DOES GOD PREFER THE POOR?
Opening Prayer
Help me, O Lord, to see the world as You see it, to care about the people of the world as You care for them.
Read MATTHEW 8:14–22
14 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”
The Cost of Following Jesus
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“At even, ere the sun was set / the sick, O Lord, around thee lay. / O, in what diverse pains they met! / O, with what joy they went away!” (Henry Twells, 1823–1900).
In the 1970s, God’s “preferential option for the poor” became a key theological principle underpinning liberation theology, particularly in South America. That God acts preferentially for those suffering poverty and injustice may have been newly expressed, but the thought was not new: it pervades the whole Bible. Throughout history, this understanding of God arises among Christians in poor and oppressed societies. Liberation theology has its critics: those who regard it as a sanctified label for the class struggle of secular Marxism and fear that its emphasis on social action obscures biblical teaching on personal salvation. But what does Matthew tell us?
Matthew groups Jesus’ healing miracles in order to lead us to grasp certain truths. Naturally, Jesus would heal the mother-in-law of his friend, but uncounted, unnamed, desperate people routinely flock to him in the evening, seeking his touch. He heals the sick and liberates the minds and bodies of those held in the destructive psychological and physical bondage of demon possession. Matthew sees the fulfillment of prophecy in all that Jesus does, frequently recalling Isaiah’s prophecies. Here he uses an unusual but deeply meaningful rendering of part of Isaiah’s suffering-servant passage (Isa. 53:4). We understand that Jesus bore our sins on the cross, but here Matthew pictures Jesus bearing our illnesses, too. In a mystery we cannot understand but can only wonder at, Matthew’s Jesus took people’s pain upon himself and released them.
The Jesus of this set of miracles certainly exhibits a “preferential option” for the suffering and oppressed. He has, after all, already defined himself and his ministry in Isaiah’s words (Luke 4:18,19). He has come to the poor to heal them and to announce their ultimate freedom (Isa. 61:1,2). Liberation indeed!
Apply
What other aspects of the posture of Jesus toward the poor can we learn from? What, if any, relevance does his statement in John 12:8 carry?
Closing prayer
Lord, we who live in prosperous countries find it easy to forget about the poor. Teach us to be more like You and not to forget them.
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