DP #8: The Significance of the Insignificant

In the parable of the wicked tenants, Jesus compares the beginning of conflict to a rejected stone, something small and insignificant, undesirable and seemingly useless. At the end of the parable, he says that it is God who makes the stone significant and it is God who makes that stone great, important and relevant, a cornerstone, a beginning of something much larger. The rejected stone is the initial conflict, the single show of disobedience that becomes significant as it snowballs, and it is in this that Jesus says, like the mustard seed, social change will manifest. The change is not immediate, but Jesus makes clear that it is through God that even something we reject easily ourselves becomes significant.

DP #7: (Mis)Reading the Parable of the Wicked Tenants

In order to really understand the parable of the wicked tenants (as with all parables) it is important to read the context and understand that Jesus is talking about the significance of his authority, but even more than that, he is addressing his role as a political activist empowered by the need for change (as he refuses to acknowledge that it is the will of the celestial in Mark 11:33. While both the priests and the modern readers may easily misinterpret the parable as an assertion that the evil tenants, those who kill and harm and exploit an opportunity given to them, it seems clear from the context of Jesus' life as an anti-Roman social activist that he is talking specifically about the Romans. It is the Romans, after all, who came into the land of Israel (or Abraham, or whatever patriarch we choose to name it after) and stole the gifts, killing anyone willing to take out a fair sum for the landlord, who is clearly God. Jesus is foreshadowing his role as the son who falls at the hands of the merciless, spiteworthy tenants (the Romans).

DP #6: The Mustard Seed as an Expression of Potency

Jesus' metaphor for the kingdom of God as a mustard seed has little to do with a caring plant that offers refuge and fruit, and everything to do with a plant that becomes a prominant attribute in the landscape quickly, and quicky overtakes every aspect of one's life, becoming a major characteristic in any individual willing to take part.

DP #5: The Good Samaritan and US Donations to Africa

Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan is not so much a commentary on the nature of humanity, as it pertains to our ability to empathize within the human condition, but rather on the nature of our ability to dehumanize our fellow man in order to justify a behavior that is in our best interest. In Jesus' parable, the Levite and the Priest justify their behavior by seeing the man as less than a neighbor, as less than human, because it is not in their best interest (which is to say, they do not feel that it is beneficial to spend time) to help the man, while the Samaritan sees value in superceding his own need, and while his altruism may not be immediately beneficial, Jesus suggests that it is when it comes time for one to be accepted into everlasting life. By that same token, the US does not give aid to third world countries because it sees that donation as not terribly beneficial, and in order to justify the selfish behavior, we refuse to give a fair share of our income to the programs organized by the United Nations. The behavior, Jesus suggests, is selfish, but it is our own innate morality that requires us to justify our selfishness, while our altruism is the behavior that Jesus finds most beneficial.

DP #4: Foreshadowing In the Canticles of Mary and Zechariah

The canticles of Mary and Zechariah are easily read as statements of frustration with an oppressive society, but it is not simply the advocacy of his family and close friends that foreshadows and, eventually, leads him to be an advocate for political change, it is his own experience. While Jesus' family was oppressed in Palestine and the authors of the Gospel later saw fit to add the canticles to show the political instability, the experience in Jesus' early life as a refugee in Egypt not only foreshadows, but creates, a personal frustration with the state of affairs in his homeland. The fact that he was cast out lead Jesus to attack the nature of the Palestinian politics, Roman Imperialism and Jewish hypocrisy that had lead his family to live in exile, even if it was of their own free will. Jesus' political advocacy comes from a personal grievance, and while some of that may have been instilled through the political stances of his mother, Jesus' ability to attack the structure of the Jewish Temple society with the vigour that he did clearly shows the intensity of his own experience and his personal analysis of the issues, not simply of a hatred for the Roman society.