Matthew 18:23-34 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 bags of gold 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. “At this 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 silver coins. 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 it 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 outraged 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 handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
This story deals with a master who is lord over a servant. This is the relationship that people have with God, the Creator. Jesus points out the master has given this servant a large fortune: ten thousand bags of gold. Because this is an unfathomable amount of money, the servant was in deep trouble with his master when he asks for repayment. But because the servant understands his predicament of not being able to pay back this huge debt quickly or maybe not at all, he begs the master to be patient with him, for he was willing to pay back the amount of money that he owed. He pleads with the master and asks for time to get rid of this liability. The master forgives this nondescript servant, not special in any way other than he owes an unusually large debt to the master, revealing the master’s kindness to the servant. In reality, the large sum owed to the master could never be paid back by the debtor, for in today’s terms, the servant owed millions of dollars to him. However, the debt was due to be paid back and the master wanted his money; he expected the servant to pay him back for his generosity to the servant. This story of Jesus implies how generous God has been to his created, to those who are his own. He has given people life and everything in this world, including their progeny and close relationships. The master in this story was demanding the servant’s wife and children to be sold, for he considered them as his property. People have received way more than they can ever repay to God. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28) But the Master intends to collect on his goodness to his created beings. We see the master in Jesus’ story demanding reciprocation, payment for his generosity to the servant. For the day of judgment has arrived, and everything will be stripped from this man’s life except for his own existence. He will be placed in jail where there will be no possibility of paying the master back. But rather than carrying out this righteous judgment, the master responds to the servant’s desperate plea and forgives the servant of the huge debt he owed. But the servant’s heart has not assimilated this same grace and mercy into his consciousness. He is evil, worldly, and intends to treat others for his own benefit. 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. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. His heart is hard, not respecting the goodness of the master to him; instead, he is living with a stoney heart, cold to the nature of the master, or in the spiritual sense, of God. His day of reckoning and the mercy he received did not change the way he would treat another person in need of the mercy he received.
In this story, we see Jesus furthering the concept of forgiving someone seventy times seventy. He is telling the disciples that they owe God everything that they have in life; they owe the very breath in their lungs, every word that is formulated in their minds. They owe God every possession they own or every relationship that they have ever developed in this world. The earth and everything in it is God’s. As we read in Psalms and again in the New Testament: For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. (1 Corinthians 10:26) Ten bags of gold are meagerly in comparison to what every person owes to God. People’s existence depends on God’s goodness to them. When people understand God’s grace, the reality that mercy has fallen on them unreservedly, they should respond with thankfulness to God by giving grace and mercy to others who might owe them a debt of some kind. In today’s focus, we see the servant responding to others with a wickedness in his heart that has not been eradicated by the grace of the master towards him. Instead, his heart is ingrained with evil, the natural pursuits of all men who possess Adam’s DNA. He is seeking retribution from one who owes him money. He wants his pound of flesh, not considering that his master could have restrained him in jail as long as he lived. He is a lawbreaker, possessing a heart of evil, not of God’s love. Jesus calls him an evil servant, knowing his heart is far from goodness and grace. Paul categorizes these people as being Gentiles or not the chosen who have God’s laws in their minds. So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. (Ephesians 4:17-19) The heart of the unregenerate is full of greed and impurity, not fully understanding what they have received from God. They are impertinent to God’s authority, taking their existence for granted. But Jesus is telling his disciples there will be a time to pay up. God will demand payment of every person someday, and if they are not living lives of grace and mercy, of forgiveness; seventy times seventy, they will receive their just reward: Sheol, a place of eternal containment and grief.
As Christians we are instructed to Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32) We are instructed to imitate God’s nature. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2) In the story Jesus presents to us, the master loved his servant. He had given him much, and he heard the servant’s desperate plea for mercy. His heart was moved with compassion, so he gave his forgiveness readily: cancelled the WHOLE debt. This is what God has done for us through Jesus Christ the Lord. Jesus’ willingness to cancel our debt to God was pleasing to God because it represented his heart of love. Jesus completed the work that God had in his mind from the beginning of time. When the servant in Jesus’ story experienced the master’s grace, he should have gone out with that example etched on his heart and forgiven his debtors, but he failed to do that, for his heart was evil. This story is presented to us today as an eye opener. If we are not willing to forgive others seven times seventy, if we hold onto our anger and bitterness, God will take our attitude as an affront to his goodness to us. We all have something that we have done to others or that others have done to us that is not easily erased from our minds. But Jesus is implying that our very existence in eternity is dependent on forgiveness. If we are unwilling to attempt to forgive others, to display God’s goodness to the world, how can we expect his goodness to be meted out to us. If we exact the last payment of a debt owed to us, then why do we expect God not to demand that same payment to him. But we know God knows our foibles and our weaknesses. He also knows the terror of life’s realities for so many humans. He knows how people take advantage of others and how hard it is to give grace in those situations. In Afghanistan today, mothers and fathers sell their little girls to others so that their families might survive. Poor people around the world are selling their internal organs for a few dollars to have enough money to live. The world is an unjust, dangerous place. But God is just, He knows those situations, and He alone will repay. But in our lives, Christian friends, we must open our lives to mercy and grace and give forgiveness even though the world does not deserve it. Let God be the judge of all unrighteousness, for we were not called to judge but to bring the love of Jesus to a broken world. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10 KJV)
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