Resignation or Condemnation?

Matthew 26:11 – “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.”

“The poor you will always have with you” gets trotted out when people try to advocate for all kinds of reforms. As if it’s a get out of jail free card. It is not. It is a condemnation of Israel’s inability to care enough to keep people from being poor in the first place. Surprised? I was too. See, if you open a bible to Matthew 26:11, you will most likely see a note referencing Deuteronomy 15:11.

What does Deuteronomy 15:11 say? I’m glad you asked. “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’” Jesus’s quotation of Deuteronomy seems to justify the disciples’ comments about how the ointment could be used to help the poor. However, that’s only half the story. If we look at the context leading up to verse 11, we find in verses 4-5, “There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today.” (emphasis mine) Let this sink in: six verses after God says there need not be any poor people if we do what she asks, she says there will always be poor people among us.

What Jesus and God in Deuteronomy are saying is that poverty does not have to exist. It is created by humans and maintained by humans. When we obey God’s commandments to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with her, there will be no poor people. If we obey Jesus’s commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, there will be no poor people. Poor people will always be with us, because we don’t love justice, mercy, humility, or our neighbor. At least, not as a country.

The disciples would have instantly recognized the quote as coming from Deuteronomy. They recognized that Jesus was telling them that their ideas do not serve love, justice, or mercy for the poor. He calls them out for using the poor as props to make themselves look good in comparison to the woman. Jesus reminds them that God has said there is no need to have poor people if only the Israelites would follow the commandments,  and the disciples do not pursue the point.

I want to note here that God is aware that we will not be able to follow the commandments. Deuteronomy 15:11 is God's admission that, yes, there will always be poor people among us. Yet, along with the condemnation, there is an acceptance of our frailty. This does not mean we as Christians are not bound to follow the ways of Christ or God. It means God has no illusions.

For another take, here’s Fred Clark on Slacktivist. It’s from 2017 but still relevant, because we haven’t changed since then.

No, as a country we are not any more successful than Israel at doing justice and loving mercy. The poor are kept poor because of the combination of policy violence, myths about poverty and race, and the devaluing of workers among other causes. Police violence is the physical manifestation of these attitudes on the part of rich, white people. It has gone on too long.

I think here it’s important to note that it is not only government policies that keep people poor. It is the racism and classism inherent in the system, perpetuated by rich, white people.

It’s white people’s refusal to fund education for Black youth by moving “to a better school district.” (See Surrogate Suburbs, by Todd M. Michney and White Flight by Kevin Kruse.)

It’s the mis-education of some white children about evolution, Genesis, slavery, and the history of the US. (See Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen.)

It’s having police in schools who abuse and arrest minority eight-year-olds for behaving like … eight-year-olds.

It’s prioritizing white men, offering them more mercy than people of color, even rapists, by giving them multiple chances before arresting them and letting them off easy when convicted. (See Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump.)

It’s having a harder time getting a good paying job due to the lack of access to a good education.

It’s white people having connections to prestigious institutions, leading to better jobs and promotions.

It’s Black people not being seen as human, even by the medical community.

It’s police coming down harder on Black people for small infractions than white people for major ones. (See The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander.)

It’s the myth of the “welfare queen,” and the idea that poor people are just lazy, moochers, or criminals.

It’s the prioritization of money over people. Money in the United States has become the end rather than the means to an end. Workers have been devalued in this process, going from assets to liabilities. (See the importance to many of opening the economy.)

It’s the lack of the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation. Neither do Social Security payments.

It’s the constant underfunding of mental health, physical health, and social workers as well as Medicare and Social Security.

 It’s using police to fill in that gap, too often with deadly results.

 These are the things that Black Lives Matter are protesting, among others. These protestors are protesting America’s inability to keep people from being poor; protesting its desire to keep people poor. They are protesting in the streets even in the midst of the pandemic because the cause is worth the risk. It’s worth it to the many Black people; it’s worth it to many of their allies.

God’s call usually entails some risk – otherwise people would not shrink from it. How is this verse speaking to us today? What is God calling us to do? What’s the first step? Let’s take that step today.

B

 

Prophetic

Matthew 26:10 – But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me.”

