A different interpretation of today’s Gospel would have the landowner be a rich, absentee land baron who gobbled up the property of poor people and then hired them and paid them far less than what the market called for. One of the reasons the peasants would have lost their land was due to the exorbitant taxes levied by the Roman Empire. While Jesus was not advocating violence, He told this Sunday’s parable as a way of identifying with the indentured people who saw in Him someone who accepted them as they were and reaffirmed them as God’s beloved. The violence in the story was a symbol warning the Empire and super rich that their brutally possessive and entitled ways would be their downfall. We might ponder how this message speaks to what is going on today.