A sleepy Day 7

It’s been a day, and though I did read the scripture early this morning, I didn’t really delve into till this afternoon so…. Here it goes.

I’m reading John 12:1-8 – Mary anoints Jesus at Bethany.

I’ll be honest, I’m not getting a lot todqy from this… maybe I’m sleepy or maybe I’m just not feeling or hearing anything in particular.

My first read through, I thought about how in Chapter 11:2, John goes ahead and mentions that Mary is the one who anointed Jesus with the with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair and I couldn’t  help but wonder why he mentioned it before it happened.  Was the book rearranged when they were putting the Bible together?  I mean why would he mention it the chapter before he actually tells us about it?  Weird.

Then the next thing that jumped out at me was how ugly John spoke of Judas Iscariot.  Telling us Judas was thief, though there is no other mention of that anywhere, that I know of… So, why did John say this? 

One of my first thoughts was to wonder if John was jealous of Judas for some reason, maybe of his relationship with Jesus? I have no idea but this has always bothered me.

I don’t have an answer to this, just thoughts flowing in my mind.

And the next one that got me was Jesus saying, “For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

Seems a bit counter to some of his other teachings about the poor in other gospels.  Though I do understand that He’s talking about his death and his being ready for burial. 

I get that he was warning the disciples of his imminent death but it seems so contradictory to his other teaching about the poor.

I read today, elsewhere, as I was trying to figure this out, that Jesus was actually quoting scripture when he said, “For the poor you will always have with you.”  

That full quote was, “For the poor you will always have with you in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’” (Deut 15:7-11)

Now that makes more sense to me and seems more inline with Jesus’ other teachings. So maybe he WAS reminding them to care for the poor while at the same time warning them of his coming death and that they needed to pay attention while they still could.

The next little block of scripture, I decided to go ahead and read too.  Verses 9-11.  The plot to kill Lazarus.

People were coming out to see Lazarus as the news of his resurrection spread and they were going out from there believing in Jesus.  The leaders of the church plotted to kill him because of that word again… FEAR.  They feared what they didn’t understand. They feared losing their power over the people.  There’s still a lot of that going on these days… I guess nothing really ever changes for any length of time.

It’s sad really, both then and now.  Fear controls us, whether it’s our fear, or someone else’s fear, it works to undermine what’s good.  It works to control where we feel out of control.

Helping the poor, helping people get a leg up… it makes those in power fearful, who would they be if they weren’t above others?

I don’t know.  Honestly, I’m sleepy and my thoughts are going fast and slurry, so I’ll stop for now.

Until next time… ♥️