An increasingly belligerent Jesus this week called the Pharisees and chief priests "hypocrites", "snakes" and "a brood of vipers". In his most provocative address to date, he told a crowd "do not do as they do. They don't practise what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on people's backs and then won't lift a finger to help the poor devils they burden like that.
"Everything they do is for show. They love their fancy clothes and to sit at the top places in the synagogue or at functions. They love their status and to be greeted in the street with respect and to have people call them `rabbi'.
"Don't call them `rabbi'. You have only one master. Apart from him you are all equal. And don't call anyone on earth `father'. You have only one spiritual father and he is in Heaven. The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
"Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs. Beautiful to look at but full of rotteness inside. You snakes! You brood of vipers!" He continued like that for 45 minutes.
When it was put to him that he was being unnecessarily provocative and that what he said was likely to cause great anger and offence, he said: "Do you think I have come to bring peace? I am telling you now I have come to bring division . . . father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother . . ."
Annoyed at the tendency of the Pharisees to stick rigidly to the letter of the law, whatever the circumstances, he said to the crowd "when you see a cloud in the west, immediately you say `it's going to rain', and it does. And when the wind blows from the south, you say `it's going to be hot', and it is. You know how to read the sky. How is it you cannot read the times? Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right?" he asked them. And they were silent.
Last Saturday he had a vigorous encounter with a group of Pharisees not far from Jerusalem. He was speaking in a synagogue when he saw a woman bent double. She had been crippled for 18 years. He put his hands on her and immediately her back straightened.
The man in charge of the synagogue was furious. "There are six days for work. She could have been healed on any of those six and not today, the Sabbath." Jesus was enraged. "Don't you untie your donkey on the Sabbath and bring him to water for a drink? Then why shouldn't this woman, a human being just like you, be healed on the Sabbath?" This was met with sullen silence.
Later in the day he healed a man suffering from dropsy. This incident took place at the home of a Pharisee who was friendly towards Jesus. He had warned the preacher to leave the area as King Herod wanted to kill him.
Jesus responded: "Tell that old fox I will continue to heal people today, tomorrow, and the day after, and for as long as needs be, whatever he thinks."
But other Pharisees at the house were offended that Jesus should heal people on the Sabbath. "Is it right to heal on the Sabbath or isn't it?" they asked him, knowing the correct answer.
Jesus replied: "If one of you had a son or a beast fall into a drain on the Sabbath, would you leave it there until the following day? Wouldn't you pull him out immediately?" And they were silent again.
He noticed them rush to the top places at the dinner table. He said: "Don't do that. Don't take the top place when invited to dinner. You might be asked to give it up, for someone else. Then you'll be humiliated. Take the lowest place. More than likely your host will say, `Hey, don't sit down there. Come on up here' and you'll be moved to a better place."
Later that evening he stood on a hill overlooking Jerusalem in the distance below. He said: "Jerusalem, O Jerusalem. You kill the good and those sent to help you. How many times I would have loved to gather your people together in a warm embrace, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you will not see me again until you say `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'." And no one knew what he was talking about.