Pharisee: Although he insisted on associating with undesirables, we Pharisees didn’t wash our hands of him entirely… Various friends of mine invited him to their homes… But the rabble even followed their rabbi there… On one occasion a whore came into the banqueting room after the meal and knelt down at the bottom of his couch… She was bawling her eyes out… and with her kisses and her tears she washed his feet, before drying them with her hair and pouring perfume on them… It was disgusting… She was as good as offering herself to him as desert…
Woman 1: It was all I could offer to him… I had used my body to bring relief to men in the past… Some of them were round that table. But then they had paid me… bought me… used and abused me… But he didn’t. He knew what I was… But he said “Her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much.” Until that day I had never known the meaning of love…
Pharisee: How he could let such a woman even touch him was disgusting… But such things happened all the time. Once when he was on his way to heal the daughter of another friend, Jairus, the crowds were all pressing in on him trying to take hold of him… And in the middle of it all he stopped because some woman had touched him… It turned out she had been bleeding for 12 years non-stop…
Woman 2: It was my last chance… I had spent every penny I had on all sorts of quacks to make me well again… I had heard how he had healed others… So even if I couldn’t get him to touch me I was determined I was going to touch him…
Pharisee: It was awful… She was unclean… She shouldn’t even have been out in the crowd… Never mind going out deliberately to touch someone else…
Woman 2: As it was I could only grab the fringe of his robe as he was swept by in the crowd… But he stopped… Because he knew someone had touched him… He turned and looked at me… I thought… He knows… He knows that I am unclean…
Pharisee: Everyone knew… Everyone knew her… Except him… But when he found out… He didn’t care… He was much too casual about those he let near him, and touch him… Never mind those he reached out and touched himself… Sinners and sick people… Even lepers…
Samaritan: He didn’t touch me… Yes, he touched others who had been touched by leprosy… But not me and my friends… We stood at a distance and shouted at him… Asking him to heal us… He simply told us to go, and show ourselves to the priests. We did, and we were clean as a whistle… So although he didn’t actually touch us with his hands he touched us in another way… Even though he was a Jew he had healed me, a Samaritan, of my leprosy. Jews usually treat Samaritans like dirt… and vice versa if truth be told… But here was this Jewish teacher healing me, a Samaritan and a leper… My friends all went back to their families… but I just had to thank him… so I sought him out again and threw myself at his feet…
Woman 1: The others treated me like dirt beneath their feet that they wanted to wash off, so I suppose that is why I thought I would wash his feet...
Woman 2: I told him my story…
Pharisee: But he didn’t tell her off for making him and everyone around her unclean… For delaying him from saving my friend’s daughter.
Woman 2: He simply said to me "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."
Samaritan: He just reached down and said "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
Woman 1: He reached down and raised me up saying "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Pharisee: Faith! Where was their faith? Where was his? What about staying faithful to the law? Staying pure…
Woman 1: It was all I could offer to him… I had used my body to bring relief to men in the past… Some of them were round that table. But then they had paid me… bought me… used and abused me… But he didn’t. He knew what I was… But he said “Her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much.” Until that day I had never known the meaning of love…
Pharisee: How he could let such a woman even touch him was disgusting… But such things happened all the time. Once when he was on his way to heal the daughter of another friend, Jairus, the crowds were all pressing in on him trying to take hold of him… And in the middle of it all he stopped because some woman had touched him… It turned out she had been bleeding for 12 years non-stop…
Woman 2: It was my last chance… I had spent every penny I had on all sorts of quacks to make me well again… I had heard how he had healed others… So even if I couldn’t get him to touch me I was determined I was going to touch him…
Pharisee: It was awful… She was unclean… She shouldn’t even have been out in the crowd… Never mind going out deliberately to touch someone else…
Woman 2: As it was I could only grab the fringe of his robe as he was swept by in the crowd… But he stopped… Because he knew someone had touched him… He turned and looked at me… I thought… He knows… He knows that I am unclean…
Pharisee: Everyone knew… Everyone knew her… Except him… But when he found out… He didn’t care… He was much too casual about those he let near him, and touch him… Never mind those he reached out and touched himself… Sinners and sick people… Even lepers…
Samaritan: He didn’t touch me… Yes, he touched others who had been touched by leprosy… But not me and my friends… We stood at a distance and shouted at him… Asking him to heal us… He simply told us to go, and show ourselves to the priests. We did, and we were clean as a whistle… So although he didn’t actually touch us with his hands he touched us in another way… Even though he was a Jew he had healed me, a Samaritan, of my leprosy. Jews usually treat Samaritans like dirt… and vice versa if truth be told… But here was this Jewish teacher healing me, a Samaritan and a leper… My friends all went back to their families… but I just had to thank him… so I sought him out again and threw myself at his feet…
Woman 1: The others treated me like dirt beneath their feet that they wanted to wash off, so I suppose that is why I thought I would wash his feet...
Woman 2: I told him my story…
Pharisee: But he didn’t tell her off for making him and everyone around her unclean… For delaying him from saving my friend’s daughter.
Woman 2: He simply said to me "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."
Samaritan: He just reached down and said "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
Woman 1: He reached down and raised me up saying "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Pharisee: Faith! Where was their faith? Where was his? What about staying faithful to the law? Staying pure…
An episode of the show "I Witness" written for New Irish Arts and the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland, stage in the Waterfront Hall, September 2003, and adapted for a Healing Service as part of the "Connect" Evangelistic Outreach in Ballybeen in November 2007.
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