John 12:1-8 Jesus had dinner at the home of
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. We don't know how long this was after Lazarus was
raised from the dead, but he was dining with Jesus at table. Jesus was
obviously very comfortable here, having worked through the sisterly rivalry
revealed in Luke 10:38-42. Martha served dinner. Jesus had explained to Martha
that Mary had chosen to lavish her devotion on Him while Martha had chosen to
serve Him. Neither call was intrinsically more important than the other. But
Lazarus was a living testimony to Jesus' deity, just by his very life.
Mary's devotion to Jesus was much more
ostentatious this time than just sitting at His feet. She had procured an
enormously expensive spice, a pound of pure nard, and poured it out on His feet. Judas complained about this extravagant
devotion to Jesus. Since John remarks that Judas intended to betray Jesus, it
suggests that he had already made contact with the conspiracy of priests and
Pharisees. But John also remarks that Judas did some pious posturing to cover
up his real motive. Doubtless Jesus knew about Judas' embezzlement but chose to
not make an issue of it. Most likely, He already knew what Judas was up to and
that this was part of the Father's plan. But He was not about to let Judas attack
one of those wholly devoted to Him without rising to her defense. Really! A
thief piously posturing with religious-sounding motives to attack someone with
a heart devoted to God, solely so that he could line his own pocket.
Jesus' remark about the poor was some
puzzling. On the face of it, the straightforward interpretation is that Jesus
was only on the earth for a short time, so there would be plenty of time later
to give to the poor. Jesus' remark about anointing for His burial is telling.
He knew that He would shortly be put to death, the conspiracy was afoot, but He
also knew that if they wanted to anoint His body for burial, they should do it
before He died as Mary had done. He would only be in the tomb for a few days,
which would also be the Sabbath days when observant Jews could not do something
like that. Hence, only Mary succeeded in anointing Jesus for His burial.
But what of Jesus' remark that there
would always be poor people? Perhaps He was quoting Deuteronomy 15:11. But how
do we respond to this? Moses had clearly laid out the duty of those who observe
God's law to be generous to provide for the poor. (Exodus 23:11, Deuteronomy
15:7-11) And Jesus did not say that this command was not part of God's new
revelation. Most likely, what He reflected was that giving to the poor can
alleviate their worst needs, but it would never make them not poor. Because the
reasons for poverty are endemic to the current world order, i.e., a world-system based on and
saturated with sin. The sociological and economic sources of poverty cannot be
eradicated within the world system. No government program, no change of the
rules of the marketplace, no revolution of the social norms can eradicate
poverty. Under the current world-system, there will always be poor people. Perhaps
this will not be true during the Millennial reign of Christ, but Jesus was not
here speaking to that.
It is one of my experiences that poor
people, especially those who live on the street, have an experience of the
immediacy of God's presence and action in the world far deeper than those of us
who live comfortably. In fact, God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich
in faith. (James 2:5) The poor know this aspect of God's nature and character
because they have nothing else in the way. Jesus reflected on this when He said
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of God. (Luke 18:25) Having enough money to get by can
be very corrosive to faith because it is so easy for us to trust what we can
see, and to make choices on what to do. Perhaps Judas was from a rich family.
Perhaps he subscribed to the view that cash in hand is the guarantee of
provision for life.
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