This reaction from the disciples reminds me of the term “virtue signaling.” Virtue signaling is a term used to denigrate a sacrificial or altruistic action; an action that goes above being merely good. That is what the disciples were doing by criticizing the woman’s actions; comparing it to what they felt would be a more worthy action. Somehow, the woman’s actions felt threatening or confusing to them, and they reacted with criticism. But Jesus is having none of it. He reframes the woman’s action and praises it as a “good service.” He ignores the misdirection that the disciples have offered in the previous verse. He refuses to discuss the woman’s action on the disciple’s terms, reframing it and refocusing their minds and hearts on the prophetic nature of the action.

Is it a stretch to liken the police actions toward protestors to the words of the disciples who didn’t like the woman’s actions? I think not. Jesus would say to those officers, “why do you trouble them? They have performed a good service for me.” A prophetic service. And, like the prophets, the protestors of extrajudicial police killing of Black people went ignored for too long. For too long, we white people have criticized the violence of looting and done nothing about the violence of our police forces against people of color; even to the point of murder.

This is true even when we have proof – as we do in the case of George Floyd’s death. It was filmed, and some people are still, STILL, saying if they would only do what they’re told, if they would only follow the law (Mr. Floyd did nothing against the law), if they would only speak peacefully, then we could hear them. That doesn’t work when abusers tell their victims that, and it doesn’t work with the police when it comes to Black people. It is a misdirection in order to avoid discussing the real issue – that police regularly kill Black people and other people of color with impunity.

Black people and their allies have been pouring the balm of protest over our heads, leading the way to a better future – and we criticize how that action was taken. This misdirection means that people then talk about that rather than police abuse of Black people and other people of color. The news is full of pundits discussing whether violence in the form of rioting and looting ever works. They ignore that in addition to the violence being protested, police use violent tactics to control crowds. Tear gas, flash bangs, and rubber bullets may be less lethal, but they are still violent reactions to peaceful protests. As if the crowds are the enemy.

We are not the enemy.

The police as currently constructed are the enemy of people of color. As a white person, I too took way too long to listen and believe the experiences of Black people. It was easy to do when I lived in places where there were few if any Black people. It is easy not to see or believe when others tell us what their experiences are and have been. For me, it really hit home when I lived in Chicago. That was the first place I’d ever lived with a substantial number of African Americans and Africans. I was finally able to hear the stories and believe them. I wish it hadn’t taken that move to believe others.

Their truth became even more real to me the day I was stalked by the University of Chicago police. I was doing my morning walk out to promontory point to watch the sunrise. It must have been in fall, because I was wearing a hoodie, and it was still dark. I had a cup of coffee with me. As I approached the train viaduct, I became aware of a car keeping pace with me. I turned and saw it was a UofC police car. I kept walking, but began to feel unsafe. As I passed under the bridge, the car sped up, turned into a parking lot on the far side, turned around to face the street, and shut its lights off. I kept walking. By now, I knew what was going on. They thought I was a Black person. Now, I was scared, but I didn’t take the hoodie off. I kept walking. As I passed the parking lot, the cops turned their lights on and stalked me again. I waited at the corner for the light to turn green and crossed the street. The cops stayed with me. Finally, as I entered the park across from the Museum of Science and Industry, I had had enough of the charade and was getting truly scared. I pulled off the hoodie. The cops sped off – just like that. That, my friends, is white privilege. Cops aren’t interested in bothering white people. Only people who are thought to have fewer resources to fight back; people of color.

This whole time, I kept thinking what hell life must be like for Black people. I had done nothing wrong, and I was being stalked as though I was prey. No one should have to live like that. No one. I regret that it took me so long to open my eyes and see the truth. I allowed myself to be misdirected by the question of whether rioting and looting was “okay” or “effective.”

Don’t be misdirected. The protestors are protesting the violence they experience in their everyday lives. If we do not become part of the solution by joining them, the least we can do is not let others misdirect the conversation. The problem is police violence against Black people in general and against these peaceful protests as well.

