Introduction
We love teaching Jesus’ parables – always have, always will! Imaginative story telling was a hallmark of Jesus’ ministry. It is one of the ways He connected with His audience, drew them in with compelling illustrations, and highlighted complex ideas about God in real-world terms that were readily understood by His listeners. Jesus was a master teacher, and the Parable Of The Unforgiving Servant is just one of many amazing examples of Jesus’ powerful methods of sharing the Gospel.
In this study, we will begin by first re-telling this parable ourselves in a modern setting that will hopefully help you connect with this story in the way Jesus’ original listeners did nearly 2,000 years ago. This is a powerful parable that speaks directly to the importance of forgiving others in response to the forgiveness God has already given. The message this parable contains is life-changing and should give each of us pause as we examine ourselves and how we relate to those around us.
As we step further into this month focused on forgiveness, we hope the timeless truth of Jesus’ message resonates in your heart and brings you into a place of contemplation and recognition of the magnitude and value of God’s forgiveness for your sins. Likewise, we hope that Jesus’ message spurs you on in your pursuit and study of what forgiveness looks like in your own life and how forgiveness changes you and the world around you.
In Him,
Alexis and Aaron
Opening Illustration
In order to begin our journey through the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, let’s first imagine a story that I think will help highlight this parable in a modern setting.
Imagine getting injured in an accident one day, so hurt that you call 9-1-1 and are taken to the hospital. Your injuries are severe, and you have to undergo months and months of surgeries, medicine and therapy in order to get back on your feet to be released. Every effort is made by the medical staff to heal you, and no expense is spared in your recovery.
Upon leaving the hospital, you arrive home and attempt to resume your life. However, the next day you check your mail and find a bill from the hospital. Your insurance has refused to pay your costs and left you to foot the entire bill. You examine the pages and pages of the hospital bill and realize that the entire cost of the treatment that saved your life is 15 million dollars!
That amount of money is more than you’d ever be able to make in several lifetimes, and you’re at a loss as to how you could ever repay it. Eventually, the financial director at the hospital begins calling and she demands full payment.
The financial director’s words are frightening and she threatens you with severe legal action for failing to pay. You’re afraid of losing everything you’ve ever had in your life over this debt.
You plead and beg with the financial director, explaining you need more time to figure out a plan. Hanging up the phone, you believe that your life is ruined and this enormous bill will haunt you until the day you die.
However, much to your surprise, you receive a quick call the next day from the financial director at the hospital. After reviewing your case, she has agreed to cancel the debt entirely, settling your bill at absolutely no cost to you.
You hang up the phone, but as you do, you recall a friend who you once loaned 8,000 dollars to help fund a business venture that failed to take off. Remembering that they’ve never repaid their debt, you visit them and demand instant payment of the 8,000 dollars. Your old business partner is now themselves scared and begging for mercy as you threaten lawsuits.
Unable to pay, you decide to file suit immediately and win a court decision awarding you the funds. The court orders your old partner’s wages be garnished directly from the paycheck of their current job until they pay back the entirety of the debt.
Meanwhile, the financial director of the hospital you once owed 15 million dollars picks up the newspaper and reads about the recent court decision in your favor. She is outraged to see that you mercilessly pursued a debt for 8,000 dollars so soon after being outright forgiven a debt of millions by the hospital.
Angered and indignant, the financial director calls you and says, “How could you? After all the money you were just forgiven…to turn around and sue an old friend over a few thousand dollars and have their wages garnished! It’s just appalling.”
The financial director continues, saying, “So guess what? Since you were so cruel and heartless, I’ve decided to reinstate your debt – you once again owe us the 15 million dollars. And we’re filing a lawsuit against you immediately, and we’re going to make sure every penny you earn is sent directly to us until your debt is paid in full!”
That’s a tough story, isn’t it? But that’s exactly the way Jesus would have intended for His original listeners to feel, because this is a parable that challenges and asks you to examine if you’re capable of forgiving others because you know God has forgiven you first.
But before we go any further, let’s read the Parable Of The
Unforgiving Servant as told by Jesus Himself.
The Parable Of The Unforgiving Servant
Matthew 18:21-35 (NLT)
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time.
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
Bible Study
Why did Jesus choose to tell this story? What was the purpose behind His illustration?
