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Jesus cared and advocated for the marginalized. He counseled compassion and generosity. He didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk. What if we let his empathy and his action inspire us to put his love into practice?

Justice

No matter what we think of Christianity, most people can agree on one thing. During his lifetime, Jesus set a pretty good example of peace and love. And it’s not like he had an easy life.
He faced insurmountable controversy. So often, he was the target of unjustified hate. How did he stifle his outrage?
Sometimes, he didn’t. Jesus channeled his <a href="https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/did-jesus-ever-get-angry">anger</a> in defense of others when it really mattered. When he saw opportunists taking advantage of the poor, he confronted them without hesitation. But he knew how to pick his battles. Once, a group of men spit in Jesus’ face, struck him, and slapped him, and yet, he did nothing to retaliate.
Living today, it’s hard to imagine how he swallowed his rage. We’ve all noticed our blood boiling when politics come up in conversation, and we’ve felt the temptation to lash out on social media. It seems that every day, we’re faced with something new to fight about. Even though our <a href="https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/did-jesus-ever-get-angry">anger</a> is often justified, it’s taken a toll on our ability to engage with one another. And honestly, it doesn’t feel good.
By telling this story, we reminded ourselves that even when we’re tested and trolled, we have the option of rising above.
<h2>Scripture References: Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 22:47-53, Mark 12:13-17</h2>

How did Jesus deal with injustice?

We live in an era of social trends and influencers who mold the culture around us. Considerations about the impact of influencer voices greased the cogs in our minds and shifted our attention to one of the most famous influencers to ever live. OrderSearch
Jesus had a following, to say the least. People came to him from every quarter to hear about his extreme views on love. This is no different from the thousands of subscribers or followers that influencers boast on today’s social platforms, and just like those influencers, his message was not without its detractors. They wanted him canceled.
Studies indicate that 64% of respondents believe that cancel culture is a direct threat to their freedom. For Jesus, cancel culture did not put his freedom at risk. It put his life at risk. However, such threats did not deter him from delivering his radical truth. This willingness to take a stand is a conviction that we wanted to permeate into the visuals for this topic. We selected imagery that reflected the strain of standing up for your beliefs even when the masses aim to vanquish your voice. A feeling that Jesus knew all too well.
<h2>Scripture References: Matthew 23:1-34, Luke 11:37-52</h2>

Did Jesus face criticism? 

In Jesus’ time, communities were deeply divided by bitter differences in religious beliefs, political positions, income inequality, legal status, and ethnic differences. Sound familiar?
Jesus lived in the middle of a culture war, too. And though the political systems were different (not exactly a representative democracy), the greed, hypocrisy, and oppression different groups used to get their way were very similar.
Let’s set the scene.
Jesus was born at the height of the Roman Empire’s power. They’d conquered most of the known world, and Israel was no exception. Unlike previous empires that would try to destroy cultures by displacing conquered peoples’ leaders, the Romans didn’t force people to change their religion or customs as long as they kept their obligations to the empire. Rome would install a client king (a puppet government) and exact tribute (cash) in lots of different ways. Families were charged taxes per person—farmers on crops, fishermen on catches, and travelers were charged fees to use the roads. This was in addition to local business and religious taxes charged by priests.
In Israel, political and religious factions were one and the same. Back then, it was Pharisees and Sadducees. Today, we have conservatives and liberals.
The Pharisees were the most religiously conservative leaders. They had the most influence among the common working poor, who were the majority. They believed that a king would come one day to conquer Rome with violence and free their nation. Some preyed upon a mostly illiterate population by adding extra rules and requirements that were designed to force the working poor into a posture of subjugation.
The Sadducees were wealthy aristocrats who had a vested financial interest in Roman rule. They were in charge of the temple, and they didn’t believe any savior king was coming. They made themselves wealthy by exacting unfair taxes and fees from the labor of their own people and by contriving money-making schemes that forced the poor to pay exorbitant prices to participate in temple sacrifice—a critical part of their religion.
There were Zealot groups who hid in the hills and violently resisted Roman occupation, and then there were the Samaritans, often oppressed and marginalized because of their racial and ethnic identities.
And so, the common farmer, fisherman, or craftsman’s family lived through a highly volatile political period. Overbearing religious leaders who despised and oppressed them, wealthy elites who ripped them off, racial and ethnic tension with neighbors, and sporadic violent outbreaks between an oppressive occupying army.
So where was Jesus in all of this? Did he align with the religious elites? With the wealthy and powerful? Or did he start an uprising to overthrow them?
None of the above.
He went from town to town, offering hope, new life, and modeling a different way to live and to change the world. Instead of pursuing power, money, or religious authority, he shared a loving and sacrificially generous way of living. He chose not to go along with the schemes others used to impact the world. Instead, he championed a better way.
And so, each of these political groups saw him as a threat. The Pharisees recognized his movement as an affront to their authority—exposing the hypocrisy of their practices. The Sadducees saw Jesus as a threat to their power and wealth because he exposed their money-making schemes. The Zealots violently rejected one of the essential themes of Jesus’ movement: <a href="https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/love-your-enemies">love your enemy</a>.
In the end, it took all three of these groups to have him killed. A Zealot (Judas) betrayed his location to those seeking to arrest him, the Sadducees brought him before the Romans to be executed, and when the Romans couldn’t find a crime committed, the Pharisees rallied the people to force Rome’s hand.
Isn’t it funny how political foes can come together to destroy a common enemy that threatens their designs? But in spite of their best efforts, his execution was only the beginning of a movement that continues to impact the world thousands of years later. Jesus’ movement was so impactful because he actively resisted and rejected participating in culture-war politics.
<h2>Scripture Reference: Matthew 9:35-38; Luke 19:10</h2>

