Several months ago I had a client who voiced her
concern over the Affordable Care Act (ACA; Obamacare). She said, “I’m all for
taking care of the poor but I don’t want to feel forced and ultimately
penalized for it.” Now, I’m not going to get into the politics of this policy,
but here and there I have heard other individuals with the same concern. And, I
truly understand the concern.
Until, I came to this Scripture several times (Read it
several times, but had another Aha moment): Then Mary took a pound of very
expensive perfume of pure nard, and 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 Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, the one who was going to betray Him,
said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and [the money]
given to the poor?” Now he said this, not because he cared about the poor [for
he had never cared about them], but because he was a thief; and since he had
the moneybox [serving as treasurer for the twelve disciples], he used to pilfer
what was put into it. Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you, but
you do not always have Me.”
Here is a picture of what Jesus was talking about: “On a single night in January 2015, 564,708 people were
experiencing homelessness — meaning they were sleeping outside or in an
emergency shelter or transitional housing program (National Alliance to End
Homelessness, 2017).” Just one night!
Be honest. How often do you give
any thought to helping the poor, and consistently? I wonder if our complaints
are more related to greed (like Judas Ischariot) rather than the ACA policies? Do
we really care about what is “right” or more concerned about keeping our money
to ourselves? We were penalized for not have health insurance for 3 months. One
hundred and ninety five dollars! Nope, didn’t like it! But, when put into
perspective we haven’t been consistent in helping the poor either, who are
always with us.
Don’t get me wrong, we help the
poor…especially on occasions where it feels good, like Christmas time, or that
one time a year that we volunteer with our church for “Serve Day”, or those few
times when we donate our services, or times where we blessed our family or
friends in need, etc. But consistent? Well, before 2017…no, not consistent. In
perspective, could that penalty be for not being consistent. If we were all
consistent I’m wondering how much we could positively affect those statistics
above, and ultimately have less of a need to be “forced” to care for the poor.
The things that we are quick to
oppose may be the very things to expose the condition of our hearts.
Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you
are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your
plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply
what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: "The one who
gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not
have too little (2 Cor.8:13-15)."
