Help the poor

I was having a discussion with someone whom I admire greatly. We were talking about helping others, when he said, "Even Christ said the poor will always be with us. Why use your resources on those who won't learn and will always be amongst us?" The scripture he was referring to was from Matthew 26:11, "The poor you will always have with you.."

Now I hear what my friend is saying, but still I can't compute it against everything else Christ has said about caring for the poor. This launched me into an inquiry of this passage. First I had to look at the passage as a whole. What was happening, who was this being said to, are their any other passages referring to this event.

This passage takes place when a woman anoints Jesus with costly perfume. Some among them asked why is he letting this happen? We could have sold this for money to give to the poor. Christ knew he was being anointed for his burial, and said to them leave this woman alone. Now, who do you think he was really directing this towards?

I feel the direction of all of this objection to the perfume, and concern of the money came from the money handler, Judas. It was just after this that Judas betrayed him. Was Judas concerned that he would be missing his cut of the 300 days wages this perfume would have brought? After all he always had his hand in the till.

A parallel passage is found in Mark 14:7, "The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me." Now this passage examined as a singular verse sheds seems more inline with the rest of the gospel. Do good to them.

So the point of Matthew 26:11, isn't to say the poor will always be with you no matter what you do. It is saying, although you will have times to do good for the poor who will always be around; I am physically with you now.

We should always serve the poor, we should always seek to to good. Christ commands it. We would all be better off for serving Christ, and not finding "scriptural excuses" to not help the least amongst us. The story of Christ should not be taken as a collection of verses that fit how you see the world.

Let not your philosophy drive how you see Christ, let Christ drive how you see your philosophy.