There Is Always Enough
Stop.
Take a deep breath. As you breathe in say, “I serve you.” As you breathe out say, “There is always enough.” Repeat as many times as you need.
Listen.
Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land. – Deuteronomy 15:11
[Jesus said], “For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.” – Matthew 26:11
Reflect.
In Matthew 26, a woman anoints Jesus with an extravagant amount of oil. When his disciples criticize her for the perceived waste of resources that could have gone to those in need. Jesus responds by reminding them that the poor will always be with them, but not him. Indeed, Jesus will die soon, unbeknownst to his disciples. However, this text gets removed from this context. Instead, too many believers have heard this verse as an excuse not to use their money to care for those in need.
Jesus is not saying that the pervasiveness of need excuses us from doing anything about it. Instead, Jesus is pointing back to this instruction from Deuteronomy. The verse comes in the middle of a long series of laws about caring for those in need. Jesus names the reality that this law affirmed: there is no shortage of good we can do for our neighbors. But we do that work in the name of our Savior, as an act of worship and love, realizing that we worship God and serve our neighbor in all we do.
Too often, we try to separate the two things. We assume that our money can only do one thing: worship Jesus or serve our neighbor. We make inauthentic divisions between outreach ministry and internal ministries. We pretend there isn’t enough to support both our worship and our global partners. We lean into scarcity and use this one reference from Jesus out of context to make ourselves feel better.
But instead, what Jesus says is: we can do both. We can choose to glorify God by building up our buildings, ministries, and worship. We can choose to serve our neighbor by supporting outreach partners, service organizations, and those in need. We can do both. We have enough to do both. We have more than enough to do all the work to which God calls us.
This, my friends, is good and joyful and liberating news.
Pray.
Jesus, your ministry shows us that you call us to a life of both/and. We want to think we have to be either/or, but you call us into the challenging and liberating news that you have given us what we need to serve you and serve others in freedom and abundance. Thank you for giving us all we need to do this work. Amen.
Carry On.
How does your giving of time, money, and energy reflect Jesus’ call to worship and serve him and care and provide for others? What can change or adjust in your life to live into this invitation?