Parable Documentation

1. Understand the main characters and try to understand what they stand for or what they are fighting for. Think about all the characters and find out what they mean.

2. Find problems in society and address the economic problem. Find out what the social ladder is and what's wrong with it.

3. Try to address the Conflict and figure out how it relates to an outside problem.

4. Read earlier sections to get a background story and find out who Jesus is talking about.

5. Understand symbols and try to find out hidden messages in the story. For example in the parable of the tenant farmers there is a bush outside of the houses and it represents that the owner is Jewish. Look deeper in the parable, What's REALLY going on??

6. Find out how parable can affect me? How does it relate to my life?

7. Put all the pieces together to find the meaning behind the parable.

1. The steward was a retainer who represented his master and acted on his behalf. Stewards could not be prosecuted for wrongdoings but he could be dismissed. The rich master is a local Jewish aristocrat who owned many acres of land. He serves as the example that later proves that two things cannot be trusted in such as God and money. The two together, rich master and steward, show an example of good and bad because the steward is being generous in cutting people's debt and the master shows that he can be greedy by not thinking about the debtors in a kind generous way but only as a means to get his money.

2. The problems in society in the parable is that people are greedy and how people can be dishonest to save themselves and not get into trouble. The steward can be an example of another problem because he is being selfish because he does not think about his master's viewpoint on his decision to cut down the debt. He is thinking only to save himself and see if he can keep his job. The social ladder has wealthy people on top and lower people looking up to the wealthy people for help. They are looked at as kings because of the money and power they have. This is a problem because it's a system, the powerful stay in power "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer".

3. The conflict is that the steward cannot be trusted handling the master's money and this creates trust issues between them and is the reason why the steward almost loses his job.

4. Society is made up of the elite class, middle class, and the lower class during this story and the poor people look up to the rich. They are ruled by more powerful people and it is a chain that ultimately is ruled by a king.

5. Society is a symbol in the story and is represented by each character. richmaster/upper class. Steward/middle class. Debtors/lower class.

6. The parable can relate to my life because I've done dishonest things to save myself before and other people have dishonest things to me to save themselves as well. It's something I've experienced except the result was not the same. I felt betrayed instead of forgiving and it didn't turn into a win/win/win situation like in the story.

7. After all the pieces are put together the story is about how we should be trustworthy with God's teachings and even though the dishonest behavior is not good, achieving the end result is what we should try and do in our own lives.