Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 12-13.

Here we have yet another account of  a woman anointing Jesus’ feet.  John tells us that the woman was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.  In some ways, John’s account makes it easier to understand the point of the story,  Here, Judas is the one who complains that she should have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor.  John points out that Judas was not concerned for the poor, but if Mary had sold the perfume and given the money to aid the poor, she would have given it into the fund which Judas controlled.  This puts Jesus’ comment about us always having the poor among us in a clearer context, especially when we realize that it closely mirrors Deuteronomy 15:11, which goes on from telling us that to tell us to be openhanded towards the poor among us.

So, we have a warning against those who claim to be advocates for the poor, but just want us to give to their “fund to aid the poor” so that they can siphon some of that money off to satisfy their own desires.  Then we have an admonition to not condemn those who give from their heart to bring comfort and blessing to others.  Finally, we are reminded to help the poor in whatever way that we can.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.