The Pharisee's Home

Pastor David took an interesting approach to preaching this particular passage in which Jesus' feet are washed by the sinful woman who cleans his feet and anoints them with perfume to the ire of Simon the Pharisee. Jesus uses this as an opportunity to use a parable to teach about grace and its availability to everyone. After reading the passage he began to break down the different perspectives of the characters in the story as if analyzing a play. He examined the perspective of the woman, Simon, Jesus and the others at the dinner.

This kind woman tried to encourage this boy to have faith in God and Jesus, Jesus was the “lamb of god” also “a man with sorrows and acquainted with grief.” “Sundays [were] days for Jesus; it was wrong to feel comfortable or laugh on a Sunday.” Jesus was the lamb of god and went around the world for three years sending his message to others implying them not to do harm. When the little boy grew up to be a businessman, “he began to wonder about Jesus [again],” in a different aspect than before. The businessman knew that great successful businessmen inspire enthusiasm and build great organizations, Jesus Christ already established the greatest organization above anyone else. The businessman now waited to see if anyone would write a novel about Jesus Christ, an individual who knew him personally. In the businessman’s mind, he would treat Jesus Christ as an individual he never heard of before. The businessman had no faith in Jesus Christ, but was interested in making money off a character he thinks is weak, and grabbed twelve individuals from the bottom of the chain and built the greatest organization people praised him love and forgiveness. Nobody wrote the book so the businessman wrote the book

No, no, the husbands were quick to answer and even quicker to do their duty” (Walker, 1970). This example illustrates the time frame from which this story was written. The author also describes the weather as being not much above zero outside, so this story takes place during the cold winter months. After being thrown out of the church the setting shifts to the highway. “When they passed her house, forlourn and sagging, weather-beaten and patched, by the side of the road, she did not even notice it, she was so happy to be out walking along the highway with Jesus, she broke the silence once more to tell Jesus how glad she was that he had come, how she had often looked at his picture hanging on her wall (she hoped he didn’t know she had stolen it) over her bed, and how she had never expected to see him down here in person” (Walker, 1970).

In our Gospel reading Jesus retreats to a Gentile area where he thought he would be anonymous, and no doubt Jesus was weary of preaching to people who did not listen; but, on this retreat, he was approached by a woman, and not just any woman. She was a Syrophonecian Gentile woman who probably worshiped Greek gods; yet, she goes to Jesus knowing what Jews of those days thought of her. She is desperate; she needs help; she presents her case to Jesus (Mark 7:24-30).

Then the angels told them to not be afraid, that he knew the purpose of their coming was to seek the crucified Jesus and asked, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” The angels reminded them that Jesus told them when He was in Galilee that He must be delivered to sinful men, be crucified, and would rise again on the third day. Then the two angels told the women to not be afraid, that he knew the purpose of why they were at the grave, that the Lord is no longer there, but they could come and see where He laid. The women went into the tomb, saw a man sitting on the right in a long white garment. These frightened ladies were told not to be afraid, to go speedily, tell His disciples that Jesus is risen from the dead and goes before them into Galilee, and would see Him there (Matthew 28:5-7; Luke

Jesus is stripped of his clothing in public in order to embarrass and ridicule him in front of his followers

Pharisees as teachers associated with different practices of different Jewish teachings of Torah, oral traditions, deriving the Jewish Bible, and the Christian Old Testament that lead into an acceptable sect that survived. The destruction of the temple in 70 CE brought about Jewish sect that ended the diversity among the Jews. As a result, the Pharisees were one to survive. Their leadership led to new customs as they found a new identity and standards through: Judaism having exile apart from the land and the temple, they already had their importance settle within the new traditions, and finally, they were in charge to set new customs of Jewish life.

It also follows the story of Nicodemus who came to Jesus in the night and was taught about being born again. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and was referred to as “a ruler of the Jews”(he was a member of the Sanhedrin). Whereas, the woman was just that, a woman, without a husband and a Samaritan––who were even more despised by the Jews. She went to get water at the well in the middle of the day when it was the hottest because that’s when no one else would be there. She met Jesus when it was light, whereas, Nicodemus came in the night. Both were alone with Jesus, but Nicodemus went in the night to hide because he was ashamed of being seen with Jesus. The woman had no intention of hiding, in fact she didn’t even know who Jesus was.

