Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

J esus continues with teaching through parables, but the next one is a little bit harder for me to understand. Known as the unjust steward, Wikipedia sums up the parable saying, “a steward who is about to be fired curries favor with his master’s debtors by remitting some of their debts.” This is the story of a man who is in charge of his master’s vast fortune. Upon hearing reports that this steward has been shady in his dealings, the master questions the steward and then relieves him of his post. We have to remember that in the ancient world, theft was dealt with swiftly and severely, and because this steward is simply being fired, gotquestions.org suggests that “the master is probably not aware of stewards dishonesty. The steward is being released for apparent mismanagement, not fraud. This explains why he is able to conduct a few more transactions before he is released and why he is not immediately tossed out on the street or executed.” In...

Just as the prodigal son’s money runs out, a famine besieges the land, and the poor kid is screwed. He has no other option so “he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.” Pigs are dirty and stinky, but farm work is nothing to look down at, it isn’t necessarily considered today to be the degrading job that the parable implies that it is. If he were simply a farm hand, then he would have no reason to go back to his father because he would be able to take care of himself, though minimally, and would still be able to resent and rebel against his Hebrew heritage and upbringing. This is why sometimes people only come back after they’ve reached “rock bottom,” it’s the distress, the breaking point that allow people to look at all options to end their suffering, and hopefully, one of those options is turning back to Jesus. But there’s a particular reason that Jesus specified the boy...

The parable of the prodigal son is probably my favorite because I relate to it so much, I truly feel like this is my story. The parable as recorded here in Luke is pretty limited in detail and there is actually a Living Scriptures movie that I had watched many times as a child that put more detail in the situation that helped me understand more. For instance, the parable begins with a man that has two sons, and the younger son says, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.” An article in the National Catholic Register tells us that in ancient Jewish law, the handling of inheritance was strictly regulated. In this case, because there are two sons, the first is to be given a double portion of the estate when the father dies, and the second son is to have the rest, so basically, the older son gets 2/3 of the father’s estate and the second son gets 1/3. It’s perplexing to me that the father would sell off part of...

Continuing on with the theme of searching for lost things, Jesus tells another parable about a woman who had ten silver coins, but lost one. This woman was distraught at having lost the coin and did “light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it.” A Google search for the meaning of this parable gave insight that at the time of Christ, the Greek word for one silver coin was “drachmas” which was the equivalent of a Roman’s daily wage. Having ten drachmas for her would be like having a whole pay check to me, so if I lost 10% of my paycheck, I would be upset. In fact a couple of weeks ago, I thought that I accidentally threw away $60 at work, you know that I went back that night and dug through the trash until I found the empty envelope and finally remembered what I did with it. An article about this parable from the ucg.org says, “Moreover, an expert on ancient Middle Eastern lifestyle says that coin money was not co...

Because I don’t really have a concept of the geography of ancient Israel, it’s hard for me to follow a lot of what’s going on and where, so for instance, when the scriptures say that the “Pharisees” say or do something, I think that it’s the same group of people who have been hassling Jesus this whole time. Apparently, there are different groups of Pharisees who live in different cities, and it’s interesting because these different groups of Pharisees in these different towns all seem to have problems with the same things that Jesus is doing. From the house of the Pharisee where Jesus taught previously, a crowd of “all the publicans and sinners” surround Jesus to hear him teach. Again, I don’t know why the Pharisees think it’s any of their business, but they are not pleased with the company that Jesus keeps, and they let him know saying, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” I think what is so ba...

As Jesus travels from place to place “great multitudes” followed him. The rest of Luke chapter 14, read on it’s own, is totally confusing and really makes me question my ability to understand these concepts. It appears that Jesus turns to the people who are following him and says, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” What? That flies in the face of his previous teachings “honor thy father and mother,” and “love your enemies.” This is an instance where ancient perspective is necessary because honestly, this makes me want to throw the whole book out the window. The Jesus that I know and love has taught me that what JTC says is the truth, “Literal hatred toward one’s family was not specified as a condition of discipleship; indeed a man who indulges hatred or any other evil passion is a subject for...

The Savior’s teaching that the unsavory of society should be treated like human beings was pretty revolutionary and the situation became awkward. JTC suggests that one of the people there at dinner was trying to lighten the mood when saying, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” It makes sense, I can imagine someone breaking an awkward silence with “and that’s what she said!” type of comment trying to make people more comfortable. I did think it was interesting that JTC was perceptive enough to catch that. Like the teachings we studied yesterday, the parable he gives next needs some context before we can understand it more fully. The parable is of a man who makes a feast, just like we talked about yesterday, and the people that he wanted there couldn’t come. So he became angry and instead invited the poor and sick to enjoy the meal with him in their place. This is a difficult parable for me to understand because of context...

The teaching at the house of the Pharisee continues when Jesus teaches “when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” I like the saying that goes something like, “you can tell the character of a person by the way they treat those who can do nothing for them.” I feel like this is a similar teaching by the Savior here. Also, “someone who is nice to you but rude to the waiter is not a good person.” This one really stuck home because I used to be the person who was rude to the waiter. My goal in life has always been to be a good person, and when I heard that I was honestly devastated. I took that hurt as a realization that I couldn’t act like that, and to be fair, I acted that way, not because I had a black heart but because it was a defense mechanism. I look at the way that I used to act and it is a...

The Pharisees that Jesus is having dinner with are in dire need of more counsel from Him, so he continues teaching them with a parable. Jesus is teaching proper manners with a message of humility and not thinking that you are the most important person in the world. A summation of the parable is, when you go to a party, don’t assume that you are the most important person there and sit in the places of honor because you are going to be very embarrassed when someone comes along that is more important to the host and they have to ask you to move so the other person can have the prominent place. Like, don’t sit next to the bride at the wedding reception. He says that it is better to sit in a less prominent place and have the host ask you to come sit with them if they want to, there is less embarrassment in that case. Jesus ends the parable with this lesson, “for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The IM says, ...

I’m a little bit confused because I thought that Jesus had left Jerusalem after the Feast of Dedication was over, but apparently he is still there because he is teaching in and mourning over Jerusalem. One of the Pharisees comes to Jesus and tells him, “Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.” Because most of the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees seem to be based on entrapment, it is difficult to not look for some ulterior motive in the Pharisees’ warning. It is possible though that Jesus was admired by some of the Pharisees, we know that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are both Pharisees and that they are both believers in Jesus, so surely it’s possible for there to be others. Let’s look for a second to see what the Pharisee would gain by warning Jesus and having him flee. Jesus would still be alive and therefore cause a ruckus among members of his party. The Pharisee doesn’t ask Jesus for money to this informatio...

Many of the Jews in Jerusalem were very angry with Jesus for claiming to be the Son of God and tried to stone him to death, but Jesus is not harmed by them and eventually leaves the city. While traveling elsewhere, Jesus is asked, “Lord, are there few that be saved?” I’m not sure if this person is referring to a specific number of people who would be saved like a, “we will only allow 225,000 people into heaven,” like some religions believe, or if it was a more generic question like, “will a lot of people accept the gospel?” or maybe even a “will you only accept the absolute best people into heaven?” Interestingly, this verse is cross-referenced with D&C 121:34 which says, “Behold, there are many called but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?” Jesus is going to give us the answer right here in verse 35, “Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men....