Politics and the Poor

      In this rabid political season, I sometimes am in wonder of people who make great claims of being Christian and yet offer policies that grossly contradict the commandments of Jesus.  I am thinking of the way that the poor and the outcast are minimized in the strategies that are offered as what our government ought to do to reduce our deficit and make the economy work better for all of us.  I don’t remember Jesus doing much talking about how the economy ought to be maintained so that it provides for those who have much and leaves those who are poor in the lurch.  What I believe that Jesus emphasized in his preaching was that the rich need to take care of the poor.  Those who have great benefit should provide for those with little benefit.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus in the 19th chapter of Luke stands out for me.  The poverty stricken Lazarus sat at the rich man’s door, simply asking for a drink of water.  The rich man passed him daily as he went about his business.  When the time came for the rich man to die, he found himself in Hades in the midst of torment.  He saw Lazarus far off across a great divide in the arms of Abraham.  He asked Abraham to send Lazarus to him to give him simply a sip of water (which was what Lazarus sought in his life from the rich man).  Abraham told him that there was a great gulf between them that could not be crossed.  Then, when the rich man asked him to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them, Abraham said that it wouldn’t do any good because they hadn’t believed Moses and the prophets, so neither would they believe one who had risen from the dead.

It’s hard to avoid thinking of Jesus and his resurrection here.  Often we don’t believe what he said either.  I think that is part of the problem with those self proclaimed Christians who preach economics instead of Jesus in their political campaigns.

I am impressed by the words of Psalm 20:

The LORD is known by his acts of justice;  
                                  the wicked are trapped in the works of their own hands.


The wicked shall be given over to the grave,  
and also all the peoples that forget God.
 
For the needy shall not always be forgotten,  
and the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever.


                               Rise up, O LORD, let not the ungodly have the upper hand
                               let them be judged before you.

 Put fear upon them, O LORD;  
                               let the ungodly know they are but mortal.
                                                                                                --Psalm 20: 16-20

I know above all things that the welfare of the poor and the outcast is the foremost mission of Christianity.  It is the first thing that Jesus preached and it was the first thing that he did in his ministry.  He constantly reached out to those who had nothing and gave of himself for all of us in our abject poverty. Poverty of spirit as well as our lack of goods.  His crucifixion was for us all, for the forgiveness of our sinfulness and the certainty of our reception by our loving God.  That is the essence of what Jesus taught to us all.  To see these things minimized or forgotten in the pursuit of political gain is to my mind heretical.  It flies in the face of the profession of the belief in Jesus as our savior.  How can we forget his teaching when we claim Christianity as our faith?