4 Beautiful Times Jesus Elevated Human Dignity

In Luke 8:1-3, we read:

“After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.”

For years, if not decades, I skimmed over this passage without grasping the love and tenderness it reveals — until God spoke to me through it. This occurred around five years ago as I considered accepting a podcasting role. Initially, I felt considerable hesitation but couldn’t verbalize why. Through prayer I came to realize, due to past messaging I’d received, a part of me thought a man would better fit the role. 

Soon after, a friend made a statement that motivated me to move forward. “What if God offered you this outlet for the same reason those women in Luke 8 inspire you?”

This resonated with me and turned my thoughts once again to what that passage revealed regarding God’s heart for the women living in first century Galilee and Judea, as well as those in our day as well. 

Understand, Jesus didn’t need financial support; He created, owned, and sustains all that exists, after all. Luke 5 records an instance when He miraculously filled two nets with enough fish to nearly sink two boats. Some scholars suggest this catch, once sold, could’ve equaled the equivalent of 12-35 years’ worth of income. This could’ve funded Christ’s ministry a minimum of four times over. 

Then there was the time Jesus told His disciple Peter to pay the temple tax from a coin produced in a fish’s mouth (Matthew 17:24-27). The Lord turned water into wine and multiplied a meager amount of bread and fish to feed thousands, with food leftover (John 6:1-13). 

This suggests He had another reason for inviting the women from Luke to participate in His ministry. First, this would’ve been near scandalous in His day. As Bible scholar Leon states, “The rabbis refused to teach women and generally assigned them a very inferior place.” Can you imagine, then, the impact seeing women traveling with Jesus and His disciples must’ve made on watching women, especially impressionable girls! Through this, Jesus made clear that every human holds value, and discipleship is for all. 

In humbly allowing the women to provide, at least in part, for Him and the twelve, Jesus elevated the dignity of a demographic previously devalued and excluded.

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If you attended Sunday school as a child, you likely learned the song about a “wee-little-man” named Zacheus who publicly scrambled up a tree to see Jesus. According to Scripture, Zacheus was wealthy, short, and had become rich collecting taxes. He not only consorted with his people’s oppressors, but he did so to his advantage. The New Living Translations states that he was “the chief tax collector in the region” (Luke 19:2). This likely means that he managed or supervised other tax collectors. One can reasonably assume, then, that he excelled in his position. 

I doubt he behaved ethically. More likely, he’d cheated many people who were probably significantly impoverished and struggling to survive. This would’ve made him one of the most despised men in his day. 

He probably didn’t expect the Lord to notice him, let alone initiate a connection. But that’s precisely what Jesus did. Verse 5 states:

“When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.”

Jesus saw the man’s sin, but more than that, He saw a man with a heart longing to encounter the divine. What’s more, it was that encounter that brought about transformation and began to restore Zacchaeus to his true self as God’s image bearer. Through this historical event, Jesus highlighted an important fact. We aren’t our sin or poor choices; we’re hand-crafted and deeply loved men and women created to add beauty and order to the world. And our Savior reaches out to us with the same compassionate determination, lovingly liberating us from all the labels we’ve adopted or others have placed upon us. He restores us to our truest selves.

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Imagine being ripped from your homeland and everything and everyone familiar, forced to live enslaved to a couple who, ultimately, use you in one of the most degrading and hurtful ways possible. That was Hagar’s reality. In Genesis 16, we read:

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.”

 As one might expect, this brought increased toxicity into the family and hostility between the women. Things became so tense and tumultuous that Hagar fled, pregnant, into the wilderness. Scripture doesn’t tell us how she hoped to survive, or if she did. But God met her in her pain and promised to bless her and her unborn child. 

After this profound encounter, we read:

“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.’”

In the original Hebrew, she said, “… also here have I seen the back of Him who sees me.” She wasn’t saying the Lord visually saw her. Instead, her joy came from feeling understood. That is one of the most powerful ways one can elevate a person’s dignity, by taking the time to grasp their unique circumstances and the depth of their pain. God did more than that. He also spoke hope into her despair.

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Imagine people viewing you as so unclean, so dirty, they wouldn’t touch you because they feared you’d contaminate them. This was the woman’s reality. Scripture tells us that she’d suffered prolonged menstrual bleeding for twelve years and spent all her money on potential “cures,” only to grow worse.

Pause to reflect on all the ways this might’ve impacted her life. First, her condition itself probably caused significant emotional and physical pain and fatigue, and potentially anemia. Considering the often strange gynecological “treatments” practiced in the first century, one can understand why the Bible states that she’d “suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors” (Mark 5:26).

As someone who’s experienced the emotional turmoil of chronic illness, I can understand how difficult her life must’ve been. Yet, I don’t believe that was her greatest pain. Because Rabbinical law declared her unclean, she likely lived in complete isolation. All of this while bearing the label: dirty. 

She displayed incredibly courage simply leaving her home. Yet, she was so desperate for healing that she risked public shaming by pressing through a crowd, thereby risking “contaminating” whomever she unintentionally brushed against, to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. “For she thought, ‘If I just touch His garments, I will get well’” (Mark 5:28). 

That’s precisely what happened. Verse 29 states: “Immediately the flow of her blood dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.” 

Following, it appears she planned to quietly slip away — physically relieved, but with a wounded soul. But Jesus loved her too much to allow that to happen. Recognizing the depth of her shame, He called her out of hiding and to Himself. According to Mark 5:33: “But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.”

Notice how Jesus responded in the next verse: 

“And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction” (Mark 5:34). 

Don’t miss the significance in His response. Jesus called the woman who’d spent over a decade enduring rejection from her people and the religious leaders as daughter. This is the only time Scripture records Him addressing a woman this way. And oh, what a powerful statement this must’ve been to the woman’s wounded heart! 

He saw her, called her out of hiding, and bestowed upon her a title of honor and love. Jesus does the same for us. He sees every cut and bruise our souls carry, the shame that thrusts us into emotional isolation, and He calls us His beloved. 

Each of these examples, and numerous others preserved in Scripture, reveal our Savior’s heart for us, His children. As Isaiah 42:3 states:

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.”

In other words, He’s gentle with the hurting and those who feel ready to break, like the spark of life within them is about to die. He draws the brokenhearted to Himself and tenderly, steadily, heals, transforms and restores.

Jesus proclaims dignity into the places shame has silenced.

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