This was a sermon I preached at our church on January 4, 2026. It takes account of the New Year and the fact that we had communion that Sunday (many evangelical churches celebrate the Lord's Supper only once a month). But for many of you my readers, Christian or not, you will be interested in the work I highlight of New Testament scholar Ken Bailey and his work with the parables of Jesus. His parents were Presbyterian missionaries in Egypt and then in Lebanon, which meant that he grew up speaking fluent Arabic. After his degree in Arabic literature and a PhD in New Testament studies, he taught for 40 years in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel (Tantur Ecumenical Institute), and Cyprus. He later did some teaching at Princeton Seminary. My wife and I got to know him when he was living in Cyprus, because he would often come to Jerusalem (Tantur is between Jerusalem and Bethlehem). This was in the 1990s when I was teaching in Arabic at the Bethlehem Bible College.
Bailey is known for his meticulous research into traditional village culture in Middle Eastern villages and into the literary structure of Jesus' teaching. In turns out that Jesus was a great poet and wordsmith. This was part of the reason crowds hung on to his words and so easily memorized him.
This is about the parable that has spilled the most ink: the Parable of the Shrewd Manager. It makes little sense in our Western context, but so much more in traditional village culture of first-century Palestine (the Roman appellation of occupied Israel of the time).