I’ve got a history with this parable that goes back thirty years. Back when I was in seminary, I took a class called Exegesis and Preaching. Exegesis is a fancy word for interpretation, by the way. It was team-taught by two people. One was Helmut Koester, Helmut is retired now but he was one of the most important New Testament scholars of the day, and Harvard was then clearly the center of New Testament scholarship in the world. The other professor was Peter Gomes. He died a couple of years ago but he was considered one of the best preachers in America. Continue reading →