The poor you will always have with you...

"Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper,
a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table.
But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste?
“For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me.
“For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
“For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.
“Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.” (matthew 26:6-13)

"While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head.
But some were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted?
“For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her.
But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me.
“For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me.
“She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.
“Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.” (Mark 14:3-9)

"Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.
Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said,
“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?”
Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.
Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.
“For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.” (John 12:1-8)

John, as always, does the work of an apologist by adding certain details missing from the earlier texts ("the woman" is now Mary and Lazarus, notably absent from the Synoptics, is there) and some explanatory gloss (e.g. "not because he was concerned about the poor").  Some of the key differences are highlighted in blue. 

Luke's account of the story is completely different.

"Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume,
and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.
Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:36-39)

Jesus then goes on to explain to those at the table (in this case, a Pharisee is the prop used to make the point) that Peter did not give him water, give him a kiss or anoint his head but the woman (unnamed in this account) did all those things.  He then declared her sins forgiven.  No statement about the value of the perfume or its profits being given to the poor.

Luke does, however, have some of the harder sayings pertaining to the poor that are unique to his Gospel account.  Luke tells us to invite the poor to the banquet (14:13) and to sell everything we have and give it to the poor (12:33 and 18:22).

Anyhow, this started out with Jesus' statement - echoing that found in Deuteronomy 15 - about there always being the poor among us.  Once again, I find myself standing back amazed at how accounts of one (or similar) stories have different renderings in each Gospel account and it reinforces why I can not accept the literalness of the text verbatim.

I get the spiritual truth(s) that lie underneath but to literally believe this word for word to be true would mean that there were four separate stories.  No, I believe that these are stories.  I don't believe this makes them any less "true" but it most certainly represents different spins on a core story.

So what about the poor?  No wonder they got lost in this.  We in the West tend to fall back on the argument about whether or not we can even trust the Bible as true since issues such as this one come up with little to no effort.  We then fall into arguing not about how to help the poor but fighting over the letter of the Book.

Currently reading John Sniegocki's Catholic Social Teaching and Economic Globalization and it's got me convicted, though at the moment it's more paralyzing than mobilizing as I'm angry at how unjust our government (in particular, its people) can be and how insane it is for so many "Christians" to be defending it in the name of freedom.

If the "poor" (still need to understand that loaded term a bit more) is a barometer of how we are doing as a people of faith, I'd say that we have a lot to be desired.  The idea of "charity" sometimes seems as if it means the same thing as "welfare" as it is understood today, though perhaps more like a good deed, a notch on the holiness belt.

However, in the KJV version of 1 Corinthians 13 which speak of faith, hope and charity the word 'charity' is from the Greek word agape which means (divine) love (see the different nuances in the Greek terms translated as 'love' in Jesus' questions to Peter at the end of John).

Charity is not a duty, i.e. a "good deed," it is something that should overflow from the heart of those who are His.  It is of love, compassion, the recognition that while one is poor (whether materially, in spirit, or both), so too is everyone.

Sorry, got off track a little...going to see if I can extract an essence from the above since it just kind of spilled out...