Then his master summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. [Matthew 18:32-35 (ESV)]
At first, it seems that the “Parable of the Unforgiving Servant” should be called the “Parable of the Forgiven Servant.” After all, the king forgave his servant’s debt of 10,000 talents—the equivalent of billions of dollars. While the first part of the parable illustrates the value and extravagance of God’s forgiveness, it takes a dark turn in the second part when illustrating the reciprocal nature of His forgiveness—something the servant learned the hard way!
After leaving the king, the forgiven servant went to a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii and demanded payment. Representing 100 days’ wages, this was a sizeable sum. Nevertheless, unlike the first servant’s massive debt to the king, it feasibly could be repaid in time. Just as his creditor had done with the king, this servant begged for patience and promised repayment. That the debtor was a fellow servant and an equal didn’t matter to his creditor. Moreover, the money he’d loaned hadn’t even been his—it had been money taken from the king! Unlike the king, however, this unforgiving servant had no mercy and put his debtor in prison until the debt was fully paid!
Wickedly, the unforgiving servant wrongly demanded more from his fellow worker than the king had asked of him. By throwing his debtor into jail, he acted as if he were more worthy of justice and repayment than was the king. Distressed at the man’s hard-heartedness, the other servants reported his behavior to the king. Enraged that his servant had not appreciated the gift of mercy he’d received by forgiving another servant in the way he’d been forgiven, the king sent the unforgiving man to prison to be tortured until his debt was paid.
Before trying too hard to read extra meaning into this parable, let’s put it in context. Peter had just asked Jesus how often he should forgive someone who sinned against him. While Jewish tradition valued forgiveness, the rabbis held that someone would be forgiven for the same transgression only three times. So, when Peter suggested forgiving seven times, the disciple probably thought he was being generous. When Jesus replied that he was to forgive seventy times seven, He wasn’t suggesting keeping count to 490 before quitting. His point was not to keep count at all! After all, if God stopped forgiving us at the 491st time we disrespected our parents, gossiped, lost patience with our children, lied, cursed, or failed to honor His name, we’d be goners! God is holding us to His standard and it was to illustrate the reciprocal nature of forgiveness that Jesus told this story.
If we take a good look at the king’s servant, we see that he never fully understood or appreciated the king’s mercy. When he promised the king that, with patience, he would repay the debt, he was delusional. The debt represented over 164 years of labor without a break! Although repayment was an impossibility, the servant never admitted his inability to pay such an enormous sum. His refusal to release a fellow servant’s debt shows that he neither understood nor appreciated his own forgiveness. The unforgiving man’s punishment makes it clear such unforgiveness is not what our King wants from His servants! He calls us to forgive with a heart of gratitude for the forgiveness that has been given to us. A person who sees the enormity of their own sins and appreciates the largess and forgiveness of his Savior will, in turn, be magnanimous and generous in bestowing forgiveness upon others.
The second servant’s debt was one six-hundred-thousandth of the amount owed by the unforgiving servant. Just as his debt to his co-worker pales in comparison to the unforgiving servant’s debt to the king, whatever wrongs (real or imagined) we have suffered from our fellow servants pale in comparison to the countless ways we sin against our King every day of our lives! Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,” and this parable tells us we are to forgive our debtors as our King has forgiven us!
Like their parents, my youngest grands like to race and recently did this year’s 5K “Hot Chocolate” run. When Paul referred to running, he wasn’t referring to fun runs like theirs or a marathon like the one their parents ran nor were his boxing and wrestling references to the sports we know today. His allusions were to the Panhellenic games and Olympics which were well known throughout the Roman Empire in his day.
Last year, our family rented a lake home in Idaho. Although we never saw our next-door neighbors, we saw their landscaper nearly every day. A robotic lawnmower, it was meticulous about not missing even a small patch of grass on their expansive lawn. About twice the size of our robotic vacuum, this mower puts our little vac to shame. Rather than going in seemingly random circles, it efficiently cut in back-and-forth straight lines. The gizmo never strayed onto the beach, got lost in the shrubbery, banged into lawn furniture, or wandered into our yard! From lakeside to house, it went up and down the slope without slowing down and returned to its charging station when its power ran low. An obedient and hard-working servant, it was on call 24/7 and would have mowed all night if so directed. The mower’s schedule, boundaries, and grass height requirement were controlled by its master’s smartphone! Because that technology came with a hefty price tag, it also came with a built-in-alarm system, GPS theft-tracking, and a pin code.
When the woman joined our group at the table in the school gym, she said, “I got a late start so I was speeding to get here. If a cop stopped me, I was going to tell him I was doing the Lord’s work and, since God will forgive me, he should too.” She insisted that speeding for a godly purpose was a justifiable offense and, since God offers forgiveness, so should the police. Granted, we were doing God’s work by packing meals for the needy but, as the Blues brothers learned when they saved the orphanage, a mission from God is not a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
Saul, a man willing to kill his son rather than concede his error in making a foolish vow, wasn’t quite as eager to fulfill other vows he made. Later, he promised his daughter (along with exemption from taxes and military service) to the man who killed Goliath. While the vow prohibiting his men from eating came from his desire for revenge, this one may have come from fear. It was the king’s job to lead his men into battle and Saul, as the tallest man and the only one with bronze armor like Goliath’s, was the obvious choice to take on the Philistine. Perhaps Saul hoped the promise of wealth, honor, and a place at the king’s table would be incentive enough for someone else to volunteer to face the Philistine. For 40 days Goliath had taunted Israel but there were no takers until David.
In the years following the exiles’ return to Judah and the rebuilding of the Temple, adherence to the Law grew lax. Knowing how to live a Jewish life depended on knowing the commandments of the Torah but the people had drifted away from God and His word and were committing the same sins that got them exiled! More than fifty years after the Temple’s rebuilding, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem. As a priest and teacher of the law, Ezra was shocked to find such disobedience. He tore his clothes and pulled his hair in sorrow before kneeling in prayer. He led the people in prayers of confession and repentance after which they swore a solemn oath to follow the Lord’s commands.
Devotions of the Heart 