This week our parable is found in Matthew 18:23 – 34. Jesus just completed his discourse about the value and treatment of his children with one more caution applied to our relationship with fellow believers who sin against us. As we deal with straying believers (Matthew 18:15 – 20), we may be tempted to become merciless toward them, especially when they sin against us. In abandoning mercy, we forget that the Father has shown us great mercy. In this regard, we are no better than our sinning fellow believers. Jesus illustrated through a parable the attitude we are to display toward those who are “indebted” to us in their sins against us. It is an attitude that he displayed lavishly toward us, and we are to imitate this attitude in our relationship with others.
Forgiving our sinning brothers and sisters is a part of our duty toward God’s children, just as it is our duty to pursue them for restoration to righteousness. To fail to forgive fellow believers is to abuse God’s children, and so incur the Father’s wrath. Forgiveness is a foundational characteristic of the family of God.
In the two verses before this weeks’ parable, Peter, speaking for the twelve, asked a question that could have easily could have been sprung out of Jesus’ teaching on church discipline (Matthew 18:15 – 20). Peter may have wondered how long he should forgive his sinning brother before casting him out of the church, especially when the sin was against him personally. According to some Jewish tradition, a brother was forgiven three times for the same offense. The fourth offense, however, need not be forgiven, because it would be evidence that the brother had not repented. Peter thought he was being generous in forgiving up to seven times.
But what Jesus showed Peter, even in his “generosity,” was thinking in human thoughts, not the thoughts of God. There is some debate over whether Jesus’ response should read “seventy times seven (490) or seventy-seven, but the exact number is not important. The numbers involved are presented for emphasis only. “Keep on forgiving endlessly; do not carry a grudge” is what Jesus is saying.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
It was not uncommon for servants and indebted free men to be sold as slaves to cover debts they could not pay. In Israel, these slaves were freed every fiftieth year, in the year of Jubilee, in accordance with the Mosaic Law. In some cultures, even their families and possessions were sold if the debtor did not bring enough money to cover the debt. Such was the case with a certain servant of this king. He owed an astronomical amount. No free laborer, let alone a slave, could ever hope to repay this amount in a thousand life times.
The servant fell on his knees, displaying humility and desperation and casting himself on the mercy of the master. The servant’s plea for patience and his promise to pay everything back were so unrealistic that they could only be words of a desperate man. His promise might be compared with a factory worker today pledging to pay off the national debt of the United States by himself. It could not be done.
It is important to keep in mind that we are not dealing with forensic forgiveness (justification, salvation), but family forgiveness. This deals with sin committed since entering into the family of the king. The issue is a brother-to-brother forgiveness.
The servant’s master felt his heart going out to the man. He took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. The servant was undeserving, but the king acted with mercy (withholding punishment that was deserved) and grace (giving a great gift that was not deserved).
It should also be among brothers and sisters in God’s family. All of a Christian’s sins are forgiven and forgotten forever. What this parable reinforces is the Christian’s duty to forgive others in the same way he has been forgiven. The entire passage addresses forgiveness within the family of God.
In verse 28, the word but contrasts the first servant and his relationship with a second servant. The two were alike in only one way, the debt each owed gave the creditor power over the debtor’s life. But in every other respect, the situations were opposites, highlighting the contrast between the first servant and the king. The first servant had not understood family principles, but he was about to learn.
The amount the second servant owed the first was insignificant when compared with the debt the first servant had just been forgiven. The first servant owed more than half a million times as much to the king! Rather than imitating the mercy of the king, the first servant mistreated the second servant (began to choke him) and demanded repayment of the debt.
The second servant’s debt to the first was insignificant. It would take some time for any of us to pay more than a quarter of our annual earnings while also paying for daily living expenses. The debt was substantial, and the first servant was certainly entitled to what he was owed.
Similarly, when a brother offends us, it is logical to think that we are entitled to just compensate. There is legitimate restitution, but what we forget, when we fail to release a brother from an offense by forgiving him, is that relationships in the family of God go beyond strict justice. God himself started the pattern by forgiving us a debt we could never hope to repay. This should cause us to forgive others for good reason; we now belong to him. Jesus essentially bought back (redeemed) our life.
The actions and words of the second servant were almost identical to those of the first servant. The servant also fell to his knees in humility, asking for patience and offering to repay the debt. But the first servant refused to give the second servant a chance to repay the debt.
We tend to forget our King’s grace, often refusing to forgive even the most trifling of offenses against us. Such behavior among God’s family is infantile. It is time for us to grow up! When we refuse to forgive our brothers, we hold punishment over their heads, and they are affected by our decision. But the person who is truly imprisoned is the one who refuses to forgive. Log-term bitterness is a grinding burden.
The other servants of the household recognized the cruelty of the first servant toward the second. This grieved them deeply. How deeply do we grieve when we see bitterness and grudges between fellow believers? Such discord in the family of God causes great sorrow for the Father. These servants told, which means it was explained in complete detail. These servants reported the matter to the king.
The angry king brought back the first servant, this time to bring him to account for failing to follow the merciful king’s example. God the Father values his children for different reasons. Like this king, the Father does not want any of his children harmed or taken out of his service through mistreatment by others.
We will answer to the father for our stewardship of the relationships he has entrusted to us, especially those with other children in his family. Keep in view here the Father’s zealous oversight of his “little one” earlier in Matthew 18. He is protective of all his children, sin and all, and this includes mistreatment from other children in the family.
The king was so angry at the first servant’s mistreatment of the second that he rescinded his previous order to release the first servant and forgive his debt. He imprisoned the servant and turned him over to the jailers to be tortured. The parable reveals the anger of the king and his refusal to tolerate an arrogant lack of forgiveness among his family. But please notice that there is nothing said here about eternal damnation. These are family issues. Family forgiveness restores what was lost (relational intimacy) and is unrelated to what can never be lost (imputed righteousness and therefore eternal salvation).