Majesty

But when the disciples saw [that a woman anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume], they were angry and said,  "Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum,  and the money given to the poor." But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you trouble  the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not  always have me (Matthew 26:8-11).

    Can you believe Jesus said this? He would prefer his feet to be soaked in expensive perfume rather than see some hungry mouths being fed with the money spent on that perfume. The one who told the young rich man to sell everything he had to give it to the poor, would not give up the pleasure of his feet smelling perfume for the same poor. The one who chose to be born poor in order to prove that he understands the poor thinks that the poor are in this world to stay. The one who came to teach us about the Kingdom of God in which there would be no problem, actually believed that poverty will never disappear.

    If people know anything about Christians and Christianity is that this religion is about “feeding the poor.” Therefore, it must come as a shock the realization that there is no evidence that Jesus ever taught that money should be given to the poor, that they should be fed, or that he ever gave any money to anyone. It is assumed that the reason Jesus told the rich young man to sell all his property and give it to the poor is because Jesus wanted all rich people to give away their money to the poor because he cared about the poor but not the rich, but Jesus made very clear the reason he asked the young man to give up all his possessions: “Sell all that you own and distribute the  money to the poor . . .  then come, follow me” (Luke 18:22). The reason Jesus asked the young ruler to give up everything he had was not because he thought it was wrong for Christians to own material things and that they should give their money to the poor, but because that was the condition for anyone to become a disciple. Jesus always asked those whom he called to be his disciples to give up everything they had, including their job, in order to be a full time disciple. Not everyone was called to be a disciple and those whom he called to be Christians without calling them to be disciples he never asked to sell anything or to give anything to anyone. The disciples, however, were asked to give up their jobs like fishermen or tax collectors, and even their family ties. As far as feeding the poor is concerned, it is true that on a couple of occasions Jesus did miraculously feed the multitudes who had become hungry after listening to his teaching for several days, but there is no indication that those multitudes were poor. They were just regular people, of regular means, who decided to go hungry and listen to this extraordinary teacher rather than go home and enjoy a good meal. It was Jesus’ decision to feed them and although he did ask his disciples to feed the multitudes, they admitted their inability and no doubt Jesus asked them in order to point out how ridiculous would be for Christians to assume such a role. While Jesus gave whatever he offered freely, ne never gave money to anyone and specifically instructed his disciples not to take money with them. Instead, he instructed them to give everything for free and to receive everything for free.

    In a world in which even Christians now believe that everything is a matter of money, Jesus clearly believed that problems–including poverty–cannot be solved with money because all the problems of the world would be solved with the faith he had himself and came to teach us. When criticized that he spent time with problem people or sinners, he made clear that those were precisely the kind of people he came for. Christianity is a religion of the people, for the people, and through the people who have problems. To put it in biblical language, Christianity is a religion of the people, for the people, and through the people who are sinners. Christianity is a religion which starts with people who have problems enabling them to overcome those problems.  Christianity has always been the religion of the pariah who become almost overnight the most successful people. It is a social revolution in which the pariah do not take arms to seize the property of the rich, but become rich themselves by being changed from inside. In several short centuries Christianity turned the Roman Empire upside down. Among the reformers, probably no one understood this power of Christianity better than John Wesley. He noticed that in the British society of his time only the rich went to church; the huge part of the population lived in extreme poverty and would never go to church. He realized that what those poor people needed was Christianity and not money which no one would have been able to give anyway. He started to organize small groups of Bible study on Wednesday nights so that people would understand how God wanted them to live by building a Bible based faith in their lives. Because distilling alcohol had been invented which made cheep liquor widely available, alcoholism was widespread among the poor who spent their meager resources on alcohol making their desperate condition even worse. He declared alcohol a sin and banned his followers from even touching it. He banned jewelry because it was considered a waste of resources which could be used to fulfil important needs. Because poor people did not have access to medical care, he wrote a book about natural remedies to encourage his followers to live healthy lives without resorting to expensive medical treatment which was out of their reach anyway. Of course, the enlightened Christians of his time ridiculed Wesley for his “methodical” application of the Bile to change human lives and as a result his followers were called derisively “methodists.”  The laughing did not last long. Within several generations the “methodists” became the most affluent segment of the society. The Methodists of today still have the money but not the faith which Wesley taught them. And that is the reason Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. Actually the poor will always be US. Christianity is always for the poor, that is, for US. Fortunately we are always poor, which means that Christianity always can enrich us. When we begin to think that we are rich because we have money, we are the most wretched.  Christianity always wants to take us beyond what we are and what we have.

Aurel Ionica - Majesty.ro