Why Are the Poor, Poor?

“While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4 But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Mark 14:3-9

Simon the Leper, a wealthy man invited Jesus to his table. Simon is rich because he could afford to invite his rich friends to eat with him- and only those he knew who were of the same class as him. No woman were present. 

An unknown and an accompanied woman “crashes” the party where Jesus was, carrying an alabaster jar filled with a year’s worth of nard, an ointment.

It was apparent that she bought with all the money she had. She gave everything she had as a devotion to Jesus, as a preparation of Jesus' body for burial.

She was scolded for wasting the nard. Instead she should have sold it and donated the to money to the poor. 

Jesus praised the woman for sacrifice. “For you always have the poor with you, and you can be kind whenever you wish, but you will not always have me.”

Jesus confronts the hypocrisy of the angry men. If they really cared for the poor, they would have many opportunities to show kindness to them, but there will be fewer opportunities to show kindness to Jesus, as this woman has done. Mark places this event in chapter 14, when Jesus’ fate will soon be settled on the Cross, (Mark 15:21). Jesus knew what was about to happen to him. And apparently so did the woman. We don't know her name. "Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her” Mark 14:9.

Jesus teaches that poor people aren’t poor because they have sinned or because they deserve it, or that it is God’s will (John 9:1-3). The poor are often considered poor because they lack mental and physical capacities. Many prosperous people consider themselves "good” because God has blessed them with wealth; and because they have "pulled themselves up by their own boot straps." 

Much of my ministry has been among the poor in Latin America. I know by experience that the poor are struggling to have a roof over their heads, food, health, and an education. They are motivated to do so, but the cards are against them. The economic systems and the powerful “ keep them in their place.” However given the opportunity, they grasp it and move upward. They don’t want charity, they just want to be given the chance to get ahead.

Case in point: the Redlands Christian Migrant Association's Mulberry Community Academy in Mulberry, Florida, educates children of migrant agricultural workers who eventuality acquire the skills to lift up their families to a higher quality of life.