Most of us have had some type of debt at some point in our life. We may have had a house mortgage, or perhaps a car loan to pay off, and any other debt was hopefully small and manageable. Imagine if you owed an astronomical amount of money to someone, and you had no way to pay it back. You would be so grateful if that amount was forgiven. It would be a tremendous blessing! In our Scripture today, the Lord Jesus tells His followers a parable about such an instance. Let’s see what He has to say.
As our Scripture opens, Jesus had just finished instructing His disciples on how the Church was to deal with fellow brethren who had fallen into sin. Peter then came to Him asking how often he had to forgive someone who sinned against him, and whether seven times was sufficient (vs. 21-22). In Jewish tradition, forgiving three times was considered generous. By saying seven times, Peter thought he was being extremely generous. Jesus then bursts that little bubble by telling him it should be seventy times seven. He didn’t mean a literal 490 times, and then on the 491st time you could clobber them. Jesus was teaching that forgiveness should be limitless. Just like God’s forgiveness, it should be abundant, undeserved, and continual.
Jesus then told the crowd the parable of the unforgiving servant (vs. 23-34). A king’s servant owed him 10,000 talents. When he couldn’t pay, the king ordered him and his family to be sold until payment was made. When that servant begged for mercy, the king had compassion and forgave the debt. Then that servant went and found a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii and demanded payment. When that servant asked for mercy and promised he would get it paid, the first servant refused, and had him thrown into debtors' prison. When the king found out, he was furious, and had that first servant delivered to the tormentors.
To understand this, we need to be familiar with the two amounts that were owed, what a talent and what a denarius was. A talent was a weight of precious metal, usually silver. One talent equaled 75 pounds of silver. In Biblical times one talent would have been about 20 years salary for a laborer. So 10,000 talents would have been way more than a lifetime’s salary, billions of dollars in today’s money. A denarius was approximately a day’s wage for a common laborer. 100 denarii would be several month’s salary. A goodly sum, but something manageable, and one that should have been able to be worked out between the two servants.
In this parable, the king represents God. The first servant is a sinner forgiven by God, and the other servant is someone who has sinned against us. The massive debt owed the king symbolizes our sin against God, which is infinite in moral weight. The smaller debt symbolizes what others do to us, which is real, but comparatively small. The king forgave the servant completely - total grace, no conditions. This shows a picture of salvation. We cannot repay our sin debt, but God forgives freely those who come to Him through Jesus Christ. Forgiveness is undeserved and complete.
What did that forgiven servant go and do? Despite being forgiven an impossible debt, the servant violently demanded repayment of a tiny one. Unforgiveness in a believer is morally outrageous because it contradicts the grace they have received. We have been recipients of maximum mercy. Who are we to suddenly demand justice from others? We are to show the same compassion to others that God showed us.
When the king hears of that servant’s behavior, he then orders him delivered to the tormentors. This is not teaching a loss of salvation. Instead it illustrates that fellowship with God is broken because unrepentant attitudes get in the way of our prayers. It shows what bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness will produce in our spirit.
Jesus expects us to be able to forgive just as fully and completely as He has. Forgiveness doesn’t negate the wrong done to us. It doesn’t deny the offense or the pain. However, it lets go of the right to get even. Vengeance is God’s responsibility, not ours (Romans 12:19). It doesn’t mean that we have to immediately trust the one who wronged us. We may never trust them again, but we surrender the matter to God, choosing grace over bitterness.
This parable calls us to live out the Gospel by extending the same grace that we have received. God’s forgiveness of us is immeasurably greater than any forgiveness we must extend, and Jesus calls us to forgive others from our heart continually and without keeping score. Unforgiveness is a serious sin that contradicts the Gospel. A forgiving spirit is evidence of genuine salvation and spiritual maturity.
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