<\/p>\n
\u201cOh sure, give me the ringer.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was my first reaction when I read the passage from the Gospel of St. John<\/a> (see below), the scripture that the nice folks who have produced a beautiful new translation of the New Testament<\/a> \u2014 the Common English Bible<\/a> \u2014 invited me to contribute my braindroppings to their Lenten Blog Tour.<\/p>\n The eight short verses from the 12th chapter of St. John are among the most difficult in all of the Gospels<\/a>, one of those passages that seemingly is forever debated by theologians and biblical scholars as to what, precisely, it really means. The Bible contains, by some accounts, 2,103 verse about the poor. The passage in John 12 is perhaps the most challenging.<\/p>\n Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, home of Lazarus<\/a>, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2<\/sup> Lazarus and his sisters hosted a dinner for him. Martha served and Lazarus was among those who joined him at the table. 3<\/sup> Then Mary took an extraordinary amount, almost three-quarters of a pound,h<\/a> of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She anointed Jesus\u2019 feet with it, then wiped his feet dry with her hair. The house was filled with the aroma of the perfume. 4<\/sup> Judas Iscariot<\/a>, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), complained, 5<\/sup> \u201c This perfume was worth a year\u2019s wages!i<\/a> Why wasn\u2019t it sold and the money given to the poor? \u201d 6<\/sup> (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He carried the money bag and would take what was in it.)<\/p>\n 7<\/sup> Then Jesus said, \u201c Leave her alone. This perfume was to be used in preparation for my burial, and this is how she has used it. 8<\/sup> You will always have the poor among you, but you won\u2019t always have me. \u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This passage, particularly verses 7-8, are often used by people of faith to dismiss efforts to work to alleviate the suffering and injustices of poverty.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the point?\u201d they\u2019ll ask. \u201cJesus himself said the poor \u2018would always be with us,\u2019 so why waste our time trying to end poverty or help the poor? It\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand.\u201d<\/p>\n Other folks, such as my boss Jim Wallis<\/a> over at Sojourners<\/a>, insist that such interpretations of this passage are way off base. In his book, God\u2019s Politics, Jim says:<\/p>\n \u201cRemember the context.\u00a0 They are at the dinner table with a leper, and Jesus is making an assumption about his disciples\u2019 continuing proximity to the poor.\u00a0 He is saying, in effect, Look you will always have the poor with you because you are my disciples\u2026Jesus is assuming the social location of his followers will always put them in close proximity to the poor and easily able to reach out to them\u2026So because of our isolation from the poor, American<\/a> Christians get the text wrong!\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus, in his own words many times elsewhere in the Gospels, clearly cares about and commands us to care about the poor. We are told that whenever we care for \u201cthe least of these\u201d we are caring for Jesus himself. It\u2019s not a suggestion. It\u2019s a direct order. If we are truly Jesus\u2019 followers, we must care for the poor.<\/p>\n So what in the world does Jesus really mean when he says, \u201cYou will always have the poor among you, but you won\u2019t always have me\u201d? The tension these words bring to the overall message Jesus brings about our collective responsibility for the poor is seemingly untenable. These verses clang. They nag and trouble us like a hang nail. They make us uncomfortable.<\/p>\n Now I\u2019m no theologian and I\u2019m certainly not a biblical scholar, but, because they asked, let me humbly offer a few thoughts on \u201cthe ringer.\u201d<\/p>\n When I read familiar verses anew this week, the first thing that struck me was the literal context in which they appear. Jesus is at Lazarus\u2019 house. Lazarus was Jesus\u2019 friend, the one who had died before he could get there to heal him from an illness. The one whose untimely death made Jesus weep. The one who Jesus then called to in his grave and told him to wake up. The one Jesus raised from the dead.<\/p>\n When Jesus speaks these words in verses 7-8, he is having dinner in the house where Lazarus is living. LIVING. Lazarus was dead. And now he\u2019s alive. Because Jesus said so.<\/p>\n That\u2019s quite a thing. It is, perhaps, Jesus\u2019 most spectacular miracle. Even death itself is no match for the power of Jesus\u2019 love.<\/p>\n Enter this woman and her container of nard, an expensive perfumed oil that was commonly used to anoint the bodies of the dead in preparation for their burial. She crashes the party, breaks open her bottle of nard, spreads it on Jesus\u2019 surely dusty feet and wipes them with her hair. She cause a scene. And Jesus\u2019 posse, the Disciples, are peeved. \u201cOh come on!\u201d they whine. \u201cWhat is she doing? Stop that. Yes, you.\u201d And then Judas Iscariot, the schmuck in charge of the Disciples\u2019 community purse (who apparently enjoyed skimming off the top for himself, thief and liar that he was), complains about the woman \u201cwasting\u201d the nard, which could have been sold for a pretty penny and used for the work of the Kingdom (or to buy himself a nice new pair of sandals and a bottle of good wine.)<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not Jesus\u2019 reaction. See, he gets it. He knows why the woman has crashed the dinner party. He sees what she is doing. She is worshiping him, which is the correct response when we come face-to-face with the Living God. The woman with the nard didn\u2019t turn up at Lazarus\u2019 crib for a social justice meeting. She didn\u2019t make a scene because she wanted to be part of the planning committee. She came to see and to worship Jesus. And she did so with great flare (the lady knew how to make an entrance.) She wanted to be close to Jesus the Christ<\/a> \u2014 the Messiah, the Promised One, the man who raised the dead and healed the sick and preached a Gospel of radical love and inclusion \u2014 to bow down and worship him, even if she made a fool of herself (in some folks\u2019 eyes) in the process.<\/p>\n Sometimes, in spite of our best intentions, many of us get caught up in the \u201cwork\u201d of the Gospel \u2014 the healing of the world, Tikkin Olam \u2014 and we forget to worship the Living God who asked us to do the work in the first place. We should care for the poor. We must. Jesus told us to do so. And when we are in the presence of Jesus, we should worship\u00a0 Him. It\u2019s not an either\/or. It\u2019s both\/and. It\u2019s being the hands and feet and voice of Jesus in the world, and worshiping the One whose hands and feet and voice we are called to be in the world. Work and worship. Both\/and.<\/p>\n And where are we sure to be in the presence of the Living Christ? When we are with the poor, the suffering, the sick and marginalized. Because that\u2019s where Jesus always is.<\/p>\n The timing of this lil\u2019 Lenten reflection on the Gospel of St. John 12: 1-8 is wonderfully prescient. This Sunday (April 10) in churches across the nation, some folks will be marking what the fine folks at the ONE Campaign<\/a> are calling \u201cLazarus Sunday<\/a>.\u201d It is a day to recognize a powerful story in the fight against HIV\/AIDS \u2014 the miraculous effects of antiretroviral drugs that have the ability to snatch dying AIDS patients from the jaws of death. Doctors call it the \u201cLazarus Effect.\u201d As a part of ONE\u2019s event, churches all across the country will screen the HBO documentary \u201cThe Lazarus Effect\u201d<\/a> for their congregations in an effort to convey the monumental importance of antiretroviral treatments in the fight against AIDS, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries where HIV\/AIDS have claimed millions of lives \u2014 nearly entire generations of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, teachers, nurses, preachers and children.<\/p>\n This Lazarus Sunday, may we remember the Jesus\u2019 command to heal the sick, feed the poor and care for the least of us. And while we are gathered with the community of the saintss in the presence of the One who raises the dead and promises us all eternal life, may we also bow down and worship Him.<\/p>\nJohn 12:1-8 (Common English Bible translation<\/a>)<\/h5>\n