The Church’s Role in Liberating the Poor: Jesus’ Peaceful and Strategic Approach to Empowering the Marginalized

Abstract

This paper examines the Messianic identity of the life and death of emphasizing his self-identification with the marginalized and liminal people. The work looks at Jesus as the foot print of a Crusader for justice, who pitched his tent with the poor and the suffering, against the tax collectors, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Jesus’ revolution started from a radical solidarity with the down trodden. He overlooked those of high class and started from the oppressed. With respect to the liberation of the poor, this paper assesses the enthusiasm that Jesus sparked in the poor and the marginalized of his era. The paper equally evaluates the fact that those individuals understood Jesus, and Jesus knew how to respond to their questions and their needs. It also looks at Jesus as a pioneer in the development and liberation of the down trodden and identifies the strategic options he employed to protect them from oppression. A multi disciplinary approach was adopted and the findings reveal Jesus Christ as a ‘suffering servant’ in relation to the reality of poverty, and marginalization experienced by the poor of his time with the conclusion that the need to care, provide and protect the poor and the marginalized is deeply rooted in the Bible. The paper recommends that the Church as Christ’s offshoot should befriend the oppressed and create programs that will help reduce oppression, poverty and promote social welfare in our Nigeria society.