ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the parable itself from a fresh standpoint with a focus on joy and a reconciled community. From another angle, it elaborates the theme of unreconciled humanity and the reconciling ('saving') justice of God's shalom. The aspects of joy and community are relevant for educational and spiritual practice, for both the 'educational ethos' of a school and the 'spirituality' of church life. The spirit of Christians in educating children and young should be the joyful spirit of the gospel. To explain how to deal with the parable with young children, the chapter discusses hermeneutical methods and empirical data and then applies the elementarizing approach. Further, it draws on the Tubingen empirical investigation of lessons in religious education (RE) with children aged 10 to 12, who among other topics were confronted with exactly the parable discussed.
