"No One In Need Among You"
Matthew 26:1-13; Deuteronomy 15:1-11
“The
poor you will always have with you.” These words of Jesus have often been
interpreted to mean that Jesus believed poverty is inevitable. Some people see poverty as an individual
issue. Some believe that poverty is a matter of individual sin or moral failure--
that people are poor because they don’t work hard enough… or have made bad choices.
“The poor you will always have with
you.” This is one of the most influential passages on poverty in the Bible. So,
we need to figure out what Jesus meant.
A group of us have been reading the
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis’ book, Always With
Us? as our Lenten study on Tuesday evenings. Liz, who is a Presbyterian
minister, has devoted her career to studying poverty and what the Bible teaches
about it. She is currently co-director, with Rev. William Barber, of the Poor
People’s Campaign.
In her book, Liz seeks to show
that--far from giving Christian reason to ignore calls for economic justice, the
gospel lesson we heard today actually makes “one of the strongest statements of
the biblical mandate to end poverty.”
She says the passage has been twisted out of context to justify the belief that
poverty as inevitable.
The story we heard today comes just
a few paragraphs after the parable of the Last Judgment in Matthew 25, where
Jesus states that when it comes to feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and
visiting those in prison, “just as you did it to the least of these who are
members of my family, you did it to me.” So, I think Liz is right when she
suggests that this makes it unlikely that Jesus’ words in Matthew 26 should be
interpreted as a lack of concern for the poor.
“The
poor you will always have with you.”
Jesus’ response to the disciples alludes to Deuteronomy 15:1-11, which
is one of the most liberating passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. It recalls the
Hebrew Shabbat, meaning “rest” or “day
of rest,” and especially shemittah,
meaning year of remission-- remission of commercial debts and remission of
slaves.
“At
the end of every seven years you must cancel debts…. There need be no poor people among you, for in the
land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will
richly bless you, if only you fully
obey the LORD by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command
you today….
“If
there is among you anyone in need…do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward
your needy neighbor. Rather, be
openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need…do not show ill will toward
the needy… and give them nothing….”
“Since there will always be some in
need…I therefore command you to open your hand
to the poor and needy neighbor in your land…to be openhanded toward your fellow
Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”
In other words, if God’s will were
being fully obeyed, there would be no poverty. But until that time comes, there
will continue to be poor people, and the law must remain in place.
The sabbatical year, or shemittah,
is mentioned several other times in the Bible. For example, the word of the
LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I
myself made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, “Every seventh year each of you
must set free any Hebrews who have been sold to you and have served you six
years; you must set them free from your service.” But our ancestors did not
listen to me or incline their ears to me. You yourselves recently repented and
did what was right in my sight by proclaiming liberty to one another, and you
made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name; but then you
turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back your slaves, whom
you had set free….” And the LORD gave
Jeremiah a word of judgment and punishment to those who committed these
injustices.
The Sabbath-- the rest required by
God in order to worship God and to protect life and ensure material well-being
is one of the earliest laws in the Bible, and it is a consistent theme.
In that time, people could be sold
into slavery or the might be forced to sell themselves into slavery to settle
debts. God commanded the people of Israel to build into their social structures
ways for people to have a fresh start. Under God’s rule, the society and
economy get a re-set, because God is good and just and promises abundance. When
God’s will is being done, it is not acceptable for people to be trapped in
generational poverty or slavery.
The Torah teaches us that it is important that everyone have a
rest--everyone, including slaves, animals. Even the land must have a period of
lying fallow. It teaches that piety and economic practice are all part of how
we worship God. The way to worship God is to structure society around
everyone’s needs. God’s intention with the laws and commandments is to
eliminate poverty and inequality on earth.
This is about a way of living with shalom justice at the center, a model for right
relationship with humanity and God.
This is in direct contrast to the values
of the Empire. Roman lords were not
interested in the well-being, prosperity, and rest of their subjects except to
compel more work from them.
Liz Theoharis suggests that when
Jesus is understood to be “Lord of the Sabbath” in Matthew 12, the title
emphasizes that he is on the side of the poor. He is a leader who represents
the popular struggles of the poor. He values the lives and livelihoods of the
other poor subjects of the Roman Empire and believes they deserve rest and
justice.
