It is one of the most confounding things Jesus is quoted as having said – The poor you will always have with you (Mt. 26). It comes right after Matthew 25 – my favorite passage – about the goats and the sheep, where Jesus tells His followers that if they don’t care for the least among them as if they were Him, they will go to hell. So, Jesus isn’t saying that having the poor with us is a good thing. There are a lot of opinions about what He meant, and I don’t want to add too much to that clutter. Briefly, I think Jesus was getting frustrated with His followers’ misplaced priorities and selfishness, and this statement seems to be more about them than about Him.
The questions about the poor, though, stay with us. Why are people poor and what are we, who are not, supposed to do about them? There are so many reasons for poverty: some are born into it, some make bad financial decisions, some don’t have the generational wealth that others do, and some suffer from physical, emotional, or mental illness. Some people have no options, and some families live in poverty as a way of life generation after generation. It is true – I’ve seen it. Some people are victims of the greed of others, while some just can’t make enough to get by. Most people living in poverty are children. Regardless of the reason, the question remains: what are we supposed to do about it?
I have spent 75% of my ministry working in impoverished communities, and I have seen way too much pain and suffering caused by poverty. Religious communities put a lot of Band-Aids on, but we can’t fix the problem. Governments put a lot of money out to help people, but it never seems to be enough to pull everyone who wants to be pulled out of poverty. For many, affordable higher education is an answer, but not for all. We can give up or rail against the system, but neither response will fix all of it. And we have to remember that Jesus didn’t fix the system either; He saw the suffering around Him and helped those He could. Not helping when we can – the bootstrap theory – is not the answer either.
If you expected the answer, I am sorry to disappoint. For followers of Jesus, it is a simple answer: feed the hungry. Give the thirsty something to drink. Welcome the stranger and clothe the naked. Care for the sick and visit people in prison. Care for widows and orphans. We can’t fix unfair systems, and we can’t force people to not be poor. But we can be compassionate and generous and keep families from homelessness and starvation. To give up on the poor is to give up on God. Like Sisyphus, we roll the boulder up the hill again and again. It may seem hopeless to us, but to those we are helping it is a miracle. Do good for the sake of the doing. That’s God’s call.
Prayer – Holy God, keep us from judgment and inspire us to be generous. Help us to give a hand up to those who need and want it. Amen.
Today’s art is “Urban Poverty” by Zulkifl Rafah.