Not long after, I was in a remote country where the fly-blown carcass of a skinny goat or pig lay outside the doorless entry to a hovel that someone called home. It was left outside because the stench of the decimated animal that would feed the family for another week was impossible to bear inside.

Most of us have seen or experienced social injustice in one way or another, and sometimes it etches itself on our memory as this did to mine. Exposed to extreme injustice for long enough, some Christians conclude that their primary obligation is to attack what they see as its root cause by engineering changes in government, by force or revolution if necessary. It’s easy to pick passages from the New Testament to prove that Jesus was a constant thorn in the side of the ruling elite. He cleared the temple of money changers. He condemned the Pharisees for their insistence on burdensome traditions that weighed on the common people. He urged the rich to give away their goods to the poor.

But, if we take it no further than His criticism of some of the Establishment figures of the day, I believe that we are left with a narrow and inadequate view of Jesus Christ. It makes Him less than He was, and robs His teachings and life of what was unique. He had plenty of opportunity to condemn the oppressive Romans. Yet Jesus paid also taxes and advised the people to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”

His message was not revolution in the way we usually understand that word. He was about changing people’s hearts from the inside, one at a time if necessary. Certainly, He would have people help the homeless family from their poverty with a lift up – but He would also change the heart of the landlord, permanently. Rather than stir up anger in others, He urged them to be peacemakers and to pray for their enemies. By so doing, He would change the very thinking of those who have the power to effect more lasting change.

A former president of my Church said some years ago: "The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."

Jesus Christ did not come to the world to forcibly engineer social revolution or foment rebellion, but to effect spiritual regeneration. He testified of the Father who sent Him. He urged love of God and one’s neighbor and asked those who heard Him to forsake sin. He said repeatedly that His kingdom was not of this world. The consummation of His mission was not rebellion, but reconciliation through the Atonement and the Resurrection.