Protest is just one way to offer a balm to the hurting and oppressed. Many people are not able to protest in the streets, I get that. We can start by praying, if we’re praying people. As always, we can all our representatives – especially city council people – and let them know where we stand on police violence. This is both a local and national problem, and we have more power locally. We can donate money to Black Lives Matter and other organizations working on behalf of people of color. We can educate ourselves about the real issues rather than the false issues the news presents us with. We can talk with our white brothers and sisters about our racism and educate them and be educated by them. We can believe people of color when they share their stories. We can cease being “tone police;” by letting protestors protest in their way. We can attend race-sensitivity trainings. We can be vulnerable by admitting where we have been wrong and work to make amends for those wrongs.

So many ways. One source I would highly recommend, and have done so before, is How to be an Anti-Racist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. A source for learning about white privilege: Waking up White by Debby Irving and the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” by Peggy McIntosh.

How will you pour a balm on your city today? Might I suggest joining me and other members of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival in 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence at 5 pm, wherever you are?

B

Justice not Charity

Matthew 26:9 – “For this ointment might have been sold for a large sum, and [the money] given to the poor.”

What the poor needed then, and what the poor need now, is justice. Not charity. The word translated poor, ptokois, means “those who have been made poor by government policies,” according to Rev. Dr. William Barber, III. What the poor need is to be thought of as human beings worthy of a decent quality of life. The Romans disagreed. There wasn’t much the poor people could do about it, considering the might of the Roman Empire. So, charity was the next best thing.

However, we are in a different position today. Don’t get me wrong, the people experiencing poverty today are in the same situation. They have been made poor by government policies that keep them poor and make it extremely difficult to get out of poverty. Every time our legislature passes a bill requiring more from those who get any kind of government assistance, more people cannot meet the requirement, and they lose what benefits they had, have fewer resources, and become poorer. Currently, in the midst of the pandemic, our Republican leaders are doing nothing for those at the very margins of society.

I would categorize what that former Minneapolis police officer did as both murder, and state- sponsored terrorism. Another tactic to keep people poor by taking away wage earners, ensuring they are terrorized at every turn, and trying to turn the tide of public opinion against them. I honestly cannot think of a word strong enough to describe this revolting attitude and the actions that result from the constant dehumanization of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). People are rightly outraged.

Yet, this is not what is causing the violence in our cities. It is the cause of the protests, yes. The violence, at least from every account I can find, wasn’t caused by the majority of the protestors. They were caught in it. Some people came to these protests prepared for violence. Here in Cleveland, I went to the Black Lives Matter protest on Saturday. There were more people there than at previous Black Lives Matter protests. It was disconcerting. Most people wore masks (Yay!). However, it was difficult to hear the speaker, because there were two groups on the edges of the crowd who chanted over them. At least one was a group of white people chanting anti-Trump slogans. At one point, I heard the speaker asking for a “mic check.” It was very disturbing and tense. We stayed until about 3 pm. We were unaware that there was to be a march over to the county jail and then to Public Square, or we would have marched too.

The Cleveland Scene described the violence as starting when the “majority of the march [had] progressed onward from the Justice Center, but a faction remained and began banging on the windows and throwing bottles. A police unit arrived on bicycles and engaged the front line of demonstrators on the Justice Center steps.” Shortly thereafter the police began firing tear gas and throwing flash bangs to get people to disperse. Then the marchers came back from Public Square and were caught up in the violence. 

Yet, some people came prepared for violence. At least two police cars went were burned. One needs gasoline or an accelerant for that, which would have to have been brought there from elsewhere. There were numerous fires set – at PNC bank, Starbucks, and other businesses. Police and civilians put them out before they got too big. I want to give a shout out to Pour Cleveland, a local coffee bar. According to Cleveland Scene, as their windows were busted – and presumably they were looted - they posted a note on Instagram reading, “It's just stuff guys. Not our place to judge to how people respond when their voices continue to fall on deaf ears and justice is not served.”

While there is a lot of justified anger out there, I’m not yet convinced that the looting is due to Black Lives Matter or even the majority of the protestors. However, the coffee company is right, Black voices “continue to fall on deaf ears and justice is not served.” 

There will be more about this in the coming posts. In the meantime, let’s ask ourselves, are our own ears deaf? What do we need to hear in this moment?

B