"This royal [Paulino-Lutheran] freedom governs also Jesus’ relation to the drive for profit, which he[, too,] quite obviously considers a behavior consistent with the [(zum . . . gehörendes)] the essence of man. Characteristic in this respect is the Parable of the Talents, in which the rich man rebukes the servant who, having not made a profit on [(mit dem . . . nicht gewuchert hat)] the money entrusted to him, behaves so wholly uncapitalistically, and says to him, 'you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and . . . I should have received what was my own with interest.' Not less characteristic is the fact that Jesus associated with the established [(den Etablierten)] just as much as with the outcast. It was above all [(Erst)] this, that he associated with the former just as unreservedly as with the latter, that was the real provocation [presented by] his behavior (Mt 27:57; Lk 7:36 ff., 11:37, 14:1-14, 19:1 ff.; Mk 14:3 ff)."
Eberhard Jüngel, "Gewinn im Himmel und auf Erden: theologische Bemerkungen zum Streben nach Gewinn," Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 94, no. 4 (Dezember 1997): 551 (532-552). Though this paragraph must be read in the light of those both before and after, the whole of section IV, and indeed the article at large, it is nonetheless a striking one.
