Matthew 25:27 - "Then you ought to have invested my money with bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest."

Certainly, I don’t have to acquaint you with the bankers or with their duties or with their very important place in our society and economy. We all know our friendly neighborhood banker, and we have probably had to rely on him more than once to get us through a tight financial bind. Of course, for the privilege of using some of the bank’s money temporarily, we pay a fee. But that’s only to be expected - it’s good business. Nobody puts out something for nothing, right?

Well, that’s the way it is now, but that’s not the way it was in Old Testament times. Jews were forbidden to lend money on interest to other Jews. And, since in early times there was no commerce to speak of in which the Jews engaged, they had no need of bankers. In fact, the profession of banker as such doesn’t seem to have been in existence before the Hellenistic period.

By New Testament times, however, some of these restrictions had been lifted. Loaning money on interest to help people engage in business was not condemned, and banks and bankers were part of the common sense. Even Jesus spoke of them, in the parable from which we have taken our text.

But even there, the concept was not the same as ours is today. We walk into large buildings that somehow seem to convey a sense of power; they are usually majestic, marble-invested shrines to commerce. The bankers themselves are dignified, old-school-tie men, who give the impression of fatherly concern for your troubles.

It wasn’t quite that way in Jesus’ time. The word "banker" comes from a Greek word which means money-changer, and we know what Jesus thought about them! And the word "bank" itself comes from another Greek word which means counter or table, over which money matters were transacted. Rather a different picture, don’t you think?

I’m afraid that we have to admit that the old ways were best, in this case - when Jews were allowed to charge interest on loans, the whole thing blew up right out of control!