Stephen
Terry, Director
Beware
of Covetousness
Commentary
for the March 4, 2023, Sabbath School Lesson
"You will
always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me." John 12:8, NIV
Coveting is pervasive in modern
society and perhaps always has been. We give it cute euphemisms such as "Keeping
up with he Joneses." Our friend buys a house in a nicer part of town, so we
wish we had that also. They buy a newer car than we can afford, and we wish we
had his opportunity to own one. If it is within our ability, we work to have
that house or that car or if possible, an even nicer one, so they are the one
that must catch up. Our self-esteem becomes entwined with the things we own,
and if we cannot keep up, we feel diminished. But we don't realize it is our inordinate
desires that eventually bring us to that point.
In the Old West, no matter how
fast a gunslinging cowboy you were, there was always the threat that someone
faster would take you down and claim your reputation as his. In the same way,
no matter how much we strive to fulfill all we want, there will always be something
that someone will use to demonstrate that they are higher on the scale of worth
than we are. When we get to that point, we can bitterly covet what we do not
have, or we can find happiness with our blessings. How do we do that? We can
begin by helping others to discover they have value not dependent upon what
they own but upon their intrinsic value as God's creation. Every person born on
the planet gives testimony that God saw value in their existence. This is true
despite culture, ethnicity, skin color, physical ability, intelligence, or location.
God loves diversity, and he created the human genome to take full advantage of
it.
Imagine if you will if a species
of lizards decided that only one iteration of that species was true to the
Creator's intent and began eliminating those lizards that deviated from that
expression. They successfully culled all the deviants from their number only to
discover when faced with a drastic climatic change, the necessary genetic
material that would have given them adaptability to the new environment had
been eliminated along with the deviant lizards. What was deemed deviancy was a
survival trait chromosomally linked to the visible trait that made them
distinctive in appearance and thus targets for not conforming. Their elimination
was then a step toward extinction.
While we are not lizards, we are
human beings, and we tend to react to one another in ways just as destructive as
the lizards did. We too often establish a person's value based on their skin
color, where they are from, their educational level, what accent they speak
with, and the quantity and quality of the things they own. This creates a
society stratified based on artificial privilege rather than intrinsic value.
And the more we become invested in that view of society the less likely we will
be to tolerate those who hear a different song in their hearts. That song is
sung by those who see people as having value despite how they look, speak, live
or what they own. This is not only a concept presented by Jesus, but also a scientifically
valid one. The homeless alcoholic or addict sleeping under cardboard in an
alley is just as likely to be carrying genetic code enhancing the gene pool and
improving our adaptability and survival in the face of extreme environmental challenge
as you or I. Reason dictates, we should do all we can to preserve one another
if for no other reason than self interest in our own survival as a species.
Unfortunately, not everyone
agrees with such sentiments whether expressed biblically or scientifically. Often,
that disagreement is expressed politically. As Dom Hélder Câmara said, "When I
give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food,
they call me a communist." This is because in order for the poor to have more
things, including food, the wealthy must give up some of their things. When
their self-esteem is so deeply based on what they own, they can feel that any
attempt to lift up those who do not own much as a personal attack. Surprisingly,
the defensiveness that results may even see them citing the Bible in defense of
their actions, much as slaveholders in the Antebellum South would cite biblical
passages to support their ironically unchristian view about enslaving their
fellow human beings. One such verse twisted to justify not dealing with poverty
is the one cited at the beginning of this commentary. The reasoning is that if
the poor will always be with us then what difference does it make whether we
help them or not? The problem will not go away.
This is why such statements need
to be evaluated contextually, and by that, I mean within the context of the
entire Bible, not just the surrounding verses or even the entirety of the
relevant book. For instance, if we take John 12:8 and compare it to Deuteronomy
15:4 we may see that it was God's intent to bless his people to the extent that
there will be no poor in the land. The remainder of that chapter in Deuteronomy
reveals how that was to be accomplished. It was to be done by the wealthy
opening their hands to the poor to uplift them and provide for them. However,
it is as though God already knows that the people will never do that for he
reveals that their compassion will need to be continually tested and therefore in
verse eleven we are told the poor will not cease from the land. It is as though
God is saying, "My plan is to eliminate poverty, but I know you are whom you
are, so I know you will not allow that to happen." Jesus' statement in John
then is merely a recognition of the hardness of our hearts toward the poor just
as he pointed out that divorce was allowed by Moses for the same reason of
hardened hearts.
The irony about covetousness is
that it is sometimes seen as an excuse for not helping the poor, and then we
blame the poor for wanting what we have. Our desire for more things in our
lives to improve our life quality can result in our feeling the need for these
things is more valuable than caring for the weak, the sick, the hungry, the
homeless, the unemployed, or the oppressed. Until we come to realize that we
are the reason destitution exists, the poor will indeed always be with us. A
further irony is when the poor, who have very little, help one another more
willingly than those who are more blessed. This may be because they realize
that survival is based upon their willingness to help each other. As wealth
improves with savings accounts, insurance, along with security of shelter,
food, and clothing, we can lose the feeling that we must depend upon one
another. We then forget how we got there and start to buy into the myth of the
rugged individualist who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to get where he is
today. And then, we buy into the idea that flows from that myth that if the poor
would only work hard like we did and not be so lazy or immoral they would no
longer be poor.
That myth though glosses over
every compassionate experience from a person who lent us a hand along the way. As
in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," we become like Ebenezer Scrooge
forgetting the kindnesses he was shown in his past while apprenticing under Old
Fezziwig, and begrudging his poor bookkeeper, Bob Cratchit, even an additional
lump of coal to warm his office. When seeing the immorality derived from the poverty
of the situation of so many, like Scrooge, we ask "Are there no prisons?" But
we do little enough to assuage the conditions behind the immoral behavior. We
cut funding for programs that would address some of these issues so we can have
a boat to take the family water skiing, or a vacation at some popular and
expensive resort. We pay hundreds of dollars for jeans ripped to shreds while
others wish they had a change of clothing from day to day. We own multiple vehicles,
but others cannot find consistent employment because they have no reliable
transportation.
We have so much, and then lament
that our wealth makes us a target for those who have much less. Everything we
own, no matter how humble or how precious, is only ours because someone created
it. Sadly, much of what we own these days is the result of impoverished
workers, often offshore, who can only dream of being able to spend money on
such trifles. Because we have the money, we own what they produce, and our
example of coveting all these things and targeting our resources to that end
teaches them to covet as well. How much better the world would be if the only
thing we coveted was the well-being of all. Until that happens, we will always
have the poor among us.