Matthew 18:21-35
Peter questions Jesus just how often he will be required to forgive a brother. He gives what he may think is a generous number. Jesus answers back with a number that essentially means countless times. Jesus invites Peter to think through the situation by telling a parable. Jesus tells of a debt to a master from a servant; and subsequently, the debt owed to the same servant by another servant. A talent is approximately the equivalent of twenty years' wages for a laborer of the day. A talent is not a coin but a weight, around 75 pounds. One talent is estimated to be worth around $237. The servant owed his master 10,000 talents. A denarius was a day's wages for a laborer. The servant owed his fellow servant 100 denarii. It would take 6,000 denarii to make one talent. (We have now reached the end of our math lesson.😄)
Peter starts the conversation by referring to Jesus by the name "kurios" which means "master". Peter is asking a legitimate question, but I wish we could hear his tone of voice. Do we think he was being snarky by saying SEVEN times? Either way, Jesus put Peter in his place by saying you need to stop keeping track and just keep forgiving. The phrase "for this reason" means to go all the way through to the other side. I love how Jesus invites his disciples to reason things out for themselves, to take a question to it's logical conclusion. Jesus has no reason to be afraid of questions because He has the full truth. He compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who has given a loan to some servants and he's out collecting. I'm not sure what led a king to loan a servant such an outlandish amount. If he made one denarius a day, he would have to work every single day for 164,000 years to pay it back. But what is even crazier is that the servant fell to his knees and vowed to pay him back everything he owed. The king had compassion on him and forgave the debt. The servant promptly turned around and started to choke the life out of a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii, an amount he could have easily paid back in a year. The first servant refused to extend credit and had him sent to prison. When the king received word of this, he was rightly livid! He sent him straight to prison until he could pay his debt. (Which would obviously be never....) And to tie it all together, Jesus says that's exactly what the heavenly Father will do to a person who claims to be a follower of Christ but has no forgiveness toward her sister.
I'm sure I've read/heard this story 100 times in my life. But I've never been so struck by the first servant as I was today. He bowed down before his master and promised that he had it within his abilities to pay him back in full. That convicts me. I do not, even if I lived for 164,000 years, have the capacity to pay Jesus back for all that He has given me. He looked beyond the sin that caused me to compile such a massive debt, and marked it "PAID".
My girls and I took a trip to Tulsa this summer to Pioneer Woman headquarters and she had a book in her shop that fit this story. It was a journal called "The Book of Perceived Slights". This servant, having just been forgiven an astronomical amount, digs out his journal and finds someone who owes him. How like this servant I am! When I'm confronted with sin, I promise to pay Jesus back; I'll be extra good, I'll read my Bible every day, I'll work in the nursery...Jesus extends mercy with compassion and forgives me. I am guilty of keeping a book of perceived slights, even if it's just in my mind. And if my feelings are hurt, someone's going to have to suffer, right? But if I want to live in unity and community with my sisters, I have to live by the teachings of Jesus and let it go. We must mirror the compassion and mercy of Christ Jesus if we want to make any difference to the world around us.
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