THE POOR WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU
___Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, *said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?” 6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. 7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. 8 For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.” 9 The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus. (John 12:1-11, NASB)
This coming Monday I have the privilege to preach this text on the second day of Holy Week. The text has within it one of the most peculiar comments from Jesus: "For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me" (v8). You're probably more familiar with Jesus' statement as it's found in Matthew's gospel: "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me" (Mt 26:11). In whichever case, it is an odd statement. It's one that many have interpreted differently over the years and I wanted to, in a way, clear the confusion about it to the best of my abilities.
Spoiler alert: Jesus is not saying doing things for Him is more important than for the poor, or that poverty will never end.
To be honest with you, I wanted to make this blog post for selfish reasons. You see, it's selfish because this verse is probably not the main thing John is trying to communicate in John 12:1-11. So, I don't feel comfortable with making it a major theme in my sermon. However, here on the blog I can write about things I might otherwise not cover in a sermon or a devotional. So, let's get started.
V8 in the Greek from John's Gospel is this: τοὺς πτωχοὺς γὰρ πάντοτε ἔχετε μεθ᾽ ἑαυτῶν ἐμὲ δὲ οὐ πάντοτε ἔχετε. Most translations do a good job translating it. If I were to translate it literally it would be something like this: "For you all (speaking to the disciples) will always be in the company of the poor, but you don't always have me". Complicated? Not really, but the context in which he is saying this is important in understanding Jesus.
You read the story in the beginning of this post and you probably remember how it goes. Jesus is hanging out in Bethany with people he loves: Lazarous, Martha, Mary and the disciples, although John really makes a spectacle of Judas. Not only does Jesus love Lazarous, Martha and Mary, but they love him, too. Beginning in chapter 11 there is a long story about Lazarous becoming sick and dying. Mary and Martha get pretty frustrated with Jesus' and then Lazarous is resurrected. The story is beautiful, but it's not without people's emotions getting a little testy- even Jesus'! In all of John's gospel Jesus' humanity is put on display, but especially from chapter 11 to the end. This is one of the reasons why most theologians think that these stories are historically accurate. The methods and actions of Jesus seem irregular and surprising. They don't fit the bill of how we think God should operate.
Think of it this way: if I wrote a story about Jesus who is fully God coming to earth, I would have Jesus snap his fingers and have Lazarous raised to life from a distance. Jesus, however, goes to them and it takes longer than everyone one in the story wants it to take. Jesus evens cries over Lazarous' death. That's a very human response! If I were to write a story about God incarnate, God wouldn't cry. I mean c'mon, where's the power and "wow" factor in all of that?
In the end, Lazarous is raised back to life. You can imagine that the family is pretty ecstatic. Even some other Jews in the area were beginning to believe in Jesus because of it (12:11). This was quite an event and it's causing lots of unwanted commotion for the Jewish leaders of the day who think Jesus is a false teacher. Jesus was a controversial topic.
For Mary, being extremely generous with her perfume (that cost about a year's wages) probably wasn't that difficult. She learned in the experience of loosing her brother and getting him back what truly mattered. Think about it, wouldn't you give anything to have one more moment with a person who died that you loved? This is because we know, deep down at least, that there are more important things than possessions and money. For Mary, it didn't really matter the cost of the fragrant ointment that she poured out on Jesus. She had a new perspective for what truly mattered in life.
However, there's another side to this story and it has to do with cultural practices. 11:47 gives us evidence that many of the people in Bethany were Jews. The Jews, of course, read and studied the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, what we call the Old Testament. However, Jewish people didn't only study and read the Old Testament. In those days there were other Jewish writings that explained the OT and gave practical tips for Jewish living. These writings aren't considered Scripture, but they are often studied today because they give clear historical glimpses into the religious world that Jesus spent time in. In some of these ancient catalogs written by Jewish teachers lists of good works are included. In them an action that is considered to be of greater importance than giving to the poor, visiting the sick and showing hospitality to strangers is burying the dead.
But Mary isn't burying Jesus, right? Look again at v7. Perfume seems to be important for the burial of Jesus, probably because it covers the bad smell. So, what is Mary doing? She is preparing Jesus for His burial. David Garland in his commentary on Matthew's version of this story writes, "What the woman has done is therefore better than almsgiving because she has seized the moment to minister to one who was as good as dead". (Side note: isn't it interesting that Jesus accepts her act of ministry rather than acting "tough" and insisting the perfume be sold for money to give to the poor?)
So if this action, culturally speaking, is considered better than giving to the poor, why in the world would Judas be so against it?
Well, according to John, he's being sneaky and wants to take the money for himself. I'm going to give Judas the benefit of the doubt and say he has no idea what's going on. Or maybe Judas is playing the fool because he already received the money to betray Jesus (It's hard to know, historically speaking, if that took place before or after Jesus was anointed at Bethany).
In the other gospel accounts, all the disciples are surprised by Mary's action and give her grief about it. Why? Because they didn't know Jesus was about to die. They know people aren't "cool" with what Jesus is doing, but they seem pretty unaware of the outcome. Simply put: they were completely clueless!
