When Jesus went places he didn't just preach a message of good news for a world in disarray—where hope is lost, oppression wreaks havoc, and life struggles for meaning. He also came healing and giving people power to imagine a better world than the one they were offered.

It's so interesting to me that the narrative shows Jesus deeply engaged with the deepest questions of others in his time as well as deeply engaged with the meaning of their experience of a world where their bodies were often marginalized, abused, disrespected, and forgotten.

This was no ordinary endeavor. The Bible says he had compassion. It was not just a feeling of "I'm sorry", but it was a practice of centering the struggles the people found themselves in as helpless in a world that didn't care about them. They were not lost. They were forgotten.

So for us today this means unlearning toxic ways we have been formed to talk about our systems and ideologies. It means empathetic listening. It means working for loving and just social and political arrangements. It means being liberators and healers. It means neighbor-love.