Forgiveness: Day Three

Finally! After three long days of laying some very necessary groundwork we have arrived at our focal text. You have worked really hard to this point but don’t give up right before you get to the good stuff! Let’s quickly jump in because there is quite a bit to cover today.

Please read Matthew 18:21-35

This passage of scripture is best known as “The Parable of the Unjust Servant.” Although there are many passages on forgiveness in scripture this paints such a vivid picture of how we appear when we choose not to forgive others. The foundation for the parable is laid by the impetuous apostle Peter. We can always count on Peter to ask those things that all of us are thinking! So Peter starts us off by asking the question that “everyone wanted to know but was afraid to ask”: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” Basically, Peter wants to cut to the chase and get straight to the point. He has listened to Jesus teach about humility, checking our own hearts to rid them of stumbling blocks and then restoration of our brothers and sisters who have sinned but what he really wants to know is, “How many times am I required to forgive, forbear and restore until I’ve met my quota?”

Peter’s offer of seven times was seemingly magnanimous because back in the 1st century the rabbis taught, based on several scriptures out of Amos 1, that God only forgave Israel’s enemies 3 times. Therefore, to forgive more than 3 times was unnecessary and presumptuous. Peter had doubled the requirement and added one so he probably expected a pat on the back. However, as Jesus always does, He cuts right across our high-mindedness and exposes the intents of our hearts by setting the standard far above anything we could ever imagine…or attain without Him.

Jesus’ reply of seventy times seven is not to give us a set number of 490 as the exact number of times we should forgive but it represents an innumerable number. Jesus has not instituted a system of Pharisaical tally marks but a system of grace where His glory in forgiveness is put on display.

Upon excavation of the following verses we unearth a great deal of truth regarding the heart of our God. We first need to establish the absurdity of this parable. The disciples would have recognized right off that this parable was extremely far-fetched. First, a king would never have gotten himself into a situation where he would need to settle debts with his slaves especially where he was owed as much or more than he owned.

In v. 24 we see how much this one servant owed him: 10,000 talents. Let’s put this into perspective: one talent was worth what a laborer would make over 15 years. If we say that the average yearly wage of a laborer today is 25,000, 15 years would amount to $375,000. Ten talents would be 3.75 million dollars. The conclusion: 10,000 talents was an exorbitant amount of money. This would be like our President allowing one person to borrow trillions of dollars against our national debt! Again, no king would have put himself in that kind of financial predicament.

So, it isn’t hard to understand when verse 25 says,”he couldn’t repay.” The lord (representative of the king) comes up with the idea of having the slave and all his family sold into slavery in order to recover some of the debt. Does this strike anyone else as ridiculous? The reality is there is no way this debt could be paid. If this man, his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren worked all their lives there would be no way to repay the debt.

The slave’s response was to fall on his face and ask for patience in trying to repay the debt – notice that the slave did not ask for forgiveness! However, the lord felt compassion, released him AND forgave the debt. This is total forgiveness. He could have released him but not forgiven the debt. He could have forgiven the debt but not released him. Instead scripture says he felt compassion. This word “compassion” means: “bowels of mercy”, “womb”, “to be moved as to one’s inwards”. The word here talks about a visceral, deep seated response to something. A pity that is felt. The lord was so moved by the servant that he had an ache within him. Have you ever seen someone in distress and physically felt compassion for them? This is the idea here: a sensitivity that only a mother could feel for her children; a mother’s love.

You would expect that the servant would have been so overjoyed he could think of nothing else! He had basically just won the lottery! He was free! But instead he goes out and finds a man that owes him the equivalent of 3 months wages and he does what? He seizes him and begins to choke him while demanding his money! Do you see the extreme analogy here? His response toward his fellow servant is so severe. The slave’s response is almost the same as the original plea to the king: he fell to the ground and pleaded with him, asked him to be patient that he would repay all he owed. This was a debt that could easily have been paid back. This offense was nothing compared to the great offense of the original debt.

But the slave who has just been pardoned was “unwilling” and threw him in prison. His fellow slaves were so grieved over this scene that they reported it all to the lord. What does the lord call him? You “wicked” slave! So, the lord was “moved with anger”. Scripture tells us that God hates sin. Because He is holy and just He is always angry over sin, including the sin of His children.

It says verse 34 that the lord handed him over to torturers. The word “torturers” does not mean executioners but it does indicate severe discipline. As true children of God we can never lose our salvation because our salvation is dependent upon God. Scripture says, “I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” However, we can fall into discipline over disobedience. The Lord commands us to forgive and just because we are His children doesn’t mean He is okay with sin in our lives. The idea here is that the unjust servant would remain under the discipline of the Lord until he could learn to forgive others.

The last verse sums up Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness: God will also do the same to you if you do not forgive your brother what? From your heart. This indicates a genuine forgiveness. Not lip service but genuine forgiveness.

You know, sometimes we think withholding forgiveness keeps us safe but there is no “safety” in the Christian life. God is constantly calling us to do the hard thing, pushing us to the point of weakness that we might rely on the Spirit within us, denying the flesh and our selfish desires for comfort. The Christian life will never be one of comfort, ease or safety…Jesus did not live that kind of life and we should not expect more for ourselves. Jesus is constantly calling us to take up our cross, deny self and follow Him.

Repeatedly we will be faced with decisions that don’t feel good to us and we must make a decision for obedience or disobedience. This comes down to our trust in the Lord. Do we trust that when He commands us to forgive that it will be for our good? Do we trust that His word is true and that He is able to empower us to follow through with what He has commanded us to do?

In closing today, I want to ask you this question: How big is your God? Is He big enough to handle the offenses against you? Is He big enough to enable you to forgive even the deepest hurts? Is He big enough to bring healing where a root of bitterness has grown? Can He do what He says He can do? Do you believe it? Can you receive it?