Matthew 9:35-10:8 This passage also teaches that justice requires action, not mere sympathy. Jesus doesn't simply feel sorry for the crowds around him. He heals their diseases, restores marginalized people to community life, and commissions disciples to continue the work. The vision of justice in Matthew’s Gospel is therefore participatory: followers of Jesus are called to become “laborers” in the harvest. That means confronting suffering wherever it appears, whether through poverty, racism, gender privilege, LGBTQ phobias, economic inequality, violence, or exclusion. Compassion without action is incomplete.