The Poor will always be with you

There is this passage in Mark that has always bothered me. I've always been critical of this passage because I never understood it. I read it again this weekend in preparation for Children's Chapel on Sunday and I think I finally started to get it.

Here's a quick summary: Jesus and his disciples are eating dinner at Simon the Leper's home. A woman (in Luke she's identified as Mary Magdalene) comes and pours very expensive perfume on Jesus. The disciples rebuke her and say that the perfume should have been sold and given to the poor. Then Jesus rebukes the disciples and says that she did a good thing and that the disciples will "always have the poor with you."

In the past I've seen this passage as an excuse to neglect the poor; I've seen it as a way to say "the poor will always be with us" so we don't have to do anything for them. Instead lets spend tens of thousands of dollars on our new church. Jesus told us to right here that we don't have to spend money on the poor and instead we should spend money on him. Our church building is clearly what Jesus would have wanted.

When I read this on Sunday I noticed for the first time where the story was set. This story is set in the home of Simon the Leper. All we know about this man is that he has a home and that he has an incurable skin disease. (Any good Bible will have the footnote that the word for leprosy was used to refer to multiple skin diseases, not just leprosy). We also know that people with skin diseases were considered unclean and therefore were not allowed to participate in the religious life (or any communal) activities. The fact that Jesus and his disciples were in this man's house and sharing a meal with him is a radical act. That act, by itself, would be revolutionary. It would be as if the Pope decided to go and have dinner with an abortion doctor. This story just leaves the tidbit about where it is located as a small detail in the background. They move on to the real story, the woman pouring her perfume over Jesus.

This is a purely symbolic act. Jesus is preparing for his own death. At the end of this passage Jesus sends his disciples out to find a place for his final meal. He is clearly thinking about, and aware of, the fact the he will be leaving this earthly life in a few days time. He has brought the battle to Rome, so to speak. This woman, probably one of his disciples - although the male centric lens of the gospel does not name as one - pours this oil on his body in preparation for burial. She is probably giving him the most valuable item that she owns. Instead of waiting for him to die she is giving it to him in the here and now. She is saying that what we do right now is so much more important than what happens after we die. We don't need to wait until this life has gone to give our most valuable asset because the lives that we LIVE are our most valuable assets. By pouring her perfume on him she is saying - I am living my life for Jesus. I am not waiting until I die (or you die, Jesus) to have the Life that you offer.

The disciples reaction shows just how little they get it. They say that this is a waste. Her perfume could have been sold for a year's wages and the money given to the poor. What we forget is that all of this is taking place in the home of a poor person. Not just a poor person, an excluded person. Jesus does not talk about the poor in some abstract "over there" sort of way. No, Jesus goes to their homes for dinner as he is preparing to lose his life. Jesus is not concerned with the ability to throw money at the poor so that they are no longer poor. He is trying to create a new system where people are valued because of their humanity not because of their wealth. As long as we fall into the trap of believing that if we just give enough money to the poor then we will eventually eradicate poverty we will never overcome poverty. This is lie is tempting because it seems to address the basic cause. Why are the poor, poor? They do not have money. Yes, that is the definition of 'poor'. But that does not answer why. Why are they (we?) poor? We are poor because our society has been built to create a class of people that slaves away to serve those in power. We have been programmed to see poverty as something that we can fix as individuals. That is impossible. Poverty is a system of power that must be dismantled.

Jesus understood this. The disciples that followed him did not. They were probably uncomfortable because they were in the house of an unclean man just before one of the holiest holidays. They were probably thinking that Jesus had just ruined all their plans to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. Now they see this opportunity to show how much they support the poor. Look at this waste of money on perfume that should be used after Jesus is dead! Why are you embalming him before he dies they cry. Why can't we just take that money and give it to the poor? They desperately want to try and prove that they get it. That they understand that we have to fight luxury and give money to the poor. That is not the solution.

The solution is a revolution that has no room for exploitation. A revolution that has no room for poverty. But also a revolution that is just as intolerant of greed.

I finally see what Jesus means when he says that the "poor will always be with you." He is really giving a command that we will always be with the poor. We will be among them. We will be poor so that we can combat a system that values people based on money. Finally this passage makes sense to me.