Would Jesus be fed up with our politics, too?

We were musing about how Jesus and his disciples were viewed in his day. If the authorities or religious leaders saw them walking down the street or hanging out on the corner, what would they have thought of them? It suddenly hit us. They would’ve been seen as troublemakers. And Jesus was their ringleader. Matthew, one of his followers, was a Jew who collected taxes for the Romans. In essence, he was seen as a lowlife traitor. Some disciples violently opposed Herod, the King. Others were seen as uneducated dropouts. They were regularly called gluttons, drunkards, and criminals. But more importantly, they were seen as a threat to the establishment, which meant the people in power and the upper classes didn’t want them in their neighborhoods or synagogues.
It’s no different today. If we see youths of a different race or culture dressed a certain way or wearing their hair differently, we often make immediate judgments about them. Usually negative ones. It might make us uncomfortable or even unfriendly toward them. It’s an unconscious bias we all have towards people who are different from us. We don’t know the individual, yet we’ve already labeled them.
Jesus didn’t judge others by their looks. He looked at their hearts. That meant reaching out to people who were outside his circle or society’s mainstream to get to know them individually. He was criticized, even mocked, for doing so, but he didn’t care because he loved all, even if it meant he would be wrongly judged for the friends he made and the company he kept.
One of the interesting things that happened while we were producing this was the casting. We wanted to use people that we thought would immediately elicit judgment from others. You’ll see that nobody is doing anything wrong or illegal. Maybe they’re running down an alley, skateboarding, hanging out on a corner, or hopping a fence, but viewers have been conditioned by society to make assumptions that they’re up to no good. Probably doing something illegal or criminal.
It was very intentional to point out the unconscious bias we all have and that we need to overcome if we’re going to build trust, love, and peace with each other.
<h2>Scripture References: Matthew 11:19, Luke 5:29-32, Luke 6:6-11</h2>

How would Jesus be judged today?

