Compassion for the Marginalized: How Jesus's Healing Ministry can be a Model for Christian Healthcare Professionals

Many modern-day, Christian health professionals describe their work as a ministry—a way to share the gospel, even if indirectly. What would it look like, however, to have a healing ministry like Jesus? To answer this question, this thesis explores the unique aspects of Jesus’s healing practices, first by defining the concept of health and healing in the Greco-Roman and Jewish traditions and then determining how Jesus’s practices were distinct. Next, the work will explore how aspects of Jesus’s healing ministry, such as healing out of compassion and addressing the needs of the ostracized, appeared in early Christianity, namely through the development of Christian philanthropy and hospitals for the poor. Finally, the precedent established by Jesus and the early Christians will be used to develop a model of care for the marginalized in our modern society.