Sermon Devotional: The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Sermon Title: The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35 (ESV)Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21-22
Today we come to the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, where the themes of “mercy,” “forgiveness” and “a transformed heart” are on display. Please take a few minutes to read Matthew 18:21-35. We should note that Jesus had given the topic of forgiveness great attention in his teaching to the disciples. For example, when teaching them to pray, the one condition our Lord includes is our readiness to forgive others (Matthew 6:14-15). The Jewish Talmud taught that one person was to be forgiven three times. Peter, likely thinking he was offering a generous readiness to forgive offenses, asked Jesus ‘how many times is enough? Seven?’ (Mt 18:21). Jesus’ response of 77 (or maybe 490!) clearly suggests that there is no limit. I hear Jesus saying to Peter, “If you are counting, you are not forgiving with your heart.”
Then, to make his point, Jesus presents a parable about a king and his servants who owe debts to the king. One servant owed him 10,000 talents. Craig Blomberg says:
“Estimates in modern currency range from several million to one trillion dollars. The ‘talent’ was the highest known denomination of currency in the ancient Roman Empire, and ten thousand was the highest number for which the Greek language had a particular word. . . this amount is intentionally on the border of inconceivable.”
Jesus is speaking of an infinite debt. The servant begged the king for mercy. The king took pity and canceled the debt entirely, bearing the cost himself, letting the servant go. The heavenly parallel becomes clear. God is our master and our King. In our sins, we owe a debt that could never be repaid because, “the wages of our sin is death” (Rom 6:23). But God is merciful and forgiving. When we come to the end of ourselves and cry out for mercy, Jesus bears the cost, God extends extravagant mercy and forgives our debt, and he restores us to relationship with himself.
In our parable the forgiven servant is owed a relatively modest sum from another servant. The forgiven servant demands payment. He disregards the fellow servant’s cry for mercy, chokes him and throws him in prison, demanding full payment. When the king hears this, he summons the forgiven servant, throws him in prison and has him tortured! I hear the king saying, “How can anyone who has experienced the lavish mercy I showed you have such a cruel, unforgiving, ungenerous attitude toward others? Your heart is hard, and you have not understood my mercy and forgiveness.”
Tim Keller summarizes it beautifully in his excellent book entitled Forgive:
“We don’t forgive by trying harder. . . We are to meet the living God through repentance and faith, receiving not just an abstract pardon but Christ himself and a new identity as an accepted, justified, adopted, and unconditionally loved child of God. Then we are to commune with that God through the Word, prayer, and worship so that these objective realities become more and more subjectively real to our hearts and so shape the instinctive ways we respond to life.”
Consider—
╬ The mercy we have received is the mercy we have to extend. The forgiveness, the grace, the love we have received flows from God to us, and from us to others. Take a moment to reflect on what you have received from God through Christ Jesus, by the Spirit. When has God lavished mercy upon you? When did he forgive you an impossible debt? Worship the Risen and Ascended Christ and give him thanks and praise.
╬ Is there someone whom you have not forgiven? Your unforgiveness stands between your heart and the heart of the Father for you—your unforgiveness is costly indeed. Ask the Lord to soften the soil of your heart that you might receive his forgiveness and extend His forgiveness to others. For the sake of Christ, ask him to help you let it go.
╬ Father, thank you for loving us, for forgiving us and for saving us. Holy Spirit remind us of the mercy and grace that the Lord has extended toward us. We want your divine mercy to change our hearts. Help us to liberally extend all that we have received to others who have sinned against us. We pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.