Matthew 18:23-25 is our scripture portion today. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, I hope you’ve read through it. Here is the story in my own words, as I may have taught it to children or young teens many years ago.
Jesus said that the Kingdom of heaven was like a King who decided to settle up accounts with his slaves. Now, keep in mind that this a a kingdom parable, not a church parable, so that makes a difference in how the story is told and applied. It is always a mistake to try to make a kingdom parable into a church parable. They are not the same thing.
Anyway, the king called in a man who owed him a debt of ten thousand talents. That’s a lot of money; it’s hard to estimate in today’s terms, because there would need to be some adjustments made for all kinds of things I don’t understand. Most of the sources I read say that it would be as much as three TRILLION dollars in today’s U.S. exchange. Such a large amount seems to indicate that it was a debt that the King already knew was impossible for his servant to pay. It would be like our saying we owed a bazillion dollars in taxes. A little hyperbole going on there.
The point isn’t the size of the debt in dollars and cents. The point is that the servant, no matter what he did, could never hope to repay such a debt. He knew it, and the king knew it. The king had already decided to forgive the man’s debt completely, but he waited until the servant asked for mercy. The servant fell on his knees before the king, pleading and crying, and begged for the king’s patience. He promised that if the king would only give him time, he would repay the whole debt.
See, back in those days, if you couldn’t repay your debt you could be sent to prison; worse, you could be tortured or killed. The king wasn’t willing for that to happen, and of course the servant wasn’t crazy about the idea, either!
The king had compassion on the servant, set him free, and completely forgave him the debt. He no longer had to pay it, and he was free to go.
Did he go on his way rejoicing at the kindness and mercy of the king? Was he thankful? Did that experience make him more merciful to others?
Well, here’s what happened next. No sooner did that servant leave the king’s palace than he ran into another man who owed him some money–a much smaller amount. One hundred denarii would be roughly equivalent to $2000 in America today. Not a terrible debt, but still, the man who owed it couldn’t pay it all. But the first servant was not as kind as the king. He grabbed the second man by the throat, demanding that he pay what he owed.
“But, please,” said the second man, falling to his knees at the feet of the first, “I don’t have that much money. Please have mercy on me and I will pay you all that I owe!”
“Nope! Can’t do it! said the first man, full of self-righteousness and indignation. He had the second man thrown into prison until the debt was paid.
I have no idea how someone in prison was supposed to pay a debt. I imagine he would try to contact friends and relatives to raise the money, but it would have been very difficult.
There were some other men who saw what had happened, and they also knew that the king had forgiven the first servant. They were appalled that the first servant hadn’t learned a thing about giving forgiveness, but only about receiving it. They went back to the king and told him what they had witnessed. The king wasn’t too happy either. He sent for the first servant.
“I forgave you all that you owed me, you wicked man! The least you could have done was to forgive this poor man who owed you very little in comparison to what you owed me, and yet you refused to show him any mercy at all. Because you could not forgive him, neither can I forgive you.” Turning away from the servant, the king said these terrible words: “Take him away to prison, you guards, and have him tortured until he repays me all that he owes!”
When Jesus finished telling His story, He looked intently at the disciples, who had all become as still as could be. “This is what My heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse from your hears to forgive every brother who has offended you.”
So how important is it that we forgive others? We cannot place too much importance on learning to forgive. Refusing to forgive makes us bitter, ugly in our spirits, and full of anger. If we do not forgive others, then God cannot forgive us.
You see, the king has provided a Way for all of us to be forgiven. We cannot pay the debt we owe Him for our sin, yet He loves us and gave His Son to be the payment for our sin. He is waiting for us to seek mercy, and when we do He will forgive us completely. We need to learn to forgive others because God has freely forgiven us.
It just isn’t worth it to refuse to forgive. No one benefits. Everyone loses.
Linda's Bible Study 