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The worst part was telling the woman she was going the wrong way. She had already been walking for hours. She was exhausted and pale and hungry. And she was now horribly late to meet up with a former partner she hoped would lend her £20. So late he would probably be gone. That meant no food, no money for the gas meter, no bus fare home. She was undemanding, but I could feel her despair. Another victim of the cost of living crisis. It was a powerful encounter for the start of Holy Week and it left me reflecting on a passage of the Bible that many Christians will hear today. A few days before his death, Jesus was anointed with rich perfume by Mary of Bethany. Judas was furious at such waste when the perfume could have been sold for the poor. So Jesus gives one his most enigmatic responses. ‘You have the poor with you always.’ It is an answer that has been used through the centuries to justify passivity in the face of poverty. There will always be poor people, so just accept it, some say. There will always be people like the woman I met, so why bother? You’re wasting your time. But Jesus was quoting a sentence from the Hebrew Scriptures which reads, “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded.” Poverty, rather than justifying inactivity, should motivate generosity, the text teaches. And Jesus’ own open-handedness is demonstrated by what he says next. ‘You will not always have me.’ As he speaks those words Jesus points to what is, for me, the greatest ever example of self-giving love which is his own death on the cross. On Friday this week Christians will remember that example of sacrificial generosity as Jesus lays down his own life for others, an act of love that continues to inspire millions in the service of those in need. Sadly, with a global cost of living crisis that is likely to rumble on, there will be many other people like the woman I met in that Lancashire seaside town. Doubtless politicians and policy makers will continue to come under pressure to do more, and of course they have a capacity to act on scale that is impossible for any individual. However it is empty rhetoric to demand a political response to poverty in the absence of a personal response. Serving others sometimes requires sacrifice and personal cost. But it also changes lives and builds joy.