Churchwarden and Salesman is based on Luke 18:10-14
People retell this parable a lot and it generally ends up being set in a church – mainly because, for Christians, ‘church’ is shorthand for ‘God will be listening,’ as well as ‘a holy place’. Another place to set the parable might be a cathedral; a place that both very pious and less pious people might end up being together.
The Original Setting
The original setting of this parable is the Temple, in Jerusalem. In Jesus’ time, the Temple was the place where Heaven met Earth; to go to pray in the Temple was to go to pray in the presence of God. The parable doesn’t mention the daily sacrifices, but the original audience would be well aware that the Temple was also where you made sacrifices to God for your sins. That holy Temple was deliberately destroyed by the Romans; the only part that’s survived to modern times is the Western Wall.
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