In this fourth week of Twisted Scripture, Greg takes a look at Matthew 26:11, and what it means to “always have the poor with you.”
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Twisted Scripture: Matthew 26:11
• Greg Boyd
Topics: Justice, Poverty, Reconciliation
Sermon Series: Twisted Scripture: Season 2
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Focus Scripture:
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Matthew 26:6-11
6 Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. 8 But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? 9 For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
5 thoughts on “Twisted Scripture: Matthew 26:11”
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Fabulous teaching, Greg, thank you. When I think about God loving us each as a precious jewel, loving us as a whole as a precious jewel, as the sun shines and the rain falls; that this is his covenant with us; that there are no rankings, no hierarchies, no judgements or categories, no us and them, I am reminded that this indiscriminate love he has is for all he created – for all flesh! For all flesh is included in the covenant, praise God! And what joy it is!
I so look forward to the perfect Shalom that will embody the whole of the Kingdom when it is finally come in it’s entirety on earth; when the “lion shall lay with the lamb” and “they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea”!
There may be those that read this and think there she goes, putting animal life equal to or above human life. No, not at all. In the Kingdom, animal life will finally have the place they were intended to have. A place on the earth in the Kingdom where they will be free from exploitation, loneliness, suffering, pain, and fear; where they can feel the grass under their feet; feel the sun and the rain shine upon them as it shines upon us all; where they will no longer prey upon one another, but be content eating grass, hay, and straw.
We will walk among them, and they among us. They will no longer hide in the trees or jungles or be chased there as unwanted ‘varmints.’ In the Kingdom, none shall be considered such – all will enjoy the status of the value they were created to have.
And I, among many, am going to fall upon my face and weep for joy that they are finally free from the tyranny of mankind, who in his fallen state, cannot see the value they have to their God – the same God as our God – who loves us all; who never intended for us to place different values upon one over the other, or rank life into categories – any kind of life into any kind of category…. For all life is life he breathed into being….all life is precious and has value because he created it!
We are that precious gem that needed saving. They…are the precious gems, that like himself, he sacrificed in the process of saving the pinnacle of his creation – us; who made in his Image, were intended to care for and nurture the other part of creation he chose to sacrifice – all because of the hardness of our own hearts. Quite poignant, if one thinks about it long enough and, in the Spirit of Love.
Kathy D,
What do you think about this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmfRMeU6pQ8
Meat Man.
I am so overcome with joy at having found your site! Truly this is the truth that American Christianity has so distorted. The first series I heard from this site was on the Kingdom of God. That is what I have had in my heart for the longest time, but have been told I am so wrong. The clamor for economic success has so blinded us from how we live–we can only live in the right neighborhoods with the right people who think the right thoughts.We go into places where poverty is great and barely touch with our fingertips and wonder why the church hasn’t impacted this culture. Now that we are so obviously falling, the Christian rhetoric is about protecting what is ours from those foreigners who are destroying our’way of life’. Truly the Pharisees of our time. As we watch, God is taking down the idols of this country, just as He did in Egypt. The weather is attacking our source of food that we have so ruined through the science of making it better than God had provided; food that increasingly only the wealthy can afford; military might and power that we hold up, through latent racism, regardless of the injustice and brutality of their actions–anything that will keep us comfortable in our right neighborhoods; churches toppled who have tickled the ears with finger pointing at the sins of those who don’t even know God while we who claim to know Him can’t keep the commandments ourselves; churches who have politicized Gid for their own purposes. We should be glad though–He is giving us an opportunity to repent before it gets to the largest idol that of money/material success. Will we listen though anymore than Pharoah did?
Hi Kathy,
You have such a big, big heart. I can feel your love for creation and your yearning for it to be released (or unleashed) from its bondage. It’s great that God has led some of us to be prophets or prophetess in this manner as I sense you are. Keep up the good work sounding alarm when we have lost track of our stewardship boundaries.
I just want to point out that there is no quote in Scripture saying that the “Lion will lie with the Lamb”. I know we hear oftentimes preached or mentioned but there’s no passage as such but it is “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,” Isaiah 11:6 A. Nevertheless, the sense is understood and this is the shalom we yearn for.
Isaiah 11:5-7
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox
Isaiah 65:24-25
The wolf and the lamb will feed together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
But the snakes will eat dust.
In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Look forward to more of your posts Kathy.
“A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.” ~D. A. Carson