power and creativity of his teaching must be the goal of our interpretive work. These are stories with intent, the communicative intent of Jesus.4 Anything else is a rewriting of Jesus’ parables. The ancient church and modern Christians have often rewritten them to create a new intent. I do not seek the intent of the church, a psychologist, a sociologist, a feminist, or any other such rewriting, common as they are. I seek to hear the intent of Jesus to his contemporaries—his disciples and his fellow