There was a town in Asia with a large Jewish population. There was one christian school opened up for the Christians to send their children to and it was located in a jewish ghetto. “Where there were Jews, supported by the Crown for the foul lucre of their usury.” (Chaucer 170) A widow’s seven year old son attended this school. He was extremely devoted to his faith. One day the widow’s son was walking home from school singing Alma redemptoris, a song giving praise to Virgin Mary, this made the jews in the city very angry. They were so enraged that they hired someone to murder the boy by slitting his throat and then throwing his body into a cesspit. “Down a dark alley-way they found and hired a murderer owned that secret place.” (Chaucer 173) The boy’s mother looked all night for her son and she begged the Jews to tell her where he is. The jews refused to help the widow. “This wretched widow waited all that night, she waited for her child but all for nought.” (Chaucer 173) Then Jesus gave her the idea to sing in the same place where her son had been thrown into the pit. She sang out to her missing son and, even though his throat was slit, the boy started to sing the Alma redemptoris. The other

Jesus' decision to physically cast out the moneylenders from the temple stands as one of the most interesting events of his life, because it represents what seems to be the only moment in the Gospel narratives where he becomes visibly angry to the point of physical action. While one could argue that Jesus is frequently (and justifiably) angry with the disciples from time to time, this is the only moment that Jesus' anger moves him to physical force. Although the event is recorded in all four of the Gospels, this study will focus specifically on its rendering in Matthew, because when considered in the context of Matthew's larger narrative, one can see how Jesus' decision to cleanse the temple does not represent an aberration in either his character or theological message, but rather the natural culmination of Jesus' life and works prior to that point, and demonstrates a kind of revolutionary, anti-authoritarian element of Jesus' message of salvation that is all too often overlooked by Christians and critics alike.

Apparently there are some conflicting views by scholars as to who had more influence; The Pharisees or the Sadducees. (Green and McDonald 218-219). The people who believe that the Pharisees had the most influence say that it was because of all the support they got from the people. They were also very popular because they were very accurate interpreters of the law.

By physically seeing Jesus, it gave her an even stronger conformation that the experiences were valid and not from her imagination. The beauty was too indescribable not to be genuine. When she was questioned, she defended herself by saying,

Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words will bear witness to what I have done.” (Jesus leaves the stage) Leper: (runs over to show the townspeople and then runs out into the crowd of children and dances all around, raises his pants up, and his sleeves up, showing everyone as he shouts) “CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN, Jesus has made me Clean. I am Clean! (Runs down center of room and leave the room as he is shouting) Thank You Jesus, Thank You

During biblical times, Pharisees have served different roles in society. Many scholars have classified Pharisees as a political leadership group, an association or a sect, and religious scholars.

When you are reading the parable about The Lost Coin for the first time, the meaning of it might look like that to you. The woman had 10 coins and she lost one them she tried to find it really hard, she spend a lot of time searching for it with the lamp and when she finally found the coin she was so happy. She is so poor and god helped her to find it. “God is a good person because he helps poor people “ might be your conclusion. Yes the God is good. But the main topic, main idea, of the parable is deeply inside. By the character of a woman Jesus meant himself. By the lost coin he meant a lost person or sinner. The friends and neighbors were probably mentioned there as an Angels. The main thing there is the house: “very dark, lit only by one circular 18 inch window. The floor was packed dirt, covered by dry reeds and rushes.”2 that represents the Earth. From the Bible we can see that the lamp was needed to search for a small coin in the house, even in the daytime. That means that Jesus needed “something” to search, for “lost people”, something bright and important like fire. And that something had to be the Kingdom of Good. In the old days the coin that the woman lost was called drachma, which was equal to the Roman denarius, and worth about 20 cents today. However, it had the purchasing power of about