Jesus teaches his disciples about forgiveness with a parable about a king who decided to settle the accounts of his servants. One of the servants was brought before the master. he owed Ten thousand talents. A talent was about 20 years’ worth of wages.The math works out to a debt of $11.2 billion. Obviously, he can’t pay it back. And since he can’t, the king decides to sell the man, his family, and all he has. He and his family shall be slaves until they die.
The man throws himself at the feet of the king. He begs for patience and promises that he will pay back this insurmountable debt. Hearing the cry of this servant, the king has compassion. He cancels the debt. Imagine being this forgiven man! What joy you must feel! Surely you would go and rejoice with your family, maybe even have a feast in the honor of your king to extol his mercy, his grace, his salvation for you and your family!
Yet, the man in the parable doesn’t do any of that. In fact, he immediately goes and finds one of his fellow servants who happened to owe him money. The debt? One hundred denarii — about $15,000, so a substantial amount of money. But nowhere near a single talent of the 10,000 he owed his king. And like the servant did before his king, this fellow servant falls on his face and pleads, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.”
Instead, the forgiven man throws his debtor into debtor’s prison. The news quickly gets to the benevolent king. The forgiven servant is again summoned before the king. The king said: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”
In his anger, the king delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debts. The jailers here aren’t the jailers we think of today. They aren’t just making sure you don’t escape. These jailers are oppressive and often torture their prisoners. Their job is to exact torture and pain. And this man will be under them until all – every cent – of his debt is repaid. He will never get out.
We, too, are God’s debtors. Our debt is sin. We constantly and continually wrack up our debt of sin. A debt that we are hopeless to pay. We also find ourselves before our King, before God. Our debt of sin warrants being thrown into prision. It warrants oppressive jailers who exact pain and torture until every sin is paid for. Being helpless to pay anything back and knowing what we deserve, we plead for mercy.
Christ our king has compassion for us, his Creation. He forgives every sin and debt that we have wracked up against him. Our Lord and Savior bears a great cost of suffering by dying in our place. And in doing so, our sin is forgiven. Our debt is erased because of the cruel oppression and torture exacted on Jesus Christ. We stand before our God and Father forgiven and cleansed from our sin. And knowing what it took to cleanse us of our iniquities, we fear, love, and trust in him above all things. And part of that fear, love, and trust is to forgive those who trespass against us.
Now, we who are forgiven much are to love much. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We get to show the mercy we have received to others. It is why we freely forgive and do good for those who sin against us. And why, as we prayed, our faithful Lord grants that what we ask in faith we obtain.
Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD
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