The Gospel for Monday in Holy Week (April 5, 2004)
John 12:1-11
Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table. Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was filled with the scent of the ointment. Then Judas Iscariot—one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him—said, ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contents. So Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone; let her keep it for the day of my burial. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.’ Meanwhile a large number of Jews heard that he was there and came not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. Then the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus as well, since it was on his account that many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
The drumbeat of the march to Golgotha grows louder. The pre-funereal anointment, Judas' revealing himself even more clearly as a scoundrel, and the further conspiracies of the temple opposition -- all of these combine to put a gray pall over these last days "on the road" for Jesus and his disciples. Perhaps not gray enough for what was to come.
A Reflection
"You have the poor with you always...."
I have had this cast in my face twice in the past few months, once when I suggested at a meeting that our money might be more wisely spent on carrying out Jesus' commands to us, and once when I suggested that the debate on sexual orientation raging in the Anglican Communion should be resumed once we had fed all the hungry and clothed all the naked.
In pondering Jesus' words in my heart, I have concluded that he was not diminishing the importance of caring for the poor. He was rather placing Mary's gift to him -- at that particular time in that particular place in that particular manner -- at a higher priority. Nowhere can we find confirmation that he said it in any dismissive way, not intended it as such.
Matthew puts it perhaps a bit more succinctly:
Matthew 25:44-46 "Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” -- The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson: Nashville
11:27:14 PM 
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