Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)
How do we share our burdens?
In church, we may be surrounded by brothers and sisters we have known for years, and some perhaps for a lifetime. But how deep are our relationships? How well do we know one another? What do we know about their lives?
There are a number of incidents in the Bible where we are privileged with an omniscient point of view. One of them is recorded in John 12:4-8, where Judas denounces Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet with costly spikenard. Not only do we see Judas’ apparent ‘righteousness’ in questioning why the oil was not sold to be given to the poor, we see his evil intentions from Jesus’ all-knowing perspective. Although the gospel of John writes that Judas was a thief, it is likely that no one at the time knew this except for Jesus. What can we learn from the dialogue that ensued?
Judas was being a hypocrite when he criticized Mary’s offering because he did not actually care about the poor at all (Jn 12:6). For this reason, Jesus had a number of ways He could have responded to Judas. Continue reading