The Presence of the Poor

The Presence of the Poor

Deuteronomy 15:1-6

Matthew 26:6-13

            There are times, I think, when we get God’s commands and God’s statements of facts mixed up.  We take statements of fact as commands and commands as statements of facts.  Today’s readings are a good example of that confusion.

            “Deuteronomy” means “the second giving of the law.”  God gave the law (the Ten Commandments) in Exodus.  They are restated in Deuteronomy along with detailed instructions as to how those laws were to be implemented.  In a way, this is like the United States government.  Congress passes a law (yes, it happens sometimes), the president signs it, and then it’s turned over to the appropriate government agencies for interpretation and the writing of regulations.  It is through these regulations that most laws are actually implemented.

            The fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy begins by explaining the Year of Release.  Every seven years all debts were to be forgiven—completely cleared.  This is not a suggestion, this is God’s commandment.  Every seven years the Israelites were to start over—debt free, with no residual financial obligations.  All outstanding debts were to be cancelled.  That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?  There’s no room for “interpretation” here.  Every person gets a fresh start.

            In v. 4 God says, “…there will be no poor among you;…”  This is not a statement of fact.  It’s the law—God’s law.  There will be no poor because every person gets a fresh start!  All debts are forgiven.

            Can you imagine this working in our society?  Can you see banks forgiving mortgages? Car loans?  Credit card debts?  We have gotten so dependent upon credit, so immersed in living for the future that such a system would seem to be totally unworkable.  Yet this is God’s law—for the Israelites, yes; but doesn’t God’s law apply to us as well?  What about those who insist that every word of the Bible is absolutely true and given directly by God?  Would they go so far as to live this way?  Would they argue that all society should work this way?  Perhaps it’s is unrealistic, but perhaps it is something we should be working towards.

            In the Matthew reading, a woman has just poured the contents of a flask of very expensive ointment on Jesus’ head.  The deed has upset some of Jesus’ disciples.  They are appalled that this woman has wasted a precious commodity this way.  “Why didn’t she give the money to the poor?” they said.  “It would have gone a long way toward helping those who need it most.”

            Jesus replied (in part), “you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”  It’s the first part of this answer that causes trouble.  Too many people interpret this as having the effect of a command—or at least the fatalistic statement of a situation that cannot be changed.  I do not believe this is what Jesus meant.  He realized that people were unwilling to help the poor in any meaningful way—any way that would offer a real solution to the problem.  To the best of our knowledge, Israel never instituted the Year of Release.  No one was willing to forgive debts on such a grand scale even though  God had said, “for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess—if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

            There it is!  It’s not our land.  It’s not our money.  All good gifts have been given to us by God.  If we strictly obey the voice of God, there will be no poor among us, and all will prosper.  This is God’s command to us, and the way God expects us to live.