A Parable
A long time ago an uncle, a successful lawyer, looked with pity on his brother living on the family farm. The farmer brother had dropped out of school, and was satisfied to eke out a comfortable living on this very valuable, large piece of property that had huge potential. Pity turned into desire. Desire became a dream. The lawyer began to understand that unless he took over the farm no one would ever appreciate the wealth the farm was capable of producing.
Negotiations didn’t convince the farmer. So the lawyer found a way to legally take control of the family farm, and eventually edged his brother out of any shares in the farm. The lawyer felt fully justified in the knowledge that the uneducated farmer had no idea how to maximize business potential—and didn’t seem to care.
The farmer brother ended up living on a small, severed tract of land given to him by the lawyer brother. There he managed to keep his family alive.
Now, generations later, the children and grandchildren of the lawyer continue to generate great wealth from the family farm. They are Christians, who give generously to the church. They testify regularly how God helps them through periods of drought, and how the rain comes at just the right time. They teach seminars–especially in foreign countries–about how hard work and good farming methods are so very rewarding for the farmers who will make the most of every opportunity–opportunities granted to everyone equally, by God.
These wealthy descendants of the lawyer often try to interact with their cousins of the farmer’s lineage. The successful cousins offer jobs and financial assistance to the needy cousins who descended from the farmer. For reasonable wages, these displaced cousins are also able to feed their families.
All the while, the wealthy cousins offer to share the secrets of their superior intelligence and business acumen. “Absolutely anyone can achieve the same level of wealth and business success, if only they will apply themselves to hard work and pursue their dreams,” they say.
In recent times, the displaced cousins have worked very hard to help their wealthy, farming cousins to remember and acknowledge what happened so long ago to rob them of the land that used to be part of their own heritage, as well.
For the lawyer’s Christian descendants, this is very disturbing. “We didn’t do this. We came about this farm without any sin against you,” they reply to their farmer-descendant cousins. “You must learn to forgive and move on.”
However, a few of the lawyer’s descendants are feeling very badly about the way the story has developed. They ask, “What would Jesus have us do to acknowledge a history of wrongs? What does it look like to work toward reconciliation and justice for all? What is equal opportunity? What do we do with stolen property?”
Their Christian brothers and sisters try to help them think through it: “We can’t undo history. We, ourselves, didn’t wrong anyone. God has obviously been blessing this farm all along. Our wealth is well-deserved. We earned it ‘fair and square’.”
And so, the story develops on the same track as it has for generations. Each set of cousins continue in the path they inherited. They see no way to resolve the awkward and historical wrongs.
If you were born into either one of those family clans, what would you do?