“For this reason, the kingdom of
heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. As he
began settling his accounts, a man who owed ten thousand talents was brought to
him. Because he was not able to repay it, the lord ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, children, and whatever he possessed, and repayment to be
made. Then the slave threw himself to the ground before him, saying, ‘Be
patient with me, and I will repay you everything.’ The lord had compassion on
that slave and released him, and forgave him the debt.
“After he went out, that same slave found one of his fellow slaves who
owed him one hundred silver coins. So he grabbed him by the throat and started
to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ Then his fellow slave threw
himself down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you.’ But he
refused. Instead, he went out and threw him in prison until he repaid the debt.
When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were very upset and went and
told their lord everything that had taken place. Then his lord called the first
slave and said to him, ‘Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you
begged me! Should you not have shown mercy to your fellow slave, just as I
showed it to you?’ And in anger his lord turned him over to the prison guards
to torture him until he repaid all he owed.
“So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not
forgive your brother from your heart.” —Matthew 18:23–35
In this parable Jesus makes it perfectly clear that we need to forgive others. Perhaps it would be a helpful reminder to review a few verses that talk about sin in order to remember the extraordinary forgiveness God has demonstrated towards us.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” —Romans 3:23
“For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” —Romans 6:23
“For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” —John 3:16
“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” —Romans 5:6–8
“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” —Romans 10:8–11
God has every right to put us to shame. Yet He chose to let His Son die for us instead! Certainly none of us would like to hear that we would be tortured until we could repay our debt, a debt that would take us all eternity to repay. In the parable, the unforgiving servant owed his Master a huge amount, yet his fellow servant only owed him a mere silver coin. Jesus is making His point crystal clear. The first servant had been forgiven all and he should have forgiven all. A child of the King has all of their sins forgiven and therefore we are to willingly forgive all from the heart.
Jesus teaches us to forgive others when they have wronged us and to seek forgiveness when we have wronged them. We must follow our Lord’s example. He extended to us the ultimate pardon—the forgiveness of our sins. His forgiveness is so thorough, so complete, so encompassing, it is as if He looks at us as though we have never sinned. Shouldn’t we, as Jesus stated, have mercy on others as He has had mercy on us?
Become More
“Do you wish to receive mercy? Show mercy to your neighbor.” —John Chrysostom
Further Reflections
“If there is the tiniest grudge in your mind against anyone, your spiritual penetration into the knowledge of God stops.” —Oswald Chambers
“Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan.” —John Chrysostom
“The more godly any man is, the more
merciful that man will be.” —Thomas Brooks