Devotion for Monday, April 6, The Sixth Week in Lent
John 12:1–11 | You do not always have me.
Our ministry to the poor and homeless: It has never not been important. Jesus’ whole ministry was a labor of love to the outcast and marginal.
Even so, at a supper before the Last, just six days before, Jesus placed himself in a unique position over against “the poor.” He said, as the disciples ragged Mary Magdalene for washing his feet with costly perfume, “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” There are two points here. One is the hypocrisy that lay behind Judas’ righteous indignation. Jesus punctured the feigned “righteousness” of his false friend by speaking abstractly of “the poor,” the dissimulated objects of Judas’ supposed care. Always keep your eyes open when people start talking about groups as groups. They are abstracting people into ideas. Do they really care about the “poor man or woman at the gate?” Or is it just “the poor” out there? (But not right here?)
The second point is Jesus’ self-valuation. His hour was come, no more waiting or delay. Every moment and every word would now be precious. Fortunately the disciples got this, in part at least, so they remembered later most of what would now happen during Holy Week. Jesus was present on earth for a short time more. And “we didn’t know who you was.”
PRAYER
Dear Jesus, let me be unafraid to pour costly perfume.
Let me love you extravagantly, wholeheartedly, sincerely.