For over twenty years, on nearly a weekly basis, I have heard people quote Matthew 26:11 — “the poor will be with you always” — to blame the poor for their poverty, to justify inaction in the face of growing poverty and misery, and to claim that if God wanted to end poverty, God would do so. This passage led me to seminary and biblical scholarship and eventually to write a book on these misinterpretations.
Politicians, religious leaders, and others quote Matthew 26:11 (and the parallels in John 12 and Mark 14) to justify shutting down housing programs and kicking kids off food assistance programs.
These leaders, many of them self-described Christians, ignore the majority of passages from the Bible — passages like,
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing homeless children. (Isaiah 10:1-2)
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you … The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you. (James 5:1-6)
God has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:52-53)
They fail to see the moral and political agency of poor and homeless people who — much like the early Jesus followers — were taking care of each other and building safe and vibrant communities, although they were forced to live without adequate housing, food, education, or healthcare. These poor families proposed policies and programs similar to the jubilee prescriptions from Deuteronomy and Leviticus and the collection for the poor in Paul’s letters. They advocated for an end to poverty that would benefit all people and resisted tax cuts and draconian policies that punished the poor and benefited the wealthy.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible proclaims justice and prosperity for the poor: the Exodus is a founding story of God being on the side of the poor and oppressed, the Deuteronomic Code offers commandments that say that how you care for your neighbor is how you honor God, the prophets denounce oppressing the poor, the gospels proclaim bringing good news to the poor, and Paul’s epistles instruct the Jesus followers to offer mutual solidarity through the collection for the poor.
But the Bible is often interpreted in ways that justify inaction in the face of poverty, state that poverty is eternal, and claim that if God wanted to end poverty, God would do so.
These politicians and others put forward ahistorical, non-contextual, and unethical (mis)interpretations and (mis)appropriations of biblical texts, like Matthew 26:11, and other passages like 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (“If you do not work, you shall not eat”).
They deliberately ignore Isaiah 10:1-2, James 5:1-6 and Luke 1:52-53, among many others. They rarely reference the truly radical economic teachings of the Bible:
Blessed are the poor for theirs shall be the Kingdom of God. (Matthew 6)
No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 26:4)
Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. (Luke 18:22)
Some of the only preachers I hear talking about poverty are those who condemn the poor as sinners. Very few people talk about how poverty itself is a sin against God that could and should be ended.
Indeed, that line from Matthew 26:11 is what evangelical leader Jim Wallis calls the most famous Bible verse on poverty. The verse echoes the jubilee codes from the Hebrew Scriptures and calls for radical economic redistribution as central for community prosperity. I hear echoes of this verse when I read Dr. King’s statement on true compassion from his sermon at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. Indeed, this may well be Rev. Dr. King’s interpretation of Matthew 26:11:
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
Matthew 26:11 takes place in the context of a meal with Jesus’ disciples, the Last Supper, when a woman comes and pours an alabaster jar of ointment, muron, on his head and right before Judas decides to betray Jesus by turning him over to be crucified.
With this action, the woman anoints Jesus. He becomes the Christ in this scene. But the disciples don’t understand the significance of the anointing, of Jesus’ impending execution at the hands of the state.
They critique the woman for wasting the ointment (using apoleia — the Greek word for ‘destroying’) by pouring it on Jesus’ head, anointing him Messiah and prophet, and preparing him for his burial. They say that instead of breaking the jar, they could have taken the nard and sold it for a year’s salary and given the money to the poor.
This takes place in the house of Simon the leper in the Town of Bethany (meaning ‘House of the Poor’ in Hebrew), directly following Jesus turning over the tables and challenging the religious and political authorities for impoverishing the people during the Passover. Jesus is having dinner with his disciples when a woman anoints his head.
When Jesus says “the poor will be with you always,” he is responding to his disciples, who criticize this woman for “wasting” the ointment she pours on Jesus’ head. They could have taken the nard, they say, and sold it for a year’s salary and given the money to the poor.
This idea of earning lots of money and giving the proceeds to the poor follows how we try to address poverty — by doing charity work, by buying and selling and then donating to the poor, but never questioning how poverty was created in the first place.
When Jesus says, “the poor will always be with you” he is actually quoting Deuteronomy 15, which says that there will be no poor person among you if you follow God’s commandments — to forgive debts, release slaves, pay people fairly and lend money even knowing you won’t get paid back. Deuteronomy 15 continues that because people will not follow those commandments, the poor will never cease to be in the land.
Thus, in this passage and throughout the Bible, Jesus isn’t condoning poverty — he is reminding us that God hates poverty, and has commanded us to end poverty by forgiving debts, raising wages, outlawing slavery, and restructuring society around the needs of the poor. He is reminding the disciples that charity and hypocrisy will not end poverty but keep poverty with us always. He is reminding his followers that he is going to be killed for bringing God’s reign here on earth, and it is their responsibility to continue the quest for justice.
This is our charge. Jesus came to bring good news to the poor. Will we?
This morning I want to invite you to join with thousands of people across this country who are part of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. I have the honor of serving as Co-Chair of the Campaign with Rev. Dr. William Barber, II from North Carolina and we have been traveling the country connecting with local leaders, who are forming state coordinating committees for this Campaign and committing to bringing together hundreds or thousands of people to participate in 40 days of grassroots organizing, education, culture, direct action and nonviolent civil disobedience at their state capitals and in Washington, D.C. This season of organizing will kick off on Mother’s Day, May 13, and will go for 40 days until June 21, culminating in a massive mobilization on June 23.
The aim of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is to shift the moral narrative that blames poor people for their poverty, claims there is not enough to go around when we’re living in abundance, and pits us against each other rather than uniting us to promote peace, justice, love and fullness. It aims to build the power and unity of people from the ground up, in each state where people have come forward to organize.
This Campaign draws inspiration from the Poor People’s Campaign that Rev. Dr. King and others launched in 1968, but it also sees its roots in the Poor People’s Campaign that Jesus led in ancient Israel 2,000 years ago. With impacted people, moral leaders and faith leaders in the lead of our Campaign, we will save the soul of our nation and our democracy and help bring about God’s reign of justice and prosperity for all. Please join us.
This sermon was originally preached by Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis on January 21, 2018 at Hancock Congregational Church in Lexington, Massachusetts.