“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘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?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Now before I continue to much further I want to give credit where credit is dew. the other day as I was heading to work I was listening to walk in the word on Moody radio. James Macdonald was talking about forgiveness in a seres they have going on now called have the funeral. because my drive to work is about 15 minuets I didn't get to hear the whole thing but I did hear really stuck me and I wanted to share with all of you what I learned from the clip. a lot of what I will wright today come from that sermon.
if you want to hear the whole series of sermons you can find it here on
http://www.jamesmacdonald.com
I want to talk this passage and walk though it section by section so I will post the verse then write a little bit about it.
Matthew 18:21-22
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.
This is an introduction to the parable to come, here peter is asking the lord how many times must he forgive someone, thinking that maybe after so many offences we can chose to not forgive someone. but imagine if our God was like that; nope sorry that was your 1,851 sin I only forgive 1,850. how many of us would have even made it to our 5th birthday? our God is a God of forgiveness and so should we be a people of forgiveness.
Matthew 18:23-24
Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
Here we have a compression were Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God and bringing it to a level that we can understand. This is the only way we can learn about the kingdom of God with our limited intelligence compared to God. The king in this parable is God and the servant is you. I looked up what a talent was but could not find a strait answer to what it was but one site, yahoo answers (really great site to get information from right) said that one talent is about the equivalent to $360,000 so in essence this servant owed $3,600,000,000. Let that sink in a second. we do not owe God $3,600,000,000 but our sins weight is that heavy something that we could never handle on our own. Just let that sink in of a second. seriously take a moment before you continue reading this blog.
Matthew 18:25-27
And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
Clearly this is something we can not deal with on our own but we can admit that we have done wrong and ask God for his Mercy. That is what this servant did after he heard the consequence of his debt he asked for Mercy to be shown to him and the master gave him not only Mercy but also forgiveness of his debt. Not only will this man not have to pay the consequence of his debt but he has also been wiped clean of it he now owes nothing to his master. what a great thing to hear as a sinner and believer in Christ. Our debt is insurmountable and the consequence is unbearable. But God full of Mercy and grace forgave us our debt and set us free from the consequence of our sin. Can we just let that set in also. How great and powerful our God is and how great a love he has for each and every one of us. take a moment and let that settle in also.
Matthew 18:28-30
But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
So after being forgiven such a Great debt he probably walked out of there feeling pretty good, what compeled him to do what he did next is beyond me. But lets all take a second to really stop and think about our own lives and when we have been just like this man and chose not to forgive someone when we have been forgiven much. Also lets take a look at how much 100 denarii is compared to ten thousand talents. biblehub.com puts a denarii at about the equivalent of 20 us cents. so 100 denarii is about $20. this man had just been forgive of such a great debt why could he not forgive this little debt? How can we not forgive others of the wrong things they have done to us when we have been forgive such a great debt?
Matthew 18:31-34
When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘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?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
God sees everything we do and he knows all that we have done and will do, he is outside of time. The master was very unpleased with his servant and rightfully so. The master calls him in and turns him over to the jailers or in some translation the tormentors, till he could pay back his debt. You may ask yourself what debt hes was already forgiven? Did the master really want him to pay him back his debt or was there another debt that he is talking about? lets remember that the servants debt is Representative of our sinful condition and the masters forgiveness is our salvation. Now if you take it as the servant must pay back his original debt then that would mean that we lose our salvation if we cause not to forgive someone. I do not believe this way, I believe that the debt is the debt of not showing Mercy to his fellow servant by not forgiving him. When we chose not to forgive someone we chose to carry around the burden and the hurt we are turned over to the tormentors.
Im not saying that it is always easy to forgive some one, but I am saying that it is important and not only that but its necessary. Sometimes it will take some time to forgive someone and thats ok just keep praying about it and choosing to forgive them. As someone once told me every time you think about that person say I forgive them till one day you actually mean it.
I hope this has helped as much or more then it has helped me.
God Bless
