Matthew 18.21-35

Matthew 18:21-35

21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.  23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 “When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 “So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27 “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 “So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 “But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

Forgiveness is the greatest need of every person.  Sin condemns us to a life of slavery and an eternity of torment.  The only way for us to escape that condemnation is through God’s forgiveness.  God loves us so much that He provided the means of forgives by sending Christ to die for our sin.  His only condition for forgiveness is faith in Christ.  Once we have experienced forgiveness, we should be willing to extend forgiveness to others.  Those who are forgiven ought to be forgiving.  Jesus has just finished teaching His disciples the process of restoring someone who sins.  This prompts Peter to ask how often we must be willing to forgive.  Jesus answers that question with the parable of today’s text.  Parables teach us very important truths but we must be careful to interpret them in light of other Scriptures.  They ought to be used as illustrations of truths and not revelations of truth.  This passage illustrates four truths about forgiveness.

THE REPETITION OF FORGIVENESS IS UNCOUNTABLE: When we read the passage we looked at yesterday most of us think that it has a tendency to be a little harsh towards the sinning person.  I think that it is interesting the Peter's questions seems to reveal that in the view of the apostles it seems that they were viewing it as being extreme to the side of grace.  He understood from the teaching that when a sinner repents it is the obligation of the offended party to forgive.  But Peter wants to know how many times he is obligated to do that.  I imagine he thought of a number that sounded very pious and altruistic as well as symbolic of perfection and shot out seven.  Jesus takes Peter and everyone by surprise and says seventy times that, or an infinite number of times.  There are to no limits to our forgiveness because there are no limits to God’s forgiveness.  We must not keep record of wrongs committed against us.  No matter how many times a person may sin against us; if they repent, each subsequent offense should be treated as if it were the first.  When we start depositing sins into our memory banks, the only thing that we will withdraw is bitterness.

THE DEBT GOD FORGIVES IS UNIMAGINABLE: The parable Jesus told is clearly a hypothetical situation and does not represent actual events.  The king in the parable represents God and the servants represent us.  The first servant has a debt with the king of 10,000 talents.  There are a number of wats to try to figure out how much this is, perhaps the clearest way is to consider that 1 talent is the equivalent of 6,000 denarii.  One denarius is one day’s wage for a common laborer.  So, this debt would be the equivalent of 60,000,000 days of work.  If we consider the wage for a day to be $100.00 the debt comes out to around 6 billion dollars.  The point of this number is simply to demonstrate the deep wretchedness of our sin and the unpayable debt we have before God.  There is no way that we could ever earn our salvation.  However, the king has mercy on the servant and forgives him.  Imagine the relief that must have washed over this man’s life and the joy with which he must have communicated his good fortune to his family.  We are all completely dependent on the grace of God to forgive our sin.  Without His forgiveness, we are without hope.  The fact that Jesus has made a way for salvation should fill our hearts with gratitude and rejoicing.

THE REFUSAL TO FORGIVE IS UNACCEPTABLE: The scene now changes to the forgiven servant seeking payment from a fellow servant of 100 denarii.  This represents 100 days of work at $100.00 per day or about $10,000.00 this is no small debt, but it is somewhat manageable.  This represents the offenses that we have against one another.  Jesus has just taught about how those offenses are to be handled and it is clear that they are not to be taken lightly.  The problem in this story is that the first servant not only does not forgive the debt but sends him off to prison until the debt is paid.  This treatment was completely unacceptable.  Those who stood by and watched both of these scenes unfold were unanimous in their condemnation of the servant.  According to the above text they should have confronted him but instead they took this information to the king who calls the first servant back in for a reckoning.  The point of all of this is simply to demonstrate that it is universally assumed that those who have been forgiven so much should be willing to forgive others.  In short: the forgiven forgive.  Those who are not willing to forgive have very good reason to question if they have been truly forgiven.

THE FAILURE TO FORGIVE WILL BE UNCOMFORTABLE: When the fist servant comes before the king the second time, he confronts him with his sin and then turns him over to the torturers until he pays what he owes.  This is where we have to be very careful not to make this parable all about teaching theology.  We cannot use this passage to prove that God saves people from sin and then takes that salvation away when they don’t forgive others.  It is important to note that when he couldn’t pay the debt the first time, the punishment was to sell his wife, children and all that he owned and send him off to eternal prison.  This time the punishment is to be tortured until what is owed has been paid.  The question is: what does this man now owe?  He already has a “paid in full” receipt for the 6 billion so that is not what he owes.  It seems clear that what he now owes is the forgiveness of his fellow servant.  In other words, I believe Jesus is warning us that when we fail to forgive others, God will send discipline, illness, judgment and hardship into our lives when we fail to forgive others until we are convinced to grant that forgiveness.  Someone once said that bitterness is a poison that we drink thinking that we will harm someone else.  The person most tormented by bitterness is the person who is holding the grudge, and they will continue to suffer under that weight until they are willing to forgive.  I believe that so many problems of today’s society and the church are a direct result of our failure to forgive.

APPLICATION: We are never to keep records of how many offenses a person has against us, once sin is forgiven, we should promise not to bring it up against the person again.  God has forgiven every believer in Christ of a debt that is completely beyond or ability to comprehend, and for that, our hearts should overflow with joy and gratitude.  Refusal to forgive others who sin against us is sinful and will result in pain, stress, anxiety and many other terrible consequences in our lives until we forgive.