Apparently, Jesus perceived most of his contemporaries as centered in the finite. In his parables, whose power depends upon the realistic portrayal of typical human behavior, people are concerned to receive what is theirs, undisposed to be generous to others, anxious about losing what they have, and fearful of defilement. In his teaching, he regularly identified four centers as most typically dominant in people’s lives: family, status, possessions, and piety. The last perception is particularly interesting. The heart can center in its own piety, its own holiness or purity, whether one
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