Thursday
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many
times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven
times?” Jesus answered, “I tell
you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. “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. – Matthew
18:21-27
Jesus told this parable in order to help Peter (and us)
understand the power of God’s forgiving grace. We really cannot begin to grasp the impact of this story
unless we understand the magnitude of the debt that the servant owed the
King. Jesus says that he owed his
master 10,000 talents. Well, how
much is that exactly? It is
difficult to be precise when calculating ancient monetary sums, but here is the
rough calculation:
1 talent = 60 minas
1 mina = 3 month's wages
1 talent = 60 x (3 months' wages) = 180 months' wages
1 talent = 180 months' wages / 12 months in a year =
15 years' wages
1 talent = 15 years' wages
10,000 talents = 150,000 years' wages.
So if a yearly wage is $15,000 (about 40hrs/week at
CA min wage ($8/hr)
150,000 year's wages = 2,250,000,000
Two Billion, Two Hundred Fifty Million dollars US!
The point is that this is a massive amount of money, an
astoundingly large debt, and the King could not forgive this debt without great
cost and risk to himself. There
are many people in our culture that simply cannot understand this kind of
forgiveness. Some would even say
that forgiveness of such great a debt is not possible and/or should not be
given. But the gospel of Jesus
Christ shows us that it is both possible and necessary.
Martin and Gracie Burnham were missionaries serving in the
Philippines when they were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in May of
2001. A rescue attempt in June 2002 resulted in the death of Martin while
Gracie was eventually freed. When
Gracie Burnham was asked how she could possibly forgive her kidnappers whose
actions resulted in the death of her husband Martin, she replied, "God has
forgiven me much, so I think it's my responsibility to forgive others."
Jesus gives us a brief, but profound description of how
this kind of forgiveness is possible in verse 27 (in bold above). He says that the servant’s master “took
pity on him, cancelled the debt, and let him go.” Let’s look at each of these statements to see how they can
help us learn how to forgive.
“Took on him” –
Pity is kind of a wimpy English word, the actual translation is something more
like “to be moved with great compassion”.
What this means in practical terms is that we must stop defining the
person who wronged us solely in terms of their sin. Lou Smedes writes that “when you truly forgive someone, you
actually rediscover their humanity.”
Forgiveness requires that we see the person as more than just what they
did. To take pity on them means
that we begin to see the person as an individual in need of God’s grace (just
like us).
“Canceled the debt”
– Simply put this means that a forgiving person is not looking for a way to make
the other person pay. When someone
hurts us, or sins against us in some way, there is a very real debt
created. At the very least there
is a debt of emotional pain. Most
people want the other person (the one who wronged them) to pay for their
wrong. There are many ways that we
try to make them pay; the cold shoulder, the silent treatment, talking bad
about them to others, etc. The
message of the Gospel is that it is not the offender who pays, it is the one
who is offended!
“Let him go” –
This may be the hardest part of forgiving someone. To truly forgive means to release your hold on the
person. It means to let go of your
right to get even. It means to
release your desire for retribution and revenge. The Bible tells us that the moment we trust in Christ, God
wipes our sins away and removes them completely! I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for
my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25) For most of us, this letting go takes a
little more time, it is a process, sometimes a rather long and difficult
one.
When you reflect on these three actions; took pity on him,
canceled the debt, and let him go, in light of your own debt of sin, you see
that this is precisely what Jesus (your gracious King) has done for you!
Jeff Frazier
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2 comments:
But was the debt truly cancelled? Later in the chapter, the master has the same servant tossed in jail until he can pay it back because he didn't forgive his fellow servant his debt.
Yes that is true, the parable does end with the servant being thrown into prison. At first glance it may look like Jesus is saying that God will take back His forgiveness if we are not forgiving enough ourselves. However, we have to keep in mind that this is a fictitious story Jesus told to illustrate how God's forgiveness should work itself out in our lives. Jesus is telling this story in response to Peter's question about how many times we must forgive. The point of the unforgiving servant is this - His treatment of his fellow servant reveals that he never really understood or received the forgiveness of his King in the first place.
Additionally, if we cannot or will not forgive another person, there is a very real sense in which we will be imprisoned and tormented by our own bitterness and unforgiving heart.
Pastor Jeff
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