God is speaking to you today, saying:
There is a path that leads a person out of poverty. Although
it is seldom trod and fraught with despair and anguish and many do not make it,
for one reason or another. But it is there.
There is also a path that leads to poverty or back to it,
that is a well worn path. And that’s the thing. The ones that make it out are
the exception. They are congratulated, because it is not often that it happens.
Why is this? Is there some magic property of poverty that simply draws one in?
Take our Parkview friends who lost their homes in the fire
this last Thursday. They were forced into poverty by some unknown force. It
just happened without rhyme or reason. How does one counter that? Of course, it
really can’t be countered as Jesus says, “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me.”
We can hear the despair here. No matter what we do, there
will always be those in need. However, this does not mean you get to slack off.
Jesus did not say, “You always have the poor so it doesn’t matter”, He said, “…and whenever you want you can do good for
them.”
Jesus also said, “For there
will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You
shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in
your land.’”. Jesus is commanding you to do futile work. Work
that is not only endless, but that you will despise as well. Caring for the
poor, consistently, is a thankless, fruitless job.
But there is the command. You either do it or you incur the
wrath of God. The men in the gospel today understand this same thing. They have
a poor brother; more than poor, he is deaf and mute. He is the epitome of what
it means to be poor, being unable to lift himself out of it by any means.
In this deaf and speech impeded man, is shown all of sinners
for all time. This is because there are two meanings behind being poor,
whenever you hear of them in the Bible. The first being the most obvious: poor
in material things; things necessary to live a life on earth. The second
meaning is poverty of Spirit. The latter being the more devastating, but no
less connected to the first.
Repent. Jesus uses poverty of material things to reveal to
you your own poverty of spiritual things. Indeed, as He said the poor would
always be here, to His Apostles, He then said you will not always have Him. The
world has a poverty of Jesus.
There is a poverty you might get out of, but there is a
poverty you will never get yourself out of. Jesus reveals this to you by
allowing Himself to be crucified. It is great that you can find a poor person
you can help, but Christ is still the crucified one. No matter how many you
help or how you wish to help Jesus, God’s Word doesn’t change. You will always
read about Jesus being Crucified and that means you are spiritually poor.
Jesus has one mission and that is to save you from your
sins. He did not come to set you on a new adventure. He did not die so you
could get a job or amass wealth on earth. From the day of His conception; no,
from the very first day of Creation, Jesus had planned for your salvation.
This is because Jesus has also promised that there will be no poor among you. God is not just promising and not fulfilling
here, because obviously people are poor everywhere. When God says there will be
no poor, He means there will be no poor and yet we will always have the poor
among us.
There will be no poor among you, because the Lord will surely bless you and He blesses you with the suffering, death, and resurrection of
His only Son, Jesus Christ. You are not to look for easement of the poor nor
are you to look for your own easement from poverty, in order to secure
righteousness, because you have already been given it.
You are not poor because your treasure is in heaven, seated
at the right hand of God. You are not poor because you have the forgiveness of
sins. You are not poor because you have the Lord of all Creation serving you
salvation on a silver platter and in a silver chalice.
If anyone is poor, it is Jesus. Jesus was made poor for you.
He had no place to lay His head in His own universe. The birds have nests. The
foxes have holes. The enemies of Christ have riches, but He doesn’t and by His
poverty upon the cross you are made rich.
God supplies your every need according to His riches in
glory in Christ Jesus. Keep your life free from the love of money
and be content with what you have knowing that you brought nothing
into this world and you can take nothing out of this world. You
have food. You have clothing. With these be content for in that is
great godliness.
Yet even in these gifts you cry out for mercy. Not just your
own mercy, but for mercy for those who really are in terrible need. Continue to
pray that God grant gainful employment. That He continues to feed and to care
for all of you. Pray that you be kept from bitterness and resentment.
But do not forget!: poverty is its own gift from Jesus.
Poverty keeps you humble. Poverty keeps you from evil of wanton living and
disastrous overspending. Indeed, Jesus Himself gives great blessing to the poor
saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom
of God
Jesus gives us His right Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be able
to discern these things. Though poverty is the cause of much suffering and it
breaks my heart to think of those in such situations, it is also the den of
much violence and blasphemy. Being poor does not give one a “free pass”.
On the same coin, being rich or comfortable is no picnic
either. Indeed, comfort is a blessing, but comfort breeds complacency, and
complacency breeds contempt. Contempt of the One Who gave us all things.
The idea is, you can be a good Christian by receiving what
the Lord gives and telling others to also receive from Him, in the Divine
Service. You can be a good neighbor by helping your neighbor in need, indiscriminately.
Make no mistake your neighbors are more numerous than you think and are in
greater need than you can provide.
Rely upon Christ and His sacrifice. Remember that He gave
all He had to redeem His poor Church and though She is promised great riches in
heaven, She waits for the last day in poverty here on earth. What she needs,
the Lord provides and He always will to the end of the age.
Your poverty is just like that of the deaf and speech
impaired man. Unless the Lord comes to retrieve you, you are in it forever. In
sin, there are no bootstraps to pull up. The good pleasure of God sees that all
is provided for you. In Christ, your need is supplied in the preaching of the
Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.
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