Jesus’ teachings were always challenging, He often tried to push beyond the common understanding of faith and bring His audience to a deeper understanding of God. And that is exactly what He does in this parable.
A quick examination of this parable clearly shows it is about forgiveness and hardheartedness.
As readers, we’re both amazed by the compassion of the King and dismayed by the servant’s greed and lack of gratitude.
But there is also a covert message woven into this parable that is very easy to miss without closer examination.
We will take a closer look at the subtlety of this message later on, but first, let’s lay some groundwork for taking a look at what is happening in this story.
In this story there is a man, let’s just call him “Joe”, who has an enormous debt. The original language, Greek, describes this debt as being “10,000 talents” in value.
So what is a talent?
A talent was an ancient measuring unit for precious metals like silver and gold and was the highest form of currency in the ancient Roman empire world where Jesus lived.
10,000 talents was a preposterously enormous sum of money – more money than even the richest man in the world would have owned.
Jesus’ original audience would have readily recognized how enormous this debt was. The effect on Jesus’ audience would have been similar to if we said today, “This man owed a trillion dollars!”
The audience would have recognized that there was no way that Joe or anyone, even the rich rulers of the world, could ever pay back a debt as high as this one.
This is a key concept in the parable – the debt was too high to pay, it was unreachable.
No human being could afford to pay it, not even the wealthiest person in the world. No matter how much money you had, or how hard you worked, no one could repay this debt.
I’m sure you are already drawing parallels between this man’s debt and the wages of sin and our own inability to be rectified back to God on our own.
We, like Joe in the parable, have no way to independently pay our debt. The value of our debt for sin is infinitely high, because it is turning against an infinitely valuable and holy God.
We have no way out, no way apart from God.
We owe too much.
And that’s where Jesus is leading the listeners of this story to first recognize that the debt was so high for this man, that there was no hope, no future.
When the king came to collect what was owed to him, the debtor, Joe, fell on his knees and begged for forgiveness. He pleaded with the king to have mercy and give him more time to figure out the situation.
The king, in what would have been a surprising twist for the original listeners, does turn to mercy and cancels Joe’s debt.
Joe was free and clear, and it’s a very triumphant moment. But it’s not the end of the story. Jesus often had much more to reveal in the twists and turns of His parables, and there is still much more for us to learn in this story.
Look at some of the examples from Jesus, Paul, and John on the importance of forgiveness and love.
COLOSSIANS 3:13 NLT
Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
JOHN 14:21 NLT
Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.
1 John 4:7-8 NLT
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
LUKE 6:35-36 NIV
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
MATTHEW 6:12 NLT
and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
EPHESIANS 4:32 NLT
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
1 JOHN 5:3 NLT
Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
John 14:23-24 NLT
Jesus replied, All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.
1 John 2:9-10 NIV
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:13-14 NIV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Yes, this Scripture is a challenging message.
If you can’t forgive others, then it raises the question of if you’ve really received and understood the Good News. Have you really received God’s grace if it isn’t changing you and the way you respond to others?
And that is where I want to lead you in this story, to the hidden message of The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant that is often missed. However, it is this meaning that I believe everything hinges on.
As we turn our attention back to the parable, the question before us is, “Why did Joe turn around and demand the money he was owed from Henry?”
Henry had almost certainly owed Joe the money for some time, so why did Joe decide to collect on it immediately after leaving the king’s presence?
Why did Joe, right after receiving forgiveness from his debt from the king, remember and pursue the money that he was owed?
The answer is quite simple. Let’s look at the text: Matthew 18:27-28 NLT
27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. 28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.
Immediately after being forgiven from his debt, Joe left the king’s presence and hunted down a person who owed money to him.
Again, why on earth would Joe do this?
It’s because Joe didn’t know, or understand, or fully comprehend, that he was in fact forgiven. He didn’t believe that his debt was clear and that he was off the hook.
There is no other rational explanation for Joe’s behavior other than he thought he was only off the hook for the moment.
Joe had no concept of total forgiveness.
Instead, he seemed to think that the king had only granted him an extension of time, or a second chance. Joe didn’t genuinely believe that anyone would ever forgive the entire debt. He couldn’t even wrap his mind around the grace and forgiveness that the king just displayed toward him.
