Shane Claibourne's, author of Irresistible Revolution and the simple way community, reflection on Mt 26:11...

Almost every time we talk with affluent folks about God's will to end poverty,
someone says, "But didn't Jesus say, 'The poor will always be with you'?" Many
of the people who whip out this verse have grown quite insulated and distant
from the poor and feel defensive. I usually gently ask, "Where are the
poor? Are the poor among us?" The answer is usually a clear
negatory. As we study the Scriptures, we see how many texts we have
misread, contextualized, and exegeted to hear what we want to. Like this
one about the poor being among us, which Jesus says in the home of a leper and
after a poor marginalized woman anoints his feet with perfume. The poor
were all around him. Far from saying in defeat that we should not worry
about the poor, since they will always be among us, Jesus is pointing the church
to her true identity - she is to live close to those who suffer. The poor will
always be among us, because the empire will always produce poor people, and they
will find a home in the church, a citizenship in the kingdom of God, where the
"hungry are filled with good things and the rich sent away empty."