“In our society, prejudice causes just as many problems as it did in Jesus day. It can take as much courage to overcome it today as it did then."

only collecting the money the Romans told them to but also a handsome sum for themselves. The tax collectors were employed by the Romans to collect extortionate sums of money from Jews who could not afford to pay up. The tax collectors made the Jewish citizens pay even more. Most tax collectors were fraudsters but even the few who weren't were still prejudiced against by the Jews. The tax collectors were viewed as traitors to the Jewish cause and treated w In Jesus’ time Lepers were prejudiced against by Jews and Gentiles. They were treated as outcasts and made to live in the countryside. At the time leprosy was believed to have been a punishment from God for the sins of the diseased person’s forefathers. Lame and poor people had no future in Jesus’ time. They were sat outside the temple begging for money, the rich people who went to worship scorned the beggars and were prejudiced against them. The rich thought the beggars were not worthy enough to be in the same place as them. During this period of time, the relationship between Jews and Gentiles was not good. They were prejudiced against each other and hated being in each other’s company.         In Luke 21: 1-4 we read about Jesus watching people dropping their gifts in the temple treasury. He saw many rich people donating huge sums of money and then He watched as one poor widow gave two small copper coins. Then Jesus said  to the people in the temple, “I tell you that this poor widow put in more than all the others. For the others offered their gifts from what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, gave all she had to live on.” All the rich people would have been looking upon this woman with scorn when they saw all she was giving, so they were prejudiced against her for being poor. Jesus was courageous by standing up and telling everyone in the temple what he thought because he risked getting abuse from the rich. The rich may even have got heavy handed with Him and thrown him out of the temple.          Greg Calvin 11R Mrs Caskey RE