What happens when 21st century Americans hear the stories Jesus told to first century Jewish peasants? We often hear it through the filter of our own cultural assumptions, values, beliefs, and ideas. Imagine that you are a 1st century Galilean peasant farmer sitting on the side of the Mount of Beatitudes when the Parable of the Talents was told. Would Jesus’s parable sound different than it does when you listen with 21st century American ears?

Spoiler alert: Yes.