Harry Jarrett—pastor, former missionary in Italy, wedding-venue founder, ex-Marriott GM—speaks on weaving faith, hospitality, and business into everyday life from Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren.
pastorharryjarrett.substack.com (https://pastorharryjarrett.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
When People Decided Who You Were Before They Met You
Two stories in Luke say Jesus kept overturning verdicts like that, and a closer look at the words on the page changes how we read both of them.
In this sermon from Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia, Pastor Harry Jarrett takes a second look at two stories he has preached more times than he can count: the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears at Simon the Pharisee’s table, and Zacchaeus the tax collector up in the sycamore tree. Read closely, the Greek tells a different story than the one most of us learned. The woman’s sins had already been forgiven before she ever crossed Simon’s threshold; her tears were the thank you, not the payment. Zacchaeus speaks in the present tense: I give, I pay back. He is not turning over a new leaf. He is describing how he already lives, while the crowd below has convicted him on the strength of his uniform alone.
Along the way: the Balm of Gilead trade that made Jericho rich, why Severus Snape fits this story almost exactly, the difference between welcoming someone and including them, and a word for four kinds of people sitting in every church. This message opens our fall series, The Empty Chair.
Scriptures Referenced
Luke 7:36-50 (the woman at Simon the Pharisee’s table)
Luke 19:1-10 (Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree)
Luke 7:1-10 (the centurion’s servant)
Luke 7:29-30 (even the tax collectors acknowledged God’s way was right)
Books Worth Exploring
Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey. Bailey spent decades in the Middle East and reads both Simon’s banquet and the Zacchaeus story through the customs of honor, shame, and hospitality that first hearers would have caught immediately.
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl. The best book I know on the gap between welcoming strangers and truly making room for them, which is where this whole series is headed.
The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV by Joseph A. Fitzmyer (Anchor Yale Bible). The standard scholarly commentary cited in this sermon, including Fitzmyer’s reading of Zacchaeus’ verbs as present tense.
Chapters
00:00 Have we been reading these two stories wrong?
01:17 Why would a Pharisee invite Jesus to dinner?
02:13 Who was the woman at Simon’s table?
03:23 Was she forgiven because she wept?
04:32 What does the parable of the two debtors mean?
05:40 Is forgiveness earned or received?
06:30 Who was Zacchaeus, really?
07:23 Why were Jericho’s tax collectors so hated?
08:27 Why did a rich man climb a tree?
09:28 Was Zacchaeus promising to change?
10:59 What do scholars say about Zacchaeus’ words?
12:17 Why was the crowd really grumbling?
13:05 How is Zacchaeus like Severus Snape?
14:28 Why does Luke put these stories side by side?
15:44 What is the difference between welcoming and including?
17:13 Have you been judged by your reputation?
18:02 Have you been the crowd under the tree?
19:50 What is The Empty Chair series about?
Stay Connected
Church website: https://pleasantvalleyalive.org/
Daily devotional: https://pleasantvalleyalive.org/devotional/ (https://pleasantvalleyalive.org/devotional/)
Substack newsletter:
Faith at Work podcast:
If this helped you see someone (or yourself) a little more clearly, subscribe and stay with us. The Empty Chair runs through the middle of November, with a new message every week.
#Zacchaeus #BibleStories #Sermon #ChurchOfTheBrethren #TheEmptyChair
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15 Sept 2026
What Crucifixion Actually Meant in the Roman Empire
Cicero once tried to describe crucifixion at a Roman trial and stopped mid-sentence, because no word ugly enough existed to finish it. That is the device Paul says holds the power and wisdom of God.
Pastor Harry Jarrett preaches “Christ, the Power and Wisdom of God” from 1 Corinthians 1:18-24 at Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia. Corinth was a city rebuilt around visibility: Jews demanded signs, Greeks sought wisdom, and Paul offered neither, only a man executed by the state. This message traces what crucifixion actually meant in the ancient world, N.T. Wright’s diagnosis that “the trouble is the instrument,” and new research on where Christian trust actually lives today, before landing on a very practical question: what are you still waiting to look strong enough, or sound wise enough, before you will trust it?
SCRIPTURES REFERENCED
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
Deuteronomy 21:23
BOOKS WORTH EXPLORING
N.T. Wright, “The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion”
Martin Hengel, “Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross”
Gordon Fee, “The First Epistle to the Corinthians” (NICNT)
CHAPTERS
00:00 Why Would God Use Someone Like Me?
00:55 What Did My Son Teach Me About Balaam’s Donkey?
01:31 Why Was Corinth Built Around Being Noticed?
02:19 What Were Jews and Greeks Really Shopping For?
02:50 Why Didn’t Paul Give Corinth What It Wanted?
03:25 What Did Crucifixion Actually Mean in the Roman World?
03:57 What Did Cicero Say Was Too Ugly to Describe?
04:26 Why Was the Cross the Empire’s Most Shameful Punishment?
05:11 Who Was Alexamenos and Why Was He Mocked?
05:54 Why Does Paul Call the Cross a Scandal and Foolishness?
07:04 Why Did the Cross Fail the Greek Test for Divinity?
07:40 Why Does Paul Agree the Cross Looks Foolish?
08:24 What Does the Barna Research Reveal About Church Trust?
09:04 What Did N.T. Wright Say the Real Problem Was?
10:14 What Actually Changes in Verse Twenty-Four?
10:59 Have You Ever Trusted Something Strong That Wasn’t?
12:00 Why Invite Someone to an Unfinished Worship in the Grove?
14:21 What Bar Was the Cross Never Trying to Clear?
Church website: https://pleasantvalleyalive.org/
Daily devotional: https://pleasantvalleyalive.org/devotional/
Substack newsletter: https://pastorharryjarrett.substack.com/
If this is your first time here, subscribe for a new message from Pleasant Valley most weeks, and check out the daily devotional for something shorter to carry through your week.
#Sermon #ChurchOfTheBrethren #BibleTeaching #1Corinthians #ChristianFaith #PleasantValleyChurch
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pastorharryjarrett.substack.com/subscribe (https://pastorharryjarrett.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
10 Sept 2026
The Real Reason Your Prayers Feel Empty
Episode description:
A boat lift stuck out of the water in a drought. A cornfield getting more rain than it can use, one week later. Same summer, two desperate prayers, and only one of them was really about the weather.
Pastor Harry Jarrett walks through Psalm 119:33-40, eight verses built almost entirely out of desperate verbs: teach me, lead me, turn me, give me life. Working word by word through the Hebrew behind them (derek, nativ, binah, natah, tsedaqah, ta’avah), Harry asks the question underneath every desperate prayer: are we asking God to fix a circumstance, or are we actually desperate for God himself?
He also gets personal about how fast his own prayers changed this week, desperate for rain, then desperate for it to stop, and what it cost him to notice he was praying to a God he mostly needed for outcomes. Along the way: Henri Nouwen on the spiritual life as movement rather than a destination, and a callback to Moses at the burning bush and the curiosity that put him in the one place God was ready to speak.
If your prayers have started to feel like phone calls to a utility company, this one might ask a harder question first: what are you actually desperate for?
Church website: https://pleasantvalleyalive.org/
Daily devotional: https://pleasantvalleyalive.org/devotional/
Substack newsletter: https://pastorharryjarrett.substack.com/
Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren, Weyers Cave, Virginia
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