Ministering to Both Poor and Rich
What a busy life Jesus led! Day by day He might be seen entering the humble homes of want and sorrow, speaking hope to the downcast and peace to the distressed. Gracious, tenderhearted, and full of pity, He went about lifting up the bowed-down and comforting the sorrowful. Wherever He went, He carried blessing.MHH 12.1
While He ministered to the poor, Jesus also studied ways of reaching the rich. He made friends of the wealthy and cultured Pharisee, the Jewish nobleman, and the Roman ruler. He accepted their invitations, attended their feasts, and made Himself familiar with their interests and occupations, that He might gain access to their hearts and reveal to them the imperishable riches.MHH 12.2
Christ came to this world to show that by receiving power from on high, human beings can lead lives unstained by sin. With unwearying patience and sympathetic helpfulness He met men and women in their necessities. By the gentle touch of grace He banished from the soul unrest and doubt, changing enmity to love and unbelief to confidence.MHH 12.3
Jesus could say to whom He pleased, “Follow Me,” and the one addressed arose and followed Him. The spell of the world’s enchantment was broken. At the sound of His voice the spirit of greed and ambition fled from the heart, and the person arose, emancipated, to follow the Savior.MHH 12.4
Christ recognized no distinction of nationality, rank, or creed. The scribes and Pharisees wanted their own nation and local community alone to benefit from the gifts of heaven, excluding the rest of God’s family in the world. But Jesus came to break down every wall that separated people. He came to show that His gift of mercy and love is for everyone, like air, sunlight, or the showers of rain that refresh the earth.MHH 12.5
The life of Jesus established a religion in which there is no caste, a religion by which Jew and Gentile, free and bond, are linked as members of one family, equal before God. His plans and actions were not influenced by political considerations. He made no difference between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies. He was always looking for people who were thirsting for the waters of life.MHH 12.6
He saw value in every human being and endeavored to apply the healing remedy to every soul. No matter what social environment He was in, He presented a lesson appropriate to the time and the circumstances. Every time He saw someone neglected or insulted, His heart was stirred to provide divine-human sympathy. He inspired with hope even the roughest and most unpromising people, assuring them that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining characters that would reveal that they were children of God.MHH 12.7
Often Jesus met those who had drifted under Satan’s control and felt unable to break from his power. To such people, discouraged, sick, tempted, fallen, He spoke words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood. Others He met who were fighting hard against the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win, for angels of God were on their side and would give them victory.MHH 12.8
At the table of the publicans Jesus sat as an honored guest, by His sympathy and social kindliness showing that He recognized their dignity as humans, and they longed to become worthy of His confidence. Upon their thirsty hearts His words fell with blessed, life-giving power. New impulses were awakened, and these outcasts of society saw the possibility of a new life.MHH 13.1
Though He was a Jew, Jesus mingled freely with the Samaritans, deliberately disregarding the Pharisaic customs and prejudices of His nation. He accepted the hospitality of this despised people, slept under their roofs, ate at their tables—partaking of the food prepared and served by their hands—taught in their streets, and treated them with the utmost kindness and courtesy. And while He drew their hearts to Him by the tie of human sympathy, His divine grace brought to them the salvation that the Jews rejected.MHH 13.2