Like the ministry of the Good Samaritan, the priesthood should not be afraid to reach out to those who are different and walk in their misfortune. This ministry of faith should accept God's call to the undesirable, the morally diseased, and the forgotten segments of society.
Roland Miller (1980) in his book "Christ the Healer" reveals some pertinent applications of Christ's ministry of presence:
He noticed.
Jesus was alert, actually seeking out those in need. (John 5:16)
He stopped.
Jesus did not simply pass by those who were suffering, he responded to what he saw. (Matthew 20:32)
He was horrified.
Jesus was horrified at what he saw, for the suffering and sadness he encountered was not God's intention. Humanity, however, has lost its sense of horror. We have seen too much, so what we see no longer moves us. (Mark 7:34)
He was angry.
Jesus hated everything that distorted God's objectives, including the self-righteous who could not see God's priorities of forgiveness and human need. (Matthew 21:12; 23:23).
He loved.
There was profound intimacy and hope in Jesus' love. In Christ we see God's tears for his children. (Matthew 8:3, 7; 14:14;John 11:3, 33-34).
He loved widely, yet personally.
Jesus did not love from a distance but, rather, in personal and concrete forms (Matthew 19:2, 20:34)
He healed relevantly.
Christ kept in touch with our culture and healed understandably. (Matthew 8:4)
He crossed lines.
Jesus was truly the man for others, and this truth still causes people to wonder (Matthew 5:44; 8:11, Mark 7:29)
He healed as a servant.
Christ rejected all forms of worldly power and acclaim. He deliberately withdrew from the popular results of his healing activity. (Matthew 12:16; 20:28; John 6:15)
He was urgent.
Jesus revealed a sense of little time, realizing that night was coming. He said, "My Father is still working, and I also am working." (John 5:17)
Like Christ, the church (us) must be alert to the cries of humanity and not simply observe from a distance. Jesus was horrified and angry at what he encountered, and so must we be horrified and angry. We must never become insensitive or fatalistic, believing any situation is hopeless. Instead, the church's presence (ours), as exemplified in Christ, must refuse to accept that human pain is inevitable. We are called to be a servant of urgency, reaching out and touching those deemed incurable.
The ministry of presence can be summed up in the word compassion: [Jesus] had compassion for them, because they were sheep without a shepherd" (Mark 6:34). How do we interpret the compassion of our Lord? Compassion is not simply mercy, empathy, sympathy, or pity, instead, "compassion is a feature of our being in Christ. It is not an ethical or psychological disposition, something to have now and then, as we allow our hearts to be warned on occasion in concern for another."
Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
(Purves, Andrew. 1989. The Search for Compassion: Spirituality and Ministry)
Jesus' association with society's outcasts brought him stern criticism (Matthew 11:19), but this vulnerability to criticism is the path of righteousness. The church is not called to appease the self-righteousness and sinful appetites of scoffers, including the rich and powerful, but to serve those for whom Jesus died. Jesus shared these words of truth:
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me . . . Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me (Matthew 25:35-36, 40).
Jesus performed many acts of mercy to provide an example for his disciples: "So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (John 13:16-17)