In the Parable of the
Talents (Matthew 25), Jesus asked the lazy servant,
“Should you not then have put my money in the bank
so that I could have got it back with interest on my
return?” Clearly, interest itself is not sinful.
Jct: That’s why it’s called a parable, so most people
would get it backward. Jesus said the Kingdom of
Heaven was “like” where the master was a loanshark
demanding his usury so everyone assumes that the
master was Jesus and loansharking is okay!
From my
johnturmel.com/poembibl.htm
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS
The parable of Talents in Matt. 25:14,
Depicts a reign where the effects of interest are seen.
"The Kingdom that is Heaven is like where a master takes,
A lengthy leave of absence and for foreign lands he makes.
He calls together servants so his wishes they might learn,
“You put my money to good use until I can return.”
According to ability, five talents to the first,
Two golden talents to the next, one talent to the worst.
The first did well in industry, it doubled with five more,
The next did well in his own way and doubled his to four.
The weakest of the servants knew his master to be hard,
Afraid to lose the gold, he buried it out in the yard.
Years later when the master came, he called them to account,
To settle up their debts they had to meet his due amount.
The first one said “I’ve doubled mine. Here’s ten with interest.”
The master said “You’ve done quite well. To that I will attest.”
The second said “You gave me two and with two more, that’s four.”
The master said “I thank you for increasing so my store.”
The third said “Master, we both know, you reap where you don’t sow,
I buried it and here’s what’s yours. I found it didn’t grow.”
The master said “A lazy servant, I do you regard,
You know I reap where I don’t sow, I am a man who’s hard.
You should have put my money with the bank so that I’d get,
My interest when I returned, a failure you’ll regret.
To those who have abundance will be given even more,
From those without abundance will be taken from their store.
So give his talent to the others who now have a heap,
And throw him into alley where men gnash their teeth and weep.” "
PARABLE OF THE MINAS
The parable of minas in St. Luke 19, 11,
Has servant once again rejecting interest in heaven.
Again, the servant did remit the mina he received,
Again, the master did invoke the law which he believed:
"To those who have abundance will be given even more,
From those without abundance will be taken from their store.
The penalty the servant paid for his audacity.
The master ordered to the guards: “Slay him in front of me.” "
MISINTERPRETATIONS
Because of false interpretations that say he approves,
The taking of the usury, his words still make the news.
That usury’s okay is one interpretation claimed,
The master must be Christ since Heaven is the Kingdom named.
But does this sound like our reward if faith in him we keep?
And who are those in alley where men gnash their teeth and weep?
SHOULD TALENTS MULTIPLY?
Are they the lazy who have met a Christ Lord they should fear?
Has he made punishment for laziness so crystal clear?
Some say our duty is to make our talents multiply.
And so the lazy servant justly was condemned to die.
But if the talents represent the traits of human kind,
How could such talent be transferred to other servant’s mind?
Did servant with the greatest talents who received one more,
Begin to play the other’s flute, begin to write a score?
The physical transferral of the talents must imply,
The talents represent real money. That we can’t deny.
WHAT HEAVEN IS
If you were to be asked what for you would be heavenly?
There’d be no executions and no alleys, certainly…
SERVANTS’ REVOLUTION
But why did servants bury gold when putting it with banks,
Would pay their master’s interest and also gain his thanks?
All that the servants had to do to be the laziest,
Was bank the money and let others pay the interest.
And with this laziest of ways to satisfy the debt,
We must consider what they risked their lives to try to get…
PARABLES ARE REVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY
So interest prevents a heaven here on earth for man,
It is the cause of poverty and death since time began.
These monetary parables transmit the strategy,
That Jesus offered us to use to fight debt slavery:
One gives to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s, all his principal,
But no demand for interest, not even minimal.
This is the revolutionary tactic Christ designed.
It is the tactic that one day a righteous court might find.
In Timothy I, 6 verse 6, though some may say it’s moot,
“The love of money is of many kinds of sin the root.
For those who covet money have been lured right off the trail,
And pierce themselves with many griefs, their lot in life to fail.”
The only reason men love money is because it grows,
Without the need to earn it. It’s a free ride they suppose…
Both servants would not serve the money that they had been lent,
Both suffered punishment as if the money they had been spent.
They could have put it with the banks and caused him no alarm,
But each accepted consequence of doing him no harm.
Note that Jesus’s definition of interest is the most cited quote in scripture, 7 times!
“To those who have abundance will be given even more,
From those without abundance will be taken from their store.”
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. That’s what he was fighting.
