The Pharisee

It has legitimately been a very long time since I have written anything of a fictitious nature. (I really do need to start using words that express my education level), but tonight at church, we were reading the passages of Scripture pertaining to Palm Sunday, and our pastor had asked us, what if we were one of the characters in that passage, and mine was the Pharisee, so I had to think about it for a minute, and I came to the conclusion that this would make an incredible story. It's a short story mind you, but it's still a story none-the-less...I hope you enjoy it.

THE PHARISEE by Joel Freeman

Part 1) Palm Sunday...

It's just another one of those days, it's not too extravagant. I get to go into the temple court and rub it in people's faces that I'm better than they are. I have the best job ever, I get to sit around and do nothing all day long, maybe the occasional book or two, but I have been well read for years on the Torah, and people know it. I joined the Sanhedrin at like the youngest age imaginable. Just 26 years old and nobody seems to notice. I'm tall for my age, and I am starting to gray in my hair, but my nature is striking enough and I seem to have that viper-like whit that the old guys were looking for. Having just been married, my wife and i are gaining influence in our community. My wife has been running a business in our home. We made a great deal with some Roman Centurions and bought goats. My wife has always wanted goats, and we have a business selling milk and cheese. I am trying to do the best I can in life, and i feel getting to this prestigious position, I feel I am making it count.

Today I hear a commotion outside. I was in my chambers, and I run outside. There is a crowd. I yell when i realize that some young kids are cutting off palm branches from my tree, right outside my window. I scold the kids, and take them to their parents, who are also out in the streets amidst the commotion. That's when I see him. This yutz of a Rabbi, people call Jesus. I just don't get it. "There goes my powers and influence" I say to myself, as Jesus walks on by with his disciples. HOSANNA, they keep on shouting over and over again. I am in disbelief. They are all blind, I say to myself.


Part 2) 1 YEAR LATER...

I had had enough. I walked out the front door of the temple and threw my robes down on the ground. I spit on the ground, as the officials cast me out. Oh wait, no this wasn't a year ago, this was later than that. Maybe like less than that, but here's the deal. I saw him. I saw him alive, and I knew the truth about him. Jesus, that Rabbi everyone kept telling me about, you know the guy I called a yutz, yeah him. Anyway, I was filing papers in the records room, and I overheard a conversation in the main chambers. The high priests had these 2 centurions in front of him, and I notice that each of them have these huge sacks of gold. He said, "tell no one". Tell no one what? I imagine and try to think of what could possibly be so secretive. Then it hit me, I found the prophecy scroll that the head honcho guy had asked me to get for him, and then I read it. The messiah would rise after 3 days. It was just 3 days ago that Jesus died, and then I realize that it was him. It was Jesus.

I left to go find the proof, and sure enough I start running into people who claim to have seen Jesus alive. I see more and more of them. I don't want to believe it at first, really, I mean who wants to go with what the crazies are believing, but it becomes increasingly hard. Soon enough, I am back home, helping my wife sell cheeses and all of a sudden, there he is. Jesus himself, and 2 of his disciples with him. I run out to him after they had bought some cheese and I scream, Rabbi forgive my unbelief.

That's how it started, and I am running away from the Sanhedrin for good, a changed person, I have found the fulfillment I am looking for in the Messiah.

10 years later...

Children, Christians and more cheese. We now have cows and goats, making cheeses and selling it to the public. I sold goods and was able to give the money I had earned to some man named Paul, who is going around preaching about Jesus. This is all a result of me going and hearing this incredible news that someone was coming into Jerusalem on that day, so many years ago.



Remember that this is just fiction, but the event really happened. I often wonder if Jesus could have made an impact on a Pharisee besides Paul, but we'd have to ask Jesus when we are standing before him.

GRACE AND PEACE!
HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!

-Joel
Psalm 37:4