Gospel of 9 March 2021
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Matthew 18:21-35
To be forgiven, you must forgive
Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.
‘And so the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants. When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents; but he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt. At this, the servant threw himself down at his master’s feet. “Give me time” he said “and I will pay the whole sum.” And the servant’s master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. “Pay what you owe me” he said. His fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him, saying, “Give me time and I will pay you.” But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt. His fellow servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him. Then the master sent for him. “You wicked servant,” he said “I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.’
Reflexion
Our Lord’s parable about the wicked servant may seem to be a strange example given to address the issue of forgiving sins, since the story is really about forgiving debts. But it isn’t that strange after all if one understood how Jews saw debt as a synonym of sin. In Aramaic, the word for sin and debt are the same - hob.
The conflation of sin and debt here helps us to understand that although the passage speaks of our moral obligation to forgive others, there is much more to be found in our Lord’s parable. This passage has often been interpreted in a moral sense, that we are called to forgive wrongs done to us without being calculative. But the presence of the parable expands the story beyond a teaching on forgiveness and incorporates the dual themes of salvation and judgment.
When Christ spoke this parable, He was on His way to the cross. It’s only because of His one sacrifice on the cross that there can be forgiveness for any sinner. And from the crucified Saviour flows the power to manifest this forgiveness to others in the community of faith. In His mercy, our Lord casts all the sins of His people “into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7.19). And so before we can even attempt to work on our ability to forgive others their sins, we should always look first to the One who is the Ocean of Mercy, the One who alone can forgive our sins and has done so by the sacrifice He made on the cross. He cancelled our indomitable debt of sin by paying for it with His death.
Notice, however, that mercy without judgment is not complete. In fact, it is not scriptural. Does mercy nullify justice and would justice extinguish mercy? The parable gives us the answer. The king shows astounding mercy to the wicked servant when the latter pleaded with him for mercy, but then held him accountable to an unwavering standard of justice for his treatment of a fellow servant. Mercy can never be a licence to sin and commit evil, for then it would not be mercy.
God is a God of profound mercy, but He is also a God of Justice who will hold us accountable for our deeds, words and decisions. Those who abuse His Providence and take advantage of His mercy in order to continue in sin and hardness of heart, will face judgment and be held accountable for all they’ve done in life.
This parable, therefore, serves to remind us how great our debt to God truly is. By nature, we break God’s law constantly, consistently, and easily. To use the language of our parable, our debt runs into the billions and is unpayable. Our only hope is to be truly forgiven out of the free mercy of God in Christ. Understanding how much we owe God and how much we have been forgiven will quickly loosen our grip on our fellow neighbour’s throat. Their petty offences pales in comparison with our grievous sins.
And so if we wish to have a forgiving heart, we must never cease to be grateful to God for His mercy shown to us. His forgiveness is lavish, stunning, and glorious, but it is meant to be paid forward, to be shared with others and to inspire us to forgive others in an unbounded way.