HONOLULU — Liberation marked the ministry of Jesus Christ, and it should characterize the mission of God’s people today, a professor and advocate for marginalized women told the Baptist World Congress.
Alongla Aier, cofounder of the Oriental Theological Seminary in northeastern India, pointed to Jesus’ message at a synagogue in Nazareth — a reading from Isaiah 61 that signaled the beginning of his public ministry — as evidence of God’s special concern for the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed.
Alongla Aier (Photo by Rand Jenkins)
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“The poor, the slave, the exploited and downtrodden will be released,” she said. “The good news is that God’s justice and righteousness are on their side.”
God stands with the poor — both the economically deprived and the spiritually impoverished, Aier said. God brings healing to the physically blind and insight to the spiritually blinded. And God offers release to people held captive physically and to people in bondage spiritually.
“God in Jesus is always moved by the cries of the oppressed, the voiceless and the powerless,” she said.
Aier described the plight of Madesh, a young man in India who went to work in a brick kiln at age 8, laboring in dangerous conditions as a slave.
“For 15 years, he remained trapped in slavery,” she said. “But thanks to the efforts of a Christian justice group, he was set free.”
Once he was freed, he eventually set up his own brick kiln, where he employs several people of his community, providing them fair wages for their work.
Christians who listen to the Holy Spirit and follow the example of Jesus Christ will bring release to the oppressed, Aier said.
“This kingdom work which Jesus inaugurated that day remains unfinished,” she said.
“More than ever, creation groans for deliverance.”
God cares for hungry children, women who are trafficked as sex slaves and people displaced by war, she said. And in the light of human suffering on a global scale, God’s people must speak on behalf of the oppressed and vulnerable.
“We dare not remain silent,” Aier said. “We have the capacity to make a difference in our generation and in our lifetime.”