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A Parable

A rich young ruler stood up in the congregation and asked: “Tell us, Master, how are we to manage the world’s oil supply, and to be good stewards?” And the Lord answered him, saying:

“There were once two brothers. Each brother had a wife, had three children, and owned a farm. Together they owned a goldmine. Now, when either brother worked in the mine, he could keep the fruits of his labour for himself and his family.

“The younger brother spent as much time on his farm as he did in the mine, and so, since the farm provided his family’s needs, he was able to save everything he mined. And thus his fortune grew abundantly.

“His elder brother lived in a different manner. He didn’t need to bother farming, he reasoned. The goldmine provided everything his family desired. So he neglected his farm. What livestock he had starved to death; and his fields lay fallow, season after season.

“The elder brother spent every waking hour in the goldmine, and he spent all he mined, not just on what his family needed, but on every luxury imaginable, too. He, his wife, and his children ate the most delicate food money could buy, they were all clothed in the finest of materials, and every floor in their sizable home wore the costliest of Persian rugs. They lived like royalty; everything their eyes desired they bought for themselves, with the gold from the mine.

“Now it came to pass that a famine cast a long shadow across the land, and crops failed everywhere. The oats failed, and the beans failed, and the barley failed, and the animals had no fodder, and so they died. There was much suffering in the land. The only food the people could buy came at great price from far-away lands. The brothers had their goldmine, and so, to begin with, neither they nor their families suffered any want. No matter how expensive food became, they could afford to provide for themselves.

“The younger brother, having lost all his livestock and crops, was now forced to live off what he could mine. But even so, he continued to buy only what his family needed. He was thus still able to save half of what he mined.

“The elder brother changed his manner of living not-a-whit in the face of the famine. He continued to buy the most delicate food, clothe himself and his family in the finest of materials, and furnish his house with Persian rugs of the finest quality. All was paid for with the gold he mined.

“But the famine continued year after year, and the brothers’ goldmine eventually yielded its last ounce of gold. Even so, the younger brother was still able to provide for his family, by spending, little by little, the considerable amount of gold he had amassed before the mine dried up.

“The older brother, however, had spent everything as soon as he had brought it out of the mine. He had no savings, and thus no way of buying food. He tried to sell his rugs, but no one was interested in buying such luxuries in this time of want. He tried to sell his family’s clothes, but no one would think of clothing themselves in such fine materials during the famine. His family began to starve.

“He went to his younger brother and begged him to give him and his family to eat. But his brother answered him, saying, ‘Brother, I have enough for me and mine, but no more besides, for we cannot know how long this famine will last, or when we will again be able to reap from this barren land.’

“So it came to pass that the younger brother and his family thrived, even when the famine was at its worst, and they were able to build up their farm again when it was over; the older brother and his family, however, starved, languished, and died.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

17 December, 12:46 pm ·

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