DP #9: This is a for shit answer. Sorry!

Jesus is telling God, or the Householder (the cornerstone of the parable), that his power and Kingdom will be reassigned. The Householder's Son is seen as Jesus who stands before the Jewish people, priests, elders, and scribes who used their power to accept him for their own benefit; they are represented by the tenants. Jesus was crucified by these people who had been fully trusted to perform faith and respect to God as the son in the parable was and thus God's authority was taken from the hands of the Jewish people and placed before the Christians. The parable foresees this and serves as a warning to God (and to Jesus' people) that lack of respect and extreme violence is to come.

DP #8: And The Protagonist Is...

Mark twelve's Parable of the Tenants exhibits a protagonist who trusts that people will do the right thing and execute just behavior: the landowner embodies Jesus' message. As the character whose needs begin and end the story, the landowner seeks justice for the greed of the tenants and due to his power (and the power of the cheering audience), he rightfully gets it. Not only is the message of self-proclaimed justice provoked by the man, honesty and faith is shown when he rents land in his name out. Jesus' message, that faith isn't all and won't occur without a struggle, is displayed by the good guy, the landowner, and this makes him the protagonist.

DP #7: Mustard Seeds are EVIL!!!! :)

Jesus' comparison of the mustard seed to the Kingdom of God explains that though being a part of God's empire is more difficult than living absent from it, it's impossible to escape. To farmers, the mustard seed is a major threat, an extreme challenge they must face or overcome resulting of riches or lack there of; the Kingdom of God is a moral challenge whose battle is seemingly easy to win. Jesus was trying to communicate to the farmers that the power of the Kingdom of God takes over contagiously as the seeds do to their crops. Considering the fact that a metaphor is not meant to explain the whole part of a notion but explain in depth a specific part of it, Jesus' comparison is meant to describe the power and wealth of the Kingdom of God to the farmers in a language they might better understand.

DP #6: Blind Eye on Poverty

Clearly many arguments can be made as to why there is extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa but one which holds much truth is that of government corruption. The lack of leadership and fundamental responsibility in all deficient countries is an issue but is especially in Africa: it propelled conflict in the Niger Delta because officials turned their backs when the leaders of the Delta armed their criminal gangs and thus were able to sway the 2003 elections a great deal and is the cause of daily rapes and murders in the Congo. The United States' not-so-wonderful leadership is also becoming an enabler by being co-dependant to corrupt African governments and not rightfully participating in global efforts to change the current statistics. It might not be presumptuous to say that with new leadership, less than 1.5 billion people would be living on $1 a day; however the Levite and Priest never stopped so who is to say the crooked leaders ever will?

DP #5: American Priest, Global Samaritan

As the parable indirectly dictates by choosing a Priest and Levite to ignore the dying naked man and a Samaritan to give him aid, the list of first world countries giving global donations explains more about the U.S. in relation to the other countries than it directly tells. When looked at in depth, at least the first five countries (Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark) on the list of twenty-two do not have, or are trying to reduce, a separation of church and state, boosting monotheistic (and dominately Bible-reading) religions. Also, the United States is the only country on the chart that does not practice socialized/universal healthcare, the only country able to see but not actually see. The U.S. places so low on the list because with a lack of practicing religions (or simply money-minded ones) and a health care program which demonstrates a "tribal ethic," our culture speaks to us: the homeless man is only sleeping; we fail to see human as human or to live with the lesson The Good Samaritan taught, "to be human is to respond to the sufferings of others with compassion."