The Twenty-fourth Sunday of Pentecost

The Greatest Person Is the Servant of Others

Matthew 23: 1 - 12

Mark 12: 38 - 40

Luke 11: 37 - 52

Luke 20: 45 - 47

The Pharisees believed that if they not only kept every one of the Old Testament laws, but if they also showed in all their actions that they were keeping the laws, they would become closer to God than anyone else could.

They wore blue and white sashes with tassels around their waists and laced Bible verses around their arms and foreheads with leather straps to show people that they were especially close to God.

Some Pharisees believed that the special way they wore their clothes and their hair and their Bible verses was all that God asked them to do.

But Jesus believed that wise and loving people keep God deep in their hearts, showing that they love God by the way they care for the people he created.

What would our world be like if people only looked at each other's hearts, instead of at their clothes and hair and jewelry? Do some people use fancy clothes to cover a cold heart?

The people who sat in the front in the meeting places or synagogues sat facing the people in the back rows.

1. What did Jesus say about the Pharisees' teaching?

[Jesus said that they said one thing and did something else - they didn't live by their own rules.]

2. Where did the Pharisees like to sit?

[The Pharisees liked the best seats at banquets and to sit in the front in the meeting places.]

3. What should the greatest person do?

[The greatest person should be the servant of others.]

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