(Part 6 of "The Primer on Scripture and the Budget for 2009")
An underlying assumption in many Republican policies is that poor people deserve what they get and that they are poor because of some character flaw. But poverty is not a sin, and it is not necessarily caused by sin. Jesus was homeless throughout his ministry. His disciples were unemployed. Elijah the prophet fled into the desert from Queen Jezebel and went homeless and hungry because of his righteousness. Although some people in poverty today are there because of choices they have made and perhaps even sins they have committed, just as many (if not more) are there through no discernible fault of their own. This is especially true of children in poor families. But regardless of cause, as the passages that follow demonstrate, God has a special place in his heart for the poor (something the Roman Catholic Church articulated several decades ago as God's "preferential option for the poor").
"Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Luke 6:20). Most people are probably more familiar with the Beatitude in Matthew 5:3, which adds "in spirit" after "poor." But both refer to the same people, with Matthew just making it more clear why being poor is a blessed state: The destitute poor are so helpless that they do not trust in themselves (and thus focus inwardly) but instead must trust in God and the kindness of others.
"The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives and release from darkness to the prisoners [not to vote against or veto bans on torture], to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn" (Isaiah 61:1-2).
When Jesus begins his public ministry, he makes it very clear how he sees the mission God has given him and who the object of that mission is by paraphrasing the above quotation from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19). It is worth noting that the phrase "the year of the Lord's favor" is a reference to the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25) in which property was to be redistributed to its original owner (see below). Most likely Jesus was not declaring the year in which he was speaking to be a Jubilee year, but was indicating that the beginning of his ministry marked the beginning of the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God which is characterized by a radical restructuring of society where "the last will be first, and the fist will be last" (Matt. 20:16) . . .
Find the entire post here at Faithful Democrats