What Jesus Did : John 12:7-8 - Putting Poverty in Perspective

    by Phil Ware

    Putting Poverty in Perspective - John 12:7-8

    Jesus answered, "Don't stop her. It was right for her to save this perfume for today—the day for me to be prepared for burial. The poor people will always be with you. But you will not always have me." (ERV) Full Text

    Tweet

    Key Thought

    Scripture is clear: we are to help the poor, feed the hungry, and care for widows, orphans, and aliens among us. Yet there will always be a tug of war about our priorities in how to give—what do we give specifically and extravagantly to help the poor among us and what do we give to support other facets of the Lord's work. Each is important. Each can honor God. So let's not be critical of those who give extravagantly to any of God's work. God knows the heart of the giver and we need to rejoice in their generosity to honor him. Even more, we need to be generous with the Lord and those in need! After all, Jesus himself reminds us that when what we do to care for those less fortunate, we are actually doing it for him! (Matthew 25)


    Today's Prayer

    Get WJD by EMAIL!

    Enter your email address above to subscribe to the email edition of What Jesus Did! Follow along FREE every day as we go through John in a year.
    More Info on Mailing Lists
    Loving and gracious Father, mold my heart to be more like yours. Bless me with graciousness, generosity, thankfulness, and a forgiving spirit. Open my eyes to all that Jesus has done, is doing, and will do for me so that I will more freely share with others my love, possessions, money, and time. In Jesus' name, and because of Jesus' love, I pray. Amen.


    Now you can get Phil's What Jesus Did devotional as a paperback book!

    Today's Verses in Context


    Six days before the Passover festival, Jesus went to Bethany. Bethany is the town where Lazarus lived. (Lazarus is the man Jesus raised from death.) In Bethany they had a dinner for Jesus. Martha served the food. Lazarus was one of the people eating with Jesus. Mary brought in a pint of very expensive perfume made from pure nard. Mary poured the perfume on Jesus' feet. Then she wiped his feet with her hair. And the sweet smell from the perfume filled the whole house. Judas Iscariot was there. Judas was one of Jesus' followers. (He was the one that would later be against Jesus.) {Judas did not like what Mary did.} Judas said, "That perfume was worth 300 silver coins. It should have been sold, and the money should have been given to the poor people." But Judas did not really care about poor people. Judas said this because he was a thief. Judas was the one that kept the money box {for the group of followers}. And Judas often stole money from the box. Jesus answered, "Don't stop her. It was right for her to save this perfume for today—the day for me to be prepared for burial. The poor people will always be with you. But you will not always have me." Many of the Jews heard that Jesus was in Bethany. So they went there to see Jesus. They also went there to see Lazarus. Lazarus was the one Jesus raised from death. So the leading priests made plans to kill Lazarus too. Because of Lazarus, many Jews were leaving {their leaders} and believing in Jesus. That is why the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Lazarus too. The next day the people in Jerusalem heard that Jesus was coming there. These were the many people that had come to the Passover festival. The people took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Jesus. The people shouted, "'Praise Him! Welcome! God bless the One that comes in the name of the Lord!' God bless the King of Israel!" Jesus found a donkey and rode on it. This was like the Scripture says: "Do not be afraid, city of Zion ! Look! Your king is coming. He isriding on a young donkey." The followers of Jesus did not understand at that time what was happening. But after Jesus was raised to glory, they understood that these things were written about him. Then the followers remembered that they had done these things for him. There were many people with Jesus when he raised Lazarus from death and told him to come out of the tomb. Now those people were telling other people about what Jesus did. Many people went out to meet Jesus, because they heard that Jesus did this miracle. So the Pharisees said to each other, "Look! Our plan is not working. All the people are following him!"

    -- John 12:1-19 (ERV)

      URL: http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/john/0821-wjd.html

    (c)2001-2006, Phil Ware and Heartlight, Inc.

    ©1996-2002, Heartlight, Inc. - http://www.heartlight.org