Mat 18:23-35 | KingComments | STEP | The Lord illustrates with a parable which attitude and mind should characterize the subjects in the kingdom for the sake of forgiveness. He presents the situation that a king is settling his accounts with his slaves. A slave is brought to the king who owes him the enormous sum of ten thousand talents. If we convert this into the euro, we will arrive at a figure of 3 billion euros. The calculation is as follows. A denarius at that time was the wages of a day laborer ( ). On 1 January 2008, the gross minimum daily wage for a person aged 23 or over was €61.62, which is slightly more than €50.00 net. For the sake of convenience, let’s assume €50.00. A talent is six thousand denarii, which is equivalent to €300,000.00. The slave owed his lord ten thousand talents. That is the equivalent of €3,000,000,000,000.00 or 3 billion euro. The man can’t afford this. He cannot even make a deposit because he has nothing. In order to still be able to collect some of the debt, his lord orders him to sell him with his wife and children and all that he still has in his possession. When the slave hears that, he throws himself prostrate before his lord and begs him to be patient with him until he has paid everything. This statement alone proves that the man has no idea how big his debt is and how impossible it is to pay it. If he had indeed wanted to pay his debt, he would have to work 164,383.56 years [€3,000,000,000.00/(365 days*€50.00)] day in, day out, without a rest day and without being able to spend one cent for what he himself would need. Although the Lord of the slave recognizes his slave’s bluff and knows that his slave will never be able to pay him, he relieves him of all that debt. He does so out of his compassion for the hopeless situation of his slave. It is extraordinarily disillusioning to see in the next scene how the slave, who has been remitted of an enormous debt, is acting toward a fellow slave who owes him the relatively small sum of a hundred denarii, that is €5,000.00. The mercilessness drips off. It is as if he immediately went looking for that fellow slave who is still a little in debt to him, because he “found” him. The grace shown to him has no effect on him. Instead of telling his fellow slave in the utmost gratitude what has happened, what burden has been taken away from him, he grabs his fellow slave by the throat and demands payment of the debt. His fellow slave does the same as he did to his lord. The fellow slave falls down and begs him for patience until he would have paid. But this slave does not have that patience, for he has not been impressed by the way in which his lord has acted toward him and by what he himself has been forgiven. It is not about him forgetting it, but it has done absolutely nothing to him. He is not changed by it. This is the greatest ingratitude imaginable. Such ingratitude shows the hardness of heart. When his fellow slaves see this, they are deeply grieved. They do not understand how this is possible. Instead of taking the law into their own hands, the fellow slaves do the only right thing. They go to explain to their Lord everything that has happened. We should do the same when we notice that there is no sense of mercy in an action. Then we can do nothing better than tell our Lord, with deep grieve in our hearts because of the hardness of a fellow slave. When the lord hears about it, he has his slave summoned. It is his slave and he can do with this slave what he sees fit. He calls him “wicked slave”. That is what the man made of it himself by his actions. The lord recalled that he had remitted him all that debt because the slave had begged his lord. His lord also tells him that the grace shown to him should have determined his attitude toward his fellow slave. This is important to us. We have been given great mercy by God Who has forgiven us our sins. We had a debt to God that we were unable to pay. Now that God has forgiven us this guilt, He expects us to show the same mercy to our brothers and sisters. Such an attitude of ingratitude towards his lord, resulting in no mercy towards his fellow slave, causes anger in the lord of that slave. He hands over his slave to the torturers until he would have paid his debt, as he had said. That means eternal torture, for he will never be able to pay that debt. The Lord Jesus attaches to the parable the serious lesson that we must forgive our brother from our heart, otherwise our part will be the same as that of the evil slave.

‏ Matthew 18:23-35

Parable About Forgiveness

The Lord illustrates with a parable which attitude and mind should characterize the subjects in the kingdom for the sake of forgiveness. He presents the situation that a king is settling his accounts with his slaves. A slave is brought to the king who owes him the enormous sum of ten thousand talents. If we convert this into the euro, we will arrive at a figure of 3 billion euros.

The calculation is as follows. A denarius at that time was the wages of a day laborer (Mt 20:2). On 1 January 2008, the gross minimum daily wage for a person aged 23 or over was €61.62, which is slightly more than €50.00 net. For the sake of convenience, let’s assume €50.00. A talent is six thousand denarii, which is equivalent to €300,000.00. The slave owed his lord ten thousand talents. That is the equivalent of €3,000,000,000,000.00 or 3 billion euro.

The man can’t afford this. He cannot even make a deposit because he has nothing. In order to still be able to collect some of the debt, his lord orders him to sell him with his wife and children and all that he still has in his possession.

When the slave hears that, he throws himself prostrate before his lord and begs him to be patient with him until he has paid everything. This statement alone proves that the man has no idea how big his debt is and how impossible it is to pay it. If he had indeed wanted to pay his debt, he would have to work 164,383.56 years [€3,000,000,000.00/(365 days*€50.00)] day in, day out, without a rest day and without being able to spend one cent for what he himself would need.

Although the Lord of the slave recognizes his slave’s bluff and knows that his slave will never be able to pay him, he relieves him of all that debt. He does so out of his compassion for the hopeless situation of his slave.

It is extraordinarily disillusioning to see in the next scene how the slave, who has been remitted of an enormous debt, is acting toward a fellow slave who owes him the relatively small sum of a hundred denarii, that is €5,000.00. The mercilessness drips off. It is as if he immediately went looking for that fellow slave who is still a little in debt to him, because he “found” him. The grace shown to him has no effect on him. Instead of telling his fellow slave in the utmost gratitude what has happened, what burden has been taken away from him, he grabs his fellow slave by the throat and demands payment of the debt.

His fellow slave does the same as he did to his lord. The fellow slave falls down and begs him for patience until he would have paid. But this slave does not have that patience, for he has not been impressed by the way in which his lord has acted toward him and by what he himself has been forgiven. It is not about him forgetting it, but it has done absolutely nothing to him. He is not changed by it. This is the greatest ingratitude imaginable. Such ingratitude shows the hardness of heart.

When his fellow slaves see this, they are deeply grieved. They do not understand how this is possible. Instead of taking the law into their own hands, the fellow slaves do the only right thing. They go to explain to their Lord everything that has happened. We should do the same when we notice that there is no sense of mercy in an action. Then we can do nothing better than tell our Lord, with deep grieve in our hearts because of the hardness of a fellow slave.

When the lord hears about it, he has his slave summoned. It is his slave and he can do with this slave what he sees fit. He calls him “wicked slave”. That is what the man made of it himself by his actions. The lord recalled that he had remitted him all that debt because the slave had begged his lord. His lord also tells him that the grace shown to him should have determined his attitude toward his fellow slave.

This is important to us. We have been given great mercy by God Who has forgiven us our sins. We had a debt to God that we were unable to pay. Now that God has forgiven us this guilt, He expects us to show the same mercy to our brothers and sisters.

Such an attitude of ingratitude towards his lord, resulting in no mercy towards his fellow slave, causes anger in the lord of that slave. He hands over his slave to the torturers until he would have paid his debt, as he had said. That means eternal torture, for he will never be able to pay that debt.

The Lord Jesus attaches to the parable the serious lesson that we must forgive our brother from our heart, otherwise our part will be the same as that of the evil slave.