In reading Albert Nolan's Jesus before Christianity, I received a lot of insight about how life was in Jesus" time and how we still reflect some of this history to the present. Before reading Nolan's book, I never really understood any of the history behind Jesus. All I knew is that people generally portray him as a good man who only wants the best for everybody. I was very excited when I read the chapters about how Jesus felt about the poor and the oppressed and how he believes in forgiveness. .
I can say that I was born into the middle class of society just as Jesus was. Even though you can technically say that I am a middle class Samaritan, there have been many points in my life where we were on the brink of poverty. Money has been tight, food has been scarce, and not having shelter was not too far away. I have always been brought up to be happy for what I have because there is always someone out there who has far less then I have and would give anything to have what I have. I have been blessed with parents who would do and give anything for me. .
When reading the chapter on the poor and oppressed, it didn't seem so far off from what we see today. We generally link those without homes, prostitutes, the hungry, and the people who are just lazy as being oppressed. In Jesus" time, the blind, crippled, tax collectors, lepers, and sinners were also categorized with being oppressed and poor. It is no surprise to me that Jesus had compassion for those who were oppressed.
Although Jesus did come from the middle class, he associated himself with the lower class and identified himself with them. I think that he was one of the first people who used his gut feeling of compassion. I commend him on not going with the crowd and being his own person; doing what he felt was morally right. .
I was however, completely shocked and dismayed when I read that the crippled and clinically ill were considered oppressed and worthless.
