the dead. What did this faith look like? Today we have our Theology and lots of ideas on what it means to put our faith in him. But these people did not have this idea. There was lots of religion, as taught by the Pharisees, and the Teachers of the Law, but did this help with putting their faith in Jesus? And what does this faith mean for them? Did they stand up for him when it mattered, as Jesus was accused only a short time later? It appears that they either were unaware of what was going on, or their fear of getting hurt, or killed, was stronger than their faith.
I pray that I can be generous towards Jesus and his Kingdom. I also pray that I can have a faith in him that is real, and that can affect how I live in this world.