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Short Essay

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It undoubtedly becomes evident that God has a deep concern for the poor, helpless, and

outcasts from the point of view of Jesus Christ. The message of compassion embodied by Jesus

was radical because he chose to serve the marginalized instead of the rulers as the central figure

of God's redemption plan. Care for the privileged minority and justice for the oppressed were the

main themes of his teachings. In Jesus's ministry, there were healings, feedings of people

experiencing poverty, and forgiving of those whom society had turned its back on. The parables,

often against conventional wisdom, stressed that everybody is valuable regardless of their social

status. Thus, Jesus showed the redeeming power of God's love and mercifulness and called all

the people to become a part of the kingdom of God, where the last would become the first and

the first would be the last.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus declares, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom

of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). He exalts the poor and the lower class and inverts their outlook, in

which riches and identity no longer play the leading role in being blessed. The poor are not

considered untouchables but play the role of God's agents of renewal.

He did not only offer alms directly, he also offered much more than that through this

interaction. He targeted the structural inequalities, and he fought against the oppressive religious

systems of his time. He rebuked the elite religious leaders who "tie up heavy burdens, hard to

bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they are not willing to move them with their finger"

(Matthew 23:4). What angered them most was the fact that the governing class did not care about

things like injustice or power abuse of the weaker people.

At every turn, he got in contact with the people despised by the self-appointed keepers of

the moral order—these were either money collectors, sex workers, the sick, or ethnic groups

treated as inferior. To Jesus, God's grace had to be extended beyond the accepted norm that

things like injustice or power abuse of the weaker people.

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determined privilege by artificial divisions. They were all God's equal children to him, and God makes no favourites.

It must be one of the most astounding displays of unity with the oppressed that Jesus made during His ministry for them. Through the Word through which the universe was spoken into being, he "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave...he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7-8). In the end, he assumed our sorrow as he experienced the forlornness and forsakenness of every rule and power, culminating in the death of a person non grata. He experienced the conditions of the very worst.

To Jesus, God's preferential option for the poor was an experience that was not just a concept but a concrete and deep one. He fulfilled the prophecy to "bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners" (Isaiah 61:1. Jesus illustrated this in his life that as a believer of God's justice, the last, the least and the losers were the foundation on which your belief was built. It is a divine mandate that rejects our immoral motives to do nothing for the imminent future.

We will never be able to claim the Christ who lived among the poor if there is an abysmal divide between our religious beliefs and the route towards a world with more equality. Our faith is inextricably bound to confronting "the misery of the poor...the bitter grief of the needy" (Isaiah 25:4) as if we were performing a duty of dominion. In Jesus, the ever-present God prefers to side with those who are humiliated rather than with those who enjoy what is currently accepted - a reality that ought to disturb, provoke, and push us in the way of enriching, transformative discipleship for the objective of collective freedom.

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References

New International Version. (2011). NIV Bible eBook (New International Version). Hachette UK.