Streetwalking with Jesus

Little is gained by reading these stories if they don’t expand your own heart’s capacity for justice and mercy

Suffering can bend and break us. But it can also break us open to become the persons God intended us to be.

Jesus once remarked that “the poor will always be with you.” I think He said this because we who are rich need the poor to keep us from becoming blind.

“If I give food to the poor and hungry, they call me a saint, but if I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist!”

With that, he closed his final argument. Even though the attorney didn’t say it outright, his message was clear: The man accused of murder didn’t matter because he was a prostitute. Because he was a prostitute, he was of no worth to society. Because he was of no worth to society, he should not be trusted, or given rights, or believed when he testified that “I didn’t do it.”