Jesus was always going to parties where people had plenty
to eat and drink and there seemed to be a celebration going
on. He often grossly exaggerated to make his point: here
you are, he said, trying to take a speck out of your
friend’s eye, when you’ve got a huge great plank in your
own eye! He gave his followers, especially the leading
ones, funny nicknames (“Peter” means “Rocky”; James and
John he called “Thunder-boys”). Wherever he went, people
were excited because they believed that God was on the
move, that a new rescue operation was in the air, that
things were going to be put right. People in that mood are
like old friends meeting up at the start of a holiday.They
tend to laugh a lot. There is a good time coming. The
celebration has begun.

Equally, wherever Jesus went he met an endless supply of
people whose lives had gone badly wrong. Sick people, sad
people, people in doubt, people in despair, people covering
up their uncertainties with arrogant bluster, people using
religion as a screen against harsh reality. And though
Jesus healed many of them, it wasn’t like someone simply
waving a magic wand. He shared the pain. He was deeply
grieved at the sight of a leper and the thought of all that
the man had gone through. He wept at the tomb of a close
friend. Toward the end of the story, he himself was in
agony, agony of soul before he faced the same agony in his
body.

Wright, N. T.. Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes
Sense (p. 11). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

 

A Conference with N. T. Wright: Interpreting Paul for the Future of the World.