Jesus is also focused on renewing
Israel’s covenant with God. In his teaching, he shows that the way to honor God
is to structure society around the needs of everyone. Rest and economic justice
are consistent themes in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus and his followers were looking
for systemic solutions to poverty and dispossession and found them in the
prophetic tradition of their faith.
Will the poor always be with us? Is
it possible that poverty could be eliminated? Or is it an inevitable social
problem that we need to manage through charitable action? These are important
questions for our faith, and they’re moral questions for our society.
As long as we fall short as a
society of living in full obedience to the God of love and abundance and
justice, we will have the poor with us. And so, we will continue to need soup
kitchens and food pantries and homeless shelters and other ways of alleviating
the suffering and need of the poor.
But, as people of faith and hope, we
pray the prayer our Savior taught us, saying, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I don’t think any
of us believes that there are people going hungry or sleeping in boxes on a
sidewalk in heaven. So, we need to keep
asking ourselves, “What is the world like, if God’s will is being done?” And we
need to live into that vision.
Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared in
his famous speech “A Time to Break Silence” that, “True compassion is more than
flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice
which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
When we look around, when we hear
the facts of poverty, it can feel overwhelming.
The federal poverty threshold is
$12,140 for individuals and $25,100 for a family of four. One in seven people
in the United States live below the federal poverty threshold. That’s 13.9% of
the population, or 44.7 million. According to this federal threshold, a single
adult making $12,141 is not poor, though they are considered “low income.”
Over half of all children in our
nation are poor or low income. Half of all children will qualify for food
stamps before they turn 20, including 9 out of 10 African-American children.
In Michigan, one in five children
and one in six women live in poverty, and 38,725 veterans live below the
poverty line. One in Seven households struggle to put food on the table.
The wealthiest 1 percent of American
households own 40 percent of the country’s wealth, which is more than at any
time in the past fifty years.
Like the people following Jesus, the
people who were gathered at Simon the Leper’s house in Bethany a few days
before Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire, we may wonder if there’s reason
for hope.
Jesus came proclaiming the “good
news” that everyone is created in the image of God and has worth and dignity.
He and his disciples had been demonstrating this good news through sharing
meals and conversations with people who were poor and marginalized. Jesus was a teacher…leader…prophet…and ruler
of a growing revolutionary social movement of the poor that practiced and
proclaimed God’s coming reign of abundance, dignity, and justice for all.
This movement was understood by the
ruling elite to be in opposition to the Roman Empire and to the parts of the
religious establishment that cooperated with the occupying forces. They
understood Jesus’ condemnation of the practices and people that exploit and
exclude the common people as a threat to the status quo, and they were plotting
to get rid of him.
This is the background for what was happening
in Bethany when the unnamed woman anoints Jesus with a very expensive ointment.
The anointing is a turning point in
Matthew’s Gospel. The Hebrew word for “Messiah” means “anointed one. As kings were anointed by prophets, so this
anointing is a sign that Jesus is ruler of God’s Kingdom. The anointing also anticipates Jesus’ death
and burial.
Jesus was betrayed, unjustly
condemned for blasphemy and sedition, and crucified. But the story doesn’t end
with death. On the third day, Jesus was
raised from the dead, showing that God’s powerful love is stronger than sin and
death.
Jesus promised his disciples that he
wouldn’t leave them alone, that the Holy Spirit would be with them to guide and
empower them to carry on his mission.
In Luke’s account of the early church, we
hear that those who welcomed the gospel and received the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and prayers. All who believed
were together and had all things in common. They would sell their possessions
and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they
spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their
food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all
the people.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King’s death and of the Poor People’s Campaign, through which Dr.
King was working to unite diverse groups impacted by poverty and injustice. The
campaign was carried out that spring and summer after Dr. King’s death.
Fifty years later, the work is not done.
Can we say we believe in the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in the
world, if we don’t commit ourselves to bringing it to people who lack basics
like safe water to drink, adequate shelter, good education, health care, and a
chance to have a place at the table in our society?
As the people of God, we are called to share the good news of
God’s love with all the people God loves. We’re called to help the world
recognize the miracle of grace and abundance that is offered to all people in the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We don’t have to do it alone. The good news is that in
this broken and fearful world, the Spirit
gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to
Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear
the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice,
freedom, and peace.
In gratitude to God, empowered by
the Spirit, we strive to Christ in our daily lives, even as we watch for God’s
new heaven and new earth, praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
May
it be so!
Amen!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
March 18, 2018