Joe was incredibly fearful that the debt would return and the king would change his mind. He still believed that he and his family would be sold into slavery or he would be imprisoned. All of these scenarios caused him to hunt down another person who owed him money instead of accepting the gift.
If you really think about it, this portion of the story is very relatable and understandable because we come across examples of reactions like Joe’s all the time in our lives. There are many ways that fear, stress, doubt can take over and lead us to have a difficult time even comprehending our actions.
You see, if Joe had first received and fully accepted the king’s restitution, Joe would have never acted so hastily to scare and imprison someone who owed him a debt.
But Joe didn’t understand what was given to him, and therefore he couldn’t receive it.
It wasn’t that the king wasn’t clear that Joe’s debt was eliminated, but Joe was undoubtedly terrified before the king and he wasn’t hearing or receiving the king’s message because his mind and heart were preoccupied with his own fears.
The king tried to help him, but all Joe could think about was how to fix the problem himself. Joe couldn’t accept the most gracious gift he’d ever been given because he was so focused on figuring out how to save
himself.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever had difficulty accepting a new reality, even if it’s to your benefit? Perhaps you’ve struggled to accept a truth God has tried to share with you.
We often have a hard time accepting God’s grace and love, but there is so much danger in our refusal to accept all He wants to give, and this is what Jesus is trying to warn us about in this parable.
Jesus wants to teach us that God’s grace doesn’t mean much unless you fully receive it.
A lot of times people only partially receive God’s grace. They live with the attitude that they’re not good enough, that they have failed God and they can not overcome their brokenness compared to God’s holiness. While they like the idea of God forgiving them, they have a very hard time receiving it in their hearts and lives.
While this stance may feel very real and true, or even honoring to God, I can assure it is not and it impedes the Gospel from fully penetrating your life.
We ALL have fallen short of the glory of God and yet this fact remains, that while we were still sinners Christ Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8).
To not receive God’s forgiveness and grace is essentially rejecting Jesus’ sacrifice and saying there is nothing that can be done to bring you to God.
And this mind frame is exactly where the enemy wants you to be.
Evil wants you to feel shame, regret, despair, etc. It wants you to feel like you will never measure up. In this way, evil wants to trick you and rob you from all that Christ has bought with His blood.
For when we cannot receive the Gospel and instead wallow in our guilt and iniquities, we are operating in our own strength and our own will, just like Joe in the parable.
And when we do this, we can do very harmful things out of desperation, just like Joe.
While this parable is clearly about forgiveness and forgiving others just like the king in the story, the underlying principle that all of it hinges on is fully receiving God’s grace. Because without His grace, we are on our own.
I want to draw your attention to the beginning lines of this parable, which is the reason Jesus tells this story in the first place,
Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”
Forgiveness is the Gospel.
Without forgiveness, there would be no Good News.
This teaching from Jesus isn’t taken seriously enough. We desperately need to be allowing God the space and time to cultivate our hearts, but when we hold on to unforgiveness and pain, then we are ultimately hurting ourselves.
Of course, I am not saying that if a tragedy hits you, that you must simply respond in forgiveness and love. There is a process for everything, and God meets us where we are.
The timetable and process looks different for each person because God truly works with us where we are. Since we are all unique, this also means that our relationship with God is special and different for each one of us.
All God wants from us is a spirit of willingness and dedication, the rest is up to Him. We need to seek Him in all things, especially our pain and hurt, and be willing to go wherever He leads.
It really is that simple, it’s a choice over and over again to return and remain in God and wherever He calls you!
So yes, let us always choose forgiveness, but let’s first make sure we have fully received the forgiveness and grace from God our King!
Questions
- What does receiving God’s forgiveness look like in your own life? How can understanding His forgiveness change your actions and thoughts?
- What would rejecting God’s forgiveness look like in your life? How would you act or think differently if you didn’t understand yourself to be forgiven?
- How valuable do you perceive God’s forgiveness for your sins to be? Does that forgiveness feel tangible, or lofty and hard to understand? Why or why not?
- How do you feel about “Joe” in this parable? Do you relate to him, or do you find his actions to be difficult to understand?
- How do you think “Joe” should have responded to “Henry” who owed him such a small amount? What should “Joe” have said and done instead of going after him for the money?
- How would you summarize Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness from this parable in your own words? What do you personally think God wants to teach you from this story?