Abstract:
The parables told by Jesus the Galilean, when read from a realistic perspective, can be
seen as a window to the exploitative socio-economic, political, and religious situation
of the peasantry in first-century Roman Palestine. The Galilean’s parables picture this
exploitative world, and also speak of ways to address the societal ills of his day. In an
agrarian world, land meant life. For most of the peasantry, however, this was not the
case anymore. In reaction to this situation, Jesus proclaimed the possibility of a world
in which the land, especially its produce, belongs to everyone. This world he called
the kingdom of God, a different kind of world, a world ruled by God’s generosity and
goodness. In this world, everybody has enough.
