RESCUED FROM THE FISCAL CLIFF

Over one-third of Jesus’ teachings recorded in the Gospels are in the form of parables. A very simple definition of a parable is “a truth illustrated through a story.” The best-known parables are The Good Samaritan and The Prodigal Son. One of the more mysterious parables, at least to me, is often entitled “The Unforgiving Debtor” and is found in Matthew 18:21-35. Here’s the story:  

While straightening out his finances, a king was settling accounts with servants who had borrowed money from him. One of his servants owed him ten thousand talents. In order to understand this parable, we must give some perspective to this sum of money. In Bible times, a talent was the equivalent of fifteen years’ salary for a working man. This servant owed his king the equivalent of 150,000 years of salary! In today’s money, at a salary of $500/week, the man would have been $3.9 billion in debt.

How does a person get that far into debt? We are not given much insight into the situation but the servant must have been able to borrow at that level because he had favor with the king. We do not know what he used all the money for, but we know that all of it had been lost. I have to wonder if this guy was an early manifestation of an American congressman! They seem to be able to get the nation in debt like this without much difficulty; they borrow the money and they can’t pay it back!

The king wanted the account settled — in fact, he wanted it paid in full! He ordered that the man and his family be sold, most likely into some form of slavery. Then the king would take whatever payment he could get. I suppose his reasoning was, “Something is better than nothing.”

The servant fell on his knees and begged the king, “Please give me some time and I will pay you back. I will find a way to pay everything I owe!”

The king took pity on the man, forgave him the entire debt, and then released him. What an incredible display of generosity on the part of the king. The huge debt was wiped out in a moment’s time. This is a wonderful picture of grace.

As the forgiven servant left the king’s presence, he must have been giddy and grateful. Who would not be after having had such a huge debt wiped out in a moment by a generous king? The king had literally rescued the man from falling over the “fiscal cliff.”

This same servant later came across a man who owed him “a hundred denarii.” A denarius was one day’s wages for a laborer in Bible days, so in today’s money the man owed him a few thousand dollars.

What did the forgiven servant do? He grabbed the man by the throat and began to choke him, as if to threaten him with death, saying “Pay me what you owe me.” When the man asked him for a little time, the servant refused and had him thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.

Some of the other servants of the king were present and were so disturbed by what they saw the forgiven servant do that they went and told the king.

The king immediately had the servant brought to him and said, “You wicked person! You pled for forgiveness and I extended it to you. Should you not have done the same for the man who owed you? Could you not extend mercy to another as it was extended to you?” Then the servant was delivered to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.

Jesus then made this rather shocking statement to His disciples, “So also My heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

This parable is a wonderful picture of God’s willingness to extend grace to those who reach to Him. We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it, and we have no way to pay what is necessary to buy it — but He gives it to us freely. This incredible grace is God’s unmerited favor!

So what are we supposed to make of the harsh statement that Jesus makes at the end of the parable? Let me offer one possible explanation. We have been taught the importance of forgiveness. Peter instigated this parable by asking the Lord, “How many times should I forgive one of my idiot brothers?” Thinking he was being really charitable, Peter then suggested, “I think seven times would be a good number and very generous!” Without hesitation the Lord replied, “Not even close, Peter! Try seventy times seven.” (For my Canadian friends, that’s 490.) Then Jesus launched into the telling of the story.

I believe the point Jesus makes at the end of the story is that when believers who are the recipients of forgiveness hold grudges and unforgiveness in their hearts, they are putting themselves in a prison of their own making. Holding on to grudges and unforgiveness is a prison of personal pain and torment. Fear and anxiety find a breeding place in this prison.

 Unforgiveness is not going to cost you your salvation but it will be unpleasant and it will cost you personal freedom!

It is time to break out of the prison of unforgiveness and walk in the joy and freedom of the Lord! The prison break begins with our willingness to forgive and forget!