Moses, Matthew, and Framing Poverty
“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:11)
The Least Obeyed Commandment in the Bible
In the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses, speaking on behalf of the LORD to the wandering Hebrews, recently delivered from the grasp of Pharaoh, commands that, “at the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts (15:1).” He doesn’t offer a long theological exposition or a complex explanation of the economics behind this law that was probably not obeyed then and certainly is not obeyed today. He simply follows it up with a simple explanation in verse 4: “there need be no poor people among you.” In other words, if the LORD is going to be our LORD and if we are going to do this together, there is no reason for poverty to be a part of this community.
In fact, much of the rest of the Mosaic law, given in Deuteronomy by Moses, also has quite a bit to say about correcting economic imbalance and about appropriate ways for communities to respond to struggling neighbors. Among the topics covered are more guidelines around lending, pooling money for vulnerable groups (tithes), and the practice of leaving a percentage of a harvest for others to gather (gleaning). These are just a few of the commandments put in place to provide a context for a more even playing field. Later in the chapter, Moses seems to offer a softer, much more obeyable commandment in Deuteronomy 15:11, when he implores the Israelites, “to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.” The reasoning has also shifted to a less idealistic view of the economic landscape: “the poor will always be with you.”
Within one chapter, Moses has swung from a strategy of debt cancellation so that poverty can be eliminated before it begins to more of a firm suggestion to be openhanded to those in need because, hey, they’re always going to be with us, right? I don’t disagree with Moses on this point; in fact, I would go so far as to say that when Moses claims that the poor will always be with us, he is also saying that humans will tend to create economies and social structures that will result in some having too much and others not having enough. The poor you will always have with you.
Jesus Weighs In
Fast forward a few centuries to the time of Jesus, during Holy Week, where, according to Matthew, he is at the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem. A woman, unnamed in Matthew’s account, anoints him with some very expensive perfume. Then, some disciples, again, unnamed in Matthew’s account, grumble that, “this perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” Jesus quotes Moses here in sad agreement.
The Early Church Accepts the Challenge
A little over fifty days later at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is poured out to the apostles, we find in the brand new Early Church community a wonderful experiment to test Moses’ hypothesis that poverty will always be a thing we must deal with. Yes, the control volume being a small community of believers is not quite the same as the thousands of Israelites being led into the promised land, but many of the same elements are present: a recent miracle, an identity centered around a recent miracle, and a sense of separateness in community.
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.” (Acts 4:32-33)