This is the final excerpt from a sermon I preached a couple of months back. We must get serious about our ministry to the poor and the outcast.
Here is the conclusion of my thoughts:

In Matthew 26 Jesus is anointed while having dinner at Simon the lepers by an unnamed woman with an expensive perfume-so expensive it amounted to a year’s wages.

The disciples are beside themselves. How dare she?
The response of Jesus is startling (10-13)

The lesson:

1. This is not a condemnation of the poor but a commission for the faithful.
When Jesus says the poor will always be with you, I believe that what He is saying is that, as my disciples, this is where you will go.
You will go to the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned and minister to them.

You will not ensconce yourselves in ivory towers untouched by human hands.
You will not isolate yourselves from the cacophony of crying hearts.
You will not entrench yourselves in the walls of academia and doctrinal debates.

Instead you will be in the ditch where the people are.
You will exhaust yourselves on the wheels of mercy.
You will expend yourselves in the sating of hunger and the slaking of thirst.

You will be known by the mercy you extend and the grace you offer.

You will be actively involved in the hearts and lives of the downtrodden and forgotten.

You will be the first resort for the wayward.

The source of hope for the hopeless.

The bedrock of compassion for the crumbling heart.

You will not be found cloistered in an upper room but found invested and involved in the domiciles of the disaffected.

Where should Jesus’ followers be found? Where the people are.

What happens if we walk outside of these doors and into our neighborhood?

What if we lay aside our rhetoric about our safety and trust God that He is with us?

That we be found, not just here on Sunday and Wednesday, but out there through the week?

2. Would you rather dine with lepers or conspire with hypocrites?
While Jesus is having dinner with this social outcast, this leper, the chief priests are meeting to determine what to do with Jesus.
Their ultimate answer? Crucify Him.

The point is this: Jesus was actively involved with ministry to the poor.
He was among the people, living out His faith in practical works.
He was making a difference.

At the same time there were those who were so focused on the letter of the law that they had no time to invest themselves in ministry.
They were too concerned with their notion of legalistic righteousness to notice the precious souls that were searching for meaning.

I believe that we risk the ultimate folly of proclaiming the love of Christ yet not exhibiting that love by the way we treat people.

Do people know that we love them unconditionally? That we are tuned in to their needs and care about them. Not false sympathy but true concern?

3. Jesus is taking another form.
I think that it is no coincidence that this incident takes place so soon after Jesus’ Kingdom parables in Matthew 25.
The significance that His current physical body is being anointed and prepared for burial is another indicator of the spiritual form that He now manifests in today’s world: the orphan, the beggar, the needy, the poor, the imprisoned, the stranger.

The physical incarnation of Jesus was leaving-they would no longer have that embodiment with them.

From now on Jesus would be seen in those in need.

How do we recognize Jesus today? In the mendicants on off-ramps, the poor, homeless and dispossessed.

He is here. He is among us. And He is hungry.
Have we anointed Him?

4. This is one prophecy we should dedicate our lives to changing.

The poor we will always have with us.
That is what is said.
That is an indictment on our sinful nature.
Our lives should be dedicated to alleviate the needs that people have.

Can we change it? Yes we can.
It is not fated that it always be so. That is not what Jesus meant.
It is meant to show that wherever there is need that is where we will be.
Like Tom Joad we are to be in search of those who are without.
We can make a difference.

While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while little children go hungry, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!
Citation: William Booth

They will go away if we go get them.