Three hundred and fifty miles. That’s a road trip from Denver to Oklahoma City. It’s the length of over 6,000 football fields placed end to end. It’s the height of roughly 64 Mount Everests stacked on top of each other. It’s also the distance that Jesus and his family traveled to flee Bethlehem. Not by camel, horse, or any other mode of transportation. They traveled on foot.   
They did the unthinkable to escape a ruthless authoritarian leader, King Herod, who ruled a Roman-occupied Judea from 37 BCE to 4 BCE. Shortly after Jesus’ birth, King Herod, driven by insecurity and the fear that Jesus would one day overthrow him, decreed that all boys aged two years and younger be killed. When Mary and Joseph caught wind of his devious plan, they took baby Jesus and escaped their home to Egypt. This is the story that inspired our “Refugee” commercial.  
Their journey mirrors the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers today, who face fear, uncertainty, violence, and worse. Eventually, Jesus and his family returned home, but it’s more than likely that experience stuck with Jesus and shaped his compassion for others. He knew firsthand what it was like to be an outsider and the challenges that come with the territory.  
Decades later, Jesus delivered one of his most famous sermons, where he famously spoke about “the least of these,” referring to people who were vulnerable, overlooked, and powerless in society. He reminds his audience that “If you do anything against these people, you do them against me.”  
Here, we see Jesus’ empathy on full display. Not only did he advocate for others to be compassionate toward the least of these, but he also likened himself to them because he knew how they felt, how they lived. His experiences throughout his adult life reinforce that, but his early days as a refugee might’ve been where his radical empathy began.  
Two thousand years later, his teachings are just as relevant now as they were then. How can we practice the same radical empathy that Jesus taught a millennium ago? And even when others don’t, how different would our society be if we did anyway?

Jesus was a refugee.

What if we told you that if Jesus had been born today, he would be from the sticks? The so-called boonies? A remote area that has a reputation of producing no one of prestige or education? The wrong side of the tracks? It may seem odd to think of Jesus this way, but it’s true. In Scripture, a conversation between two brothers, Phillip and Nathanial, provides context. One day Phillip met Jesus, heard his teachings, and felt his love. He was excited and went to share the good news with his brother, who replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
At the time of his birth, Jesus’ family was forced to flee Nazareth for Egypt after King Herod decreed that all children under the age of two be killed. Yes, Jesus was a refugee, and the people of his hometown were not wealthy or elite by any means. No one expected anything positive or prominent to come from there, let alone someone who would change the world forever.
Over two thousand years later, not much has changed. All we need do is turn on our televisions and observe how the media describes immigrants and refugees. They are often branded as invasive and disruptive, with their reasons for migrating and positive contributions muted. But why?
The answer lies, in part, within the concept of unconscious bias &#8211; we may not know an individual, but because of where they are from, the color of their skin, or what they are wearing,  we make judgments about them.
I was drawn to write this piece because I intimately understand the feeling of being dismissed because of where you come from. Unlike Jesus, I am not from the sticks, yet I, too, have judged because of where I came from. You see, back in middle school, I was the new black kid who moved from the looming city to the developing suburb. That gave the other kids a false narrative of how they thought I should be. Faster. Aggressive. Disruptive. Bold. In their minds, I wasn’t allowed to exist as I was because I looked a certain way and came from a side of town that mandated otherwise.
Jesus too faced stereotypes based on society’s ideas about who he should be. That’s why his persecutors inscribed “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” on the cross at his crucifixion. This was their attempt to mock him because how could a mere man from a small, forgettable town ever hold any power or authority? Perhaps others’ perception of him would have been different had he been born into a wealthy family in an area of prestige.
Jesus made a point to reach out to those who were judged because of their birthplace or circumstance. He spoke to Samaritans, the ethnic enemies of the Jewish people. He went out of his way to uplift lepers, who had been outcast by their communities. He conversed with women, who had little to no political power or social authority. He did so out of love, but he was able to do it so well because he had experienced similar dismissal.
Jesus provided an example of the powerful change that comes when we choose to overlook shallow demographics and focus our intent on truly understanding someone. How can we be more like Phillip, ignoring social hierarchy and judging not based on where someone comes from but solely on the content of their heart?

Jesus overcame bias, too.

The Rebel

Jesus knew how it felt like to be falsely judged. The government and religious authorities of Jesus’ day saw Jesus and his disciples as troublemakers, lawbreakers, and rebels. Jesus and his crew were eyed with suspicion whenever they entered a new city or walked down the street. Rumors and false accusations swirled. Everything they did was questioned or challenged. The truth is, they were rebels. They were challenging authority. But they were not criminals. They were rebels for peace. They challenged others to love everyone. This was a radical idea that the leaders of that time couldn’t see or wouldn’t embrace. But that didn’t stop Jesus or his followers. They did the right thing despite the misunderstanding and biases within their society.

The Making of “Refugee”

These behind-the-scenes interviews provide valuable insight into the experiences and harsh realities that refugees face every day. The same nearly insurmountable odds that Jesus and his parents faced 2,000 years ago as they were seeking refuge in Egypt, outside of their homeland.