The treasure of our faith is found in the Gospel. It is full of hope. When we observe how Jesus interacted with people, we hear him say (Matthew 11:28-30, New International Version): “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

A yoke is a fitted beam of wood to share the load of pulling between two oxen. Instead of carrying our loads by ourselves, Jesus wants to be on our side. He tells us with these words: the God I am talking about is close to you. He knows you. You can talk with him. He listens to your requests and knows what you need. Your life is important to him. You don’t have to prove your value to him by being successful or religious. Who you are, is important, not what you have, or what you do.

However, already this simple tone of the gospel is foreign to our souls in our postmodern times. It is so foreign that I wonder how we could still understand in our present culture what God has given us in Jesus Christ and how he imagined the church as a community.

We almost kill each other with our murderous principle of achievement and deprive each other of our dignity while we actually could be calm and free to grant life and dignity to all.

Breathe a sigh of relief, Christ tells us, I see how tired you are. I see that you are afraid and in despair. I have hope for you. Let me give you new strength, the power you need and peace.

Again I try to observe how Christ is interacting with the people, among them the poorest of his country. When he saw them, he felt pity for them because they were left behind, hungry, and in bad condition like sheep without a shepherd. He saw them sick.

But he did not say: just accept your situation, your pain, but he healed them. He took the sick by the hand and lifted them up. He saw deep into the soul of sick people who had been tormented by evil spirits and set them free.

He saw people falling to pieces, caught up in transgression, suffering from the guilt they carried, unable to find peace with God. So he took away the fear of the past and the fear of the future, the fear of earthly judges and the fear of God and he gave them a new beginning. He let people come as they were.

He did not distinguish between good and evil people but spoke about his father in Heaven who lets the sun shine over good and evil, and sends rain to the just and unjust alike.

Those who came to him did not have to prove they had changed already. Instead they received the freedom to change and heard the words: “Go now in peace,” meaning, make an end to your inner and outer wars. When I accept you, trust that God accepts you also. So accept yourself as well. Try to thank God for who you are and what you are. How could you love your neighbour as yourself when you are in war with yourself?

Thus, when others seem to make you sick, or try to take your dignity, or hurt your soul, I tell you: your dignity does not depend on what people say. Your dignity is from above. That is what our baptism does, it gives you a dignity no one can take from you.

People who found this can say: when I listen to Jesus I suddenly feel myself. I realise I am not just a broken part, but a whole person. I am not alone or lost but I have a great, strong, and clear vis-à-vis in the God who deals with me with compassion and friendliness. I am not dead in my soul. I am alive. There is still something growing inside of me. I still have hope. It blossoms and ripens. Life is not just the routine I am stuck in, but it is surprising and growing. I can relax. I have a serenity that does not come from me but is given to me.

We don’t have to solve all problems of the world, nor are we menials of others. We don’t have to fight against all and everything around us. We are free and we are not slaves to circumstances.

In the Gospel of Jesus Christ we find relief, healing and freedom. And only after this freedom has found its place inside us, Christ gives us a charge. He does not request our work before we find the strength.

His ethical call is to those who are relieved, healed and freed. Only then the fourth step is tried: to do something concrete. Jesus took time with people. He ate with them, listened to them and helped them. His grace was there for all before we were worthy of it. Paul says it like this in Romans 5:8 (NIV): “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Thus we can see the treasure of our faith and we can unite with each other as people who have compassion and we comfort each other. We are not lost or alone even if we sometimes may feel that way. Our church can find its form where it can be our refuge, a place where the freedom and dignity of every person is true. Then we can indeed do what Christ had done, we can take each other’s burden, grant each other dignity and healing, and we can open up freedom for each other.

We find freedom from what suppresses us and freedom to just be. We can be church for each other, a community that listens and answers, that brakes through constraints, that does what is normally not done, even talk about what we try to keep hidden without blame or shame. We can talk for those who have no voice, look at what is suppressed, and have compassion, which means, share the suffering.

Don’t let the courage be taken from us. We are not alone. As church we stand for each other and with each other, because we have a Lord and Saviour on our side and we can bless each other just like those Irish monks did when they sent each other into the dark and unfriendly world:

“May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

• This column is based in part on a devotion by Jörg Zink entitled “Aufatmen sollt ihr” (You Should Breathe a Sigh of Relief) held at a church gathering in Greifswald, in what was then East Germany, in 1985