Why do we always identify the rich landowner with God? Why do we call his actions acts of benevolence and grace? Why do we always take the side of the rich and the powerful?
And worse, why do we demonize the grumbling day laborers?
A denarius was subsistence wage. It could buy a measure of wheat. One day's worth for one person. Or three measures of barley, enough for three people for one day. Just bread. Nothing else.
During Jesus’s time, half of the population was slowly starving to death. During Jesus’s time 15% of the population were day laborers. They survived from one day to the next.
The Parable is not about God or God's grace. It's about the rich's greed. It's about divide and conquer. It's about taking advantage of those whose only hope is God. It's about the Consunjis, Cojuangcos, Sys, Tans, Gokongweis, and Ayalas of Jesus's time.
It's about the Gospel of the Rich.
Reading the Bible inside a Jeepney: Celebrating Colonized and Occupied Peoples' capacity to beat swords into ploughshares; to transform weapons of mass destruction into instruments of mass celebration; mortar shells into church bells, teargas canisters to flowerpots; rifle barrels into flutes; U.S. Military Army Jeeps into Filipino Mass Transport Jeepneys.
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