V8 in the Greek from John's Gospel is this: τοὺς πτωχοὺς γὰρ πάντοτε ἔχετε μεθ᾽ ἑαυτῶν ἐμὲ δὲ οὐ πάντοτε ἔχετε. Most translations do a good job translating it. If I were to translate it literally it would be something like this: "For you all (speaking to the disciples) will always be in the company of the poor, but you don't always have me". Complicated? Not really, but the context in which he is saying this is important in understanding Jesus.
You read the story in the beginning of this post and you probably remember how it goes. Jesus is hanging out in Bethany with people he loves: Lazarous, Martha, Mary and the disciples, although John really makes a spectacle of Judas. Not only does Jesus love Lazarous, Martha and Mary, but they love him, too. Beginning in chapter 11 there is a long story about Lazarous becoming sick and dying. Mary and Martha get pretty frustrated with Jesus' and then Lazarous is resurrected. The story is beautiful, but it's not without people's emotions getting a little testy- even Jesus'! In all of John's gospel Jesus' humanity is put on display, but especially from chapter 11 to the end. This is one of the reasons why most theologians think that these stories are historically accurate. The methods and actions of Jesus seem irregular and surprising. They don't fit the bill of how we think God should operate.
Think of it this way: if I wrote a story about Jesus who is fully God coming to earth, I would have Jesus snap his fingers and have Lazarous raised to life from a distance. Jesus, however, goes to them and it takes longer than everyone one in the story wants it to take. Jesus evens cries over Lazarous' death. That's a very human response! If I were to write a story about God incarnate, God wouldn't cry. I mean c'mon, where's the power and "wow" factor in all of that?
In the end, Lazarous is raised back to life. You can imagine that the family is pretty ecstatic. Even some other Jews in the area were beginning to believe in Jesus because of it (12:11). This was quite an event and it's causing lots of unwanted commotion for the Jewish leaders of the day who think Jesus is a false teacher. Jesus was a controversial topic.
For Mary, being extremely generous with her perfume (that cost about a year's wages) probably wasn't that difficult. She learned in the experience of loosing her brother and getting him back what truly mattered. Think about it, wouldn't you give anything to have one more moment with a person who died that you loved? This is because we know, deep down at least, that there are more important things than possessions and money. For Mary, it didn't really matter the cost of the fragrant ointment that she poured out on Jesus. She had a new perspective for what truly mattered in life.
However, there's another side to this story and it has to do with cultural practices. 11:47 gives us evidence that many of the people in Bethany were Jews. The Jews, of course, read and studied the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, what we call the Old Testament. However, Jewish people didn't only study and read the Old Testament. In those days there were other Jewish writings that explained the OT and gave practical tips for Jewish living. These writings aren't considered Scripture, but they are often studied today because they give clear historical glimpses into the religious world that Jesus spent time in. In some of these ancient catalogs written by Jewish teachers lists of good works are included. In them an action that is considered to be of greater importance than giving to the poor, visiting the sick and showing hospitality to strangers is burying the dead.
But Mary isn't burying Jesus, right? Look again at v7. Perfume seems to be important for the burial of Jesus, probably because it covers the bad smell. So, what is Mary doing? She is preparing Jesus for His burial. David Garland in his commentary on Matthew's version of this story writes, "What the woman has done is therefore better than almsgiving because she has seized the moment to minister to one who was as good as dead". (Side note: isn't it interesting that Jesus accepts her act of ministry rather than acting "tough" and insisting the perfume be sold for money to give to the poor?)
So if this action, culturally speaking, is considered better than giving to the poor, why in the world would Judas be so against it?
Well, according to John, he's being sneaky and wants to take the money for himself. I'm going to give Judas the benefit of the doubt and say he has no idea what's going on. Or maybe Judas is playing the fool because he already received the money to betray Jesus (It's hard to know, historically speaking, if that took place before or after Jesus was anointed at Bethany).
In the other gospel accounts, all the disciples are surprised by Mary's action and give her grief about it. Why? Because they didn't know Jesus was about to die. They know people aren't "cool" with what Jesus is doing, but they seem pretty unaware of the outcome. Simply put: they were completely clueless!
Mary, on the other hand, lives in Bethany. The drama caused by Jesus is the talk of the town (again, look at 11:47). I think she knows what the religious leaders are planning and how people are plotting to kill Jesus. Jesus knows and there's some possibility that Judas knows.
So, let's put this verse to rest. What is Jesus saying by, "For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me"? As I read it, it doesn't seem to be a philosophical claim at all. He's simply telling the disciples, "I'm going to die soon, my time is running out". Jesus wants the disciples to know that he needs this ministry from Mary. Jesus knows how painful, both physically and emotionally, his death will be and it's starting to set in. Jesus probably felt exalted and strengthened in his lowered state through the anointing because that's how it impacted people back then (see Lk 10:34). Jesus wasn't being selfish with accepting the expensive anointing, he was being real and honest about where he was at emotionally. Even before the crucifixion takes place, Jesus' humility was extraordinary.
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