It is encouraging to remember that when Jesus came to earth he taught blessings for the poor from the very beginning of his ministry. Even before he was born, in Mary’s song to God when she is pregnant with the Messiah, a song we call the Magnificat, she proclaims, “he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Luke 1:53, ESV). We also see that at the beginning of his ministry Jesus proclaimed these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18 ESV)
From these passages we know that the advent of blessings for the poor was an important part of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus never promised to make the poor financially rich, but he did promise something better: to fill their hearts with spiritual wealth. More importantly, he promises an abundant life in eternity.
But we also know that Scripture teaches the kingdom community of God’s people should help the poor members with their material needs. We are especially responsible for giving blessings for the poor in our fellowship. Many churches and ministries provide blessings for the poor in the form of food banks and sometimes cash for paying bills. Churches provide a tremendous amount of assistance to various types of needy people. Some leaders criticize the social concern of biblical followers of Jesus, but the truth is their churches do more for the needy than any other association of people, except possibly the government, which uses citizen money to help the needy.
Unfortunately, it appears that as Christians lose their influence in American politics, the poor seem to be doing worse. The Washington Post recently reported on a paper by an economist that found “The wealthiest 1 percent of American households own 40 percent of the country’s wealth. . . That share is higher than it has been at any point since at least 1962.” By comparison in Germany, France, the U.K. and Canada the top 1% each own 16-25% of their country’s wealth. Thus, in America the rich are getting richer and the government is not stopping it.
In addition, the tax bill that passed in December, 2017 gave more advantages to the rich. Now they can pass 11.2 million dollars of assets to their heirs on death tax-free, which is double the 5.6 million it was before. Thus, rich heirs will continue to get richer, and the lost taxes will not go to help the lower economic classes. Others have pointed out other advantages for the rich in the new tax laws.
Therefore, as Christians we should expect that we will need to promote blessings for the poor more than ever before. And we should probably include those who are in emotional and relational poverty as members of the “poor”. In a world where it is more acceptable for each “tribe” to grab as much as they can, even at the expense of others, Christians are to shine as lights and “proclaim good news to the poor.”
How is your congregation doing at providing blessings for the poor? What can you do?
