As We Forgive
Matthew 18:23-35
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 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. The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
In the parable, a king wanted to settle the accounts of his servants. A servant is brought in who owed the king ten thousand talents. A talent was a unit of weight and when applied to a precious metal also became a monetary value. In New Testament Judea a talent was 130 pounds. Scholars estimate a talent was 20 years wages of the average worker, and this servant owed 200,000 years worth of wages. This was used to show an incredible amount of money owed that could never be paid back. The king ordered the man, his family, and all his possessions sold to get some of that money back. The servant pleaded with the king, promising to somehow pay back everything he owed, an impossible task and all in the court knew it. But the king was so moved by his servant’s pleading that he canceled the debt. This servant then sought out, not by accident ran into but actually went looking for, and found a man who owed him money and demanded this man pay the 100 denarii owed, which comes to about 20 dollars. The man pleaded with the servant for more time to repay the debt, which the servant refused and had the man thrown in jail. When the king heard about this he had the servant brought before him. The king told the servant that he should have shown the man the same mercy that the king had shown when his debt was canceled. The king then ordered the servant thrown in jail and tortured until he could repay the debt, and while in jail the man could not work and the debt therefore could never be repaid, the servant was to be tortured for the rest of his life.
Prior to Jesus telling this parable, Jesus was instructing the people who had gathered how to deal with a person who err against them. At the end of Jesus’ instructions, Peter came to Jesus and asked Him how many times he should forgive his brother that has sinned against him, finishing the question with “Up to seven times?” Peter was asking when he should no longer be required to forgive people who trespass against him. Jesus answered by saying “I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven,” and then told the parable.
Now, are we to conclude that Jesus meant to set a limit in our forgiveness? Did Jesus tell us that we need only forgive a person only 490 times? Are we to sit around with a piece of paper making little marks to count the trespasses our brethren have committed against us? Waiting for that magic number, trespass 491, so we can tell them they have exhausted the limit of our forgiveness set by Jesus Himself. This number 490, this seventy times seven, did Jesus really mean to set a limit to our forgiveness? No, of course He didn’t. “I say not unto thee until seven times,” Jesus wouldn’t begin with such a small number nor would He want to be tied down to any definite sum. No number should show the greatness of forgiveness in the Christian heart. Jesus talked about forgiveness, but He talked about no limit, the seventy times seven being in place of a number beyond petty calculation. Usually though if we have to forgive people too many times we usually end our association with them. Can you imagine dealing with a person who you have to forgive nearly 500 times? Spouses excluded of course. Nothing but love and forgiveness should be in the heart of the Christian.
We, however, are not interested in pure forgiveness. For us forgiveness comes with strings attached, there are certain conditions that first must be met, they must somehow earn our forgiveness. That person did wrong to me and I’ll forgive, but this person must pay for what they have done. We want to make sure the scales are evened, that the sheet is balanced. We have to make sure that person experiences the same amount of pain, the same level of humiliation we experienced. Then, and only then, are these people deserving of our forgiveness. For us, forgiveness also includes revenge.
We were taught to pray by Jesus Himself in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” God, forgive me in the same manner I forgive others. We are praying that God judge us by our own actions, that He holds us to our own standards. Is this how we want our final judgment to go? Do we want to stand before God and hear, “Yes, I forgive you, but the scales are not yet balanced, I still have to make you pay for what you have done to Me”? As this is how we forgive, should we expect any more from God? And we all know how God would balance those scales.
From the cross, Jesus pleaded and said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” He interceded with God on our behalf, asking for our forgiveness, full forgiveness. Then He surrendered Himself to death, paying that unpayable fee and cancelling our debt of disobedience, so that we might live. And it is an unpayable debt because what service can we do with our hands, what praise can we give with our lips, how pure of a life can we live that would give an equal payment to the life of God? And yet how do we honor this sacrifice of forgiveness, this enormous act of love? By holding a grudge! Shouldn’t we, as Jesus taught in His parable, forgive those who have done so little evil against us for we have been forgiven by God who we have done such great evil against?
In the parable, the King is God and the wicked servant is the unforgiving person. The unforgiving person will ask God to forgive him of the sins he commits, and the Lord is great in compassion; the parable stating the king had the wealth to loan—loan—a servant 200,000 year’s worth of wages. But then this person will not forgive anyone who does anything against them, no matter how big or small the offense is: much like the servant who went and looked for the person who owed him a hundred denarii. These people will never let go of any pain or insult they have received. Much like in the parable, these people will seek out those who have hurt them and demand payment for the pain. They strive to have those that wounded them thrown into some sort of prison of misery, constantly being reminding of the hurt they caused; the heartfelt and repentant apology little to no meaning to them. And like in the parable, God just might deal with those people in the same manner they, as we, deal with others that are in need of our forgiveness. He will have us thrown in jail—hell—where they will be tortured forever, without hope of release.
I am not so blind that I do not realize there is still a bit of that first apple in our mouth and I, indeed all of us, know that true forgiveness, the forgiveness that God has taught and given to us, will not always and completely happen as it should. While we may not be able to let our sinful heart fully forgive and forget the person’s action against us, we can control our actions and our words and not allow that “getting even” deed to come to the surface. While in our hearts we can crave revenge, we can choose to not act upon that feeling. We need to ask God for the strength and the faith to forgive as we should, and the forgiveness we need because we don’t forgive as we ought.
And what do we do with this person who keeps trespassing against us? This person who knows that, as Christians, we must forgive their trespass. And it is true, we should forgive. But these people just seem to know our soft spots and know exactly how to irritate us. While they will apologize for the offense time and again, they will still continually offend us. But Jesus also said we must be as gentle as the dove, but as wise as the serpent. The gentle dove will tell the person “Yes, I forgive you,” while the wise serpent will add, at least and what had better be just in our minds, “even though I doubt the sincerity of your apology.” If a person seems to constantly insult, belittle, and hurt us, we can interact with these people as little as possible, or not at all. We don’t need to have these people around testing our patience, because one day we might fail that particular test.
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. This petition in the Lord’s Prayer should terrify everyone as true forgiveness from us is so often lacking. But we do take relief and joy in the knowledge that God’s forgiveness does not lack, and is perfect. When He forgives, it is true forgiveness, the complete remission and forgetting of our transgressions. We praise God for teaching and giving us true forgiveness, and ask Him to help us give that same gift to others so that we can be forgiven as we forgive. Amen.
