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The Ministry of Health and Healing
ment 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.
Christ recognized no distinction of nationality, rank, or creed.
The scribes and Pharisees wanted their own nation and local com-
munity 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.
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 differ-
ence between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies. He was
always looking for people who were thirsting for the waters of life.
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.
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
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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.
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.