False generosity
This week is on John 12:3-6:
I was reading these verses and noticed Judas's objection to Mary's extravagant gift to Jesus. He was saying "You should help the poor," but he wasn't doing anything to help the poor himself. He was actually stealing from the poor by stealing from the money bag.
If Judas had given Mary the money to spend, that would have been one thing, but he didn't. Yet he still objected, since objecting would make him look all spiritual and compassionate. He could say "what about the starving poor" and mask his true agenda, which was to profit at everyone's expense.
But don't we do that ourselves sometimes? When we say "The church should help the poor" but we don't contribute to the church, or "The government should do more for the homeless" but we're not willing to pay more taxes to make it happen, aren't we hypocrites like Judas? We want the high that comes from having helped someone, but we don't want to pay the cost ourselves. We have our own agenda, where we want to profit our feelings and sense of self worth, but leave others to pay the price.
True compassion is like what Mary had, where she used her own resources to bless others. Instead of saying "Why won't somebody do something for the homeless guys," why not volunteer with an organisation who works with them, or donate money to a cause, or bless them in person? If you're saying "The church needs to do more to help people group X," maybe that's God putting a direction in your path. If you don't have money or skills, maybe setting aside some time to pray is a good start. Compassion, genuine or otherwise, without action of some kind isn't very useful.
False generosity is worse than useless though. It judges others and ties up their resources. If you don't care about the poor, but you guilt others into helping them, is that love? Now they might become poor too, under this burden you've placed on them! Is it love to say to someone "For the price you paid for those shoes, you could have fed thanksgiving dinner to a poor family." How is laying guilt on them an act of love? Did Judas have compassion for Mary's situation? Or did he just want to tell her how she should be spending her money so that he could further his own interests?
If God has given you compassion for other people, then act on it. That's what it's for. If you don't have any compassion, pray for compassion. It's not something you can delegate.
Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
I was reading these verses and noticed Judas's objection to Mary's extravagant gift to Jesus. He was saying "You should help the poor," but he wasn't doing anything to help the poor himself. He was actually stealing from the poor by stealing from the money bag.
If Judas had given Mary the money to spend, that would have been one thing, but he didn't. Yet he still objected, since objecting would make him look all spiritual and compassionate. He could say "what about the starving poor" and mask his true agenda, which was to profit at everyone's expense.
But don't we do that ourselves sometimes? When we say "The church should help the poor" but we don't contribute to the church, or "The government should do more for the homeless" but we're not willing to pay more taxes to make it happen, aren't we hypocrites like Judas? We want the high that comes from having helped someone, but we don't want to pay the cost ourselves. We have our own agenda, where we want to profit our feelings and sense of self worth, but leave others to pay the price.
True compassion is like what Mary had, where she used her own resources to bless others. Instead of saying "Why won't somebody do something for the homeless guys," why not volunteer with an organisation who works with them, or donate money to a cause, or bless them in person? If you're saying "The church needs to do more to help people group X," maybe that's God putting a direction in your path. If you don't have money or skills, maybe setting aside some time to pray is a good start. Compassion, genuine or otherwise, without action of some kind isn't very useful.
False generosity is worse than useless though. It judges others and ties up their resources. If you don't care about the poor, but you guilt others into helping them, is that love? Now they might become poor too, under this burden you've placed on them! Is it love to say to someone "For the price you paid for those shoes, you could have fed thanksgiving dinner to a poor family." How is laying guilt on them an act of love? Did Judas have compassion for Mary's situation? Or did he just want to tell her how she should be spending her money so that he could further his own interests?
If God has given you compassion for other people, then act on it. That's what it's for. If you don't have any compassion, pray for compassion. It's not something you can delegate.
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