Matthew 18:23-35
“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
As is often the case, Jesus uses a parable to take his teaching deeper. In response to Peter’s question, “How many times should I forgive?”, Jesus answered, “seventy times seven,” which doesn’t just mean 490, but is more like saying, always. With this parable he explains why.
As with the answer Jesus gave Peter, the numbers in this parable are more symbolic than anything else. A talent, for instance, was about 130 lbs. of silver and was the equivalent to around fifteen years of a laborer’s wages. Which means that the servant owed his master about 150,000 years of labor. In other words, he would never, ever be able to pay his master back. A denarius, by comparison, was worth about a day’s wage, which meant that the second servant owed the forgiven one about a hundred days of labor. No small debt, for sure, but still – as everyone who hears this parable knows – it’s clearly a relatively minor debt compared with the impossibly huge one he had just been forgiven.
The question turns, then, on why this guy could not extend the grace and mercy that had just been extended him? The answer rests, I think, with our penchant for counting, calculating, and keeping track. For while the unforgiving servant’s debt to his master has been wiped clean, he immediately moves to review the ledger he is incessantly keeping and focuses on the debt his fellow servant owes him. His ledger looks better, but he is still the same old calculating person.
Nor is he alone in this penchant. Notice, for instance, where Peter starts this conversation: he asks Jesus for a number. He wants to know just how much will be expected of him, how much is reasonable, how much is required. And so he suggests what by all accounts is a more-than-sufficient amount of forgiveness.
Jesus, however, turns Peter’s question on his head by replying with a ridiculous number. “You want to play the numbers game?” Jesus more or less asks, “Okay, how about this one – 490?” It’s not that Jesus wants Peter to increase his forgiveness quota, but rather that he wants him to stop counting altogether. Forgiveness, like love, is inherently and intimately relational rather than legal and therefore cannot be counted.
This, I think, also explains the difficult ending of the parable about the master’s response to the unforgiving servant. What if we imagine that rather than inflicting some new punishment on the unforgiving servant, the king is actually only describing the condition his servant already lives in. That is, he is already a slave to the world of counting and calculating and reckoning absolutely everything and will therefore remain a slave to that way of being until the end of time…or at least until when he can forgive others, whichever comes first.
So how many times do we need to forgive? Only until that time when we can recognize our life of blessing and live as free people.
Prayer: Dear God, help us live out of a sense of love rather than law and mercy rather than judgment. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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