When church becomes a club, parables become pedestrian.

If we get the context wrong, we’ll get Jesus wrong as well.

A parable requires no external key to explain what its elements mean; an allegory does.

the Gospel also recognizes two types of disciples, the itinerants who take to the road and the householders who provide them support.

the parable asks: Can we assess what is of ultimate value in our own lives, not simply in terms of relativizing, but in terms of ultimate concern? More,

if Peter, James, and John, even after failing, can find rehabilitation and stay with the program, there’s hope for the rest of us.

With this parable, the allegorical interpretations create yet a third problem. They threaten to turn the kingdom to which the merchant and pearl are compared into a commodity or an obsession. For some readers, the kingdom, like the pearl, can be “bought,” usually through sacrifice; this makes the kingdom a commodity. Others concentrate on the

The kingdom is present when humanity and nature work together, and we do what we were put here to do—to go out on a limb to provide for others, and ourselves as well.

With this parable, the allegorical interpretations create yet a third problem. They threaten to turn the kingdom to which the merchant and pearl are compared into a commodity or an obsession. For some readers, the kingdom, like the pearl, can be “bought,” usually through sacrifice; this makes the kingdom a commodity. Others concentrate on the