My dear friend Heather over at Lagniappe Church in Bay St. Louis (who often makes me think too hard about these things) has written in her blog about the challenge of helping folks she sees who are facing hard times, utility cut-off, overdue rent and the like and asking for help from the church. She talked about James1:27: "...that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." but she could have chosen Isaiah 1:16-17 or Deuteronomy, or may other readings of a similar imperative in both the Hebrew and Christian writings that invoke the same responsibility.
Somewhat as a practical justification she mentioned the oft-quoted reply of Jesus in Matthew 26:11 "...you will always have the poor with you." But it serves to read the whole story, verses 6-13. I think she means us to think about this a little harder.
In verses 6-13, rather than simply acknowledging that by God's will there will always be poor among us, could Jesus perhaps have slipped into a little sarcasm to his jealous disciples (since He had always readily quoted Isaiah) by subtly reminding them (and us) or bemoaning our intrinsic failure to heed the teaching of James 1:27, or Isaiah 1:16-17, or the Beatitudes; namely, our failure to follow God's directive to insure there will be no poor is a reflection on our own sinful nature?
Peace
Henry
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