The World’s Greatest Prayer
Session #4: “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors”
Matthew 6:12
What does it mean to have a debtor? Anyone here have any debt?
There is a very simple, universal rule about debt: You _____, you _____.
If you want to test this rule some time, have a conversation with your bank officer and say, “You know, this debt is really getting me down. I think I’ll just stop paying.” What might their response be???
Why do you imagine loan sharks are called sharks? Why not the “loan bunnies” or the “loan birdies”?
Now in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus asks us to pray to the Father to forgive our debts. We know that He was not talking about our mortgage here, but the debt of our sin. That doesn’t surprise us, we know we need that forgiveness. But what may raise our eyebrows is that Jesus connects this forgiveness with our willingness to forgive others. Not only have we sinned against God, but, says Jesus, we have been sinned against by others. There seems to be a symbiotic relationship between our being forgiven and our forgiving others that we must explore and understand.
Please read Matthew 6:12
1. One of the most sobering words in all of Scripture must be the word “as” in this petition. Read verse 12 again and verbally emphasize the word “as”. Charles Williams said, “No word in English carries a greater possibility of terror than the little word “as” in that clause.” What do you think he means?
2. Because Jesus is making a correlation in this petition between the way you and I treat our debtors and the way God almighty will treat us, it is vitally important that we understand this little word “as.” To get at this concept, we’ll look at Matthew 18:23-35. First of all, what is the context that this parable comes out of? See Matthew 18:21,22.
Please read the parable of the unmerciful servant, Matthew 18:23-35
3. Look at verses 23 and 24. A king wanted to settle his accounts and a servant is brought to him who owes an astronomical amount of money. One “talent” in Jesus’ day was a vast sum of money. In a whole year, all the taxes collected from both Judea and Samaria to go to Rome added up to 600 talents, and here Jesus says 10,000 talents! What Jesus really does here in the original Greek language of the text is take the highest number in use and makes it plural. It would be like saying, “a man owed a zillion dollars.” We’re talking like national debt type dollars here!
The first question that comes to mind is how?! How could a servant have incurred such an impossibly titanic debt? Kings were not in the habit of giving away such staggering amounts of money! What can be the only answer? (Hint: it has something to do with the character of the king.)
The next question concerns the servant. What kind of servant would take such a huge amount from the king, blow the whole amount and make no provision for the day of reckoning? (Hint: it has something to do with the character of the servant.)
4. Now check out verse 25. Here we see that the king of lavish provision is also the king of the settled account. He’s going to one day settle accounts, he’s committed to justice.
How does the king settle the account?
It’s a strikingly harsh, but deserving punishment. The debt could not be paid so the man, his children, his children’s children and every generation thereafter would be sold until the un-payable debt could be paid. This would not have been a surprise to Jesus’ hearers because they (as well as we) knew the rule: You owe, you pay.
What does this teach us about the king (and God)?
5. Read verse 26. Now it gets interesting. The servant has nothing to loose, he’s desperate, so he throws up a hail mary (pass not prayer): “Be patient with me and I will pay back everything.”
Notice carefully what the servant says. Remember the size of the debt! What are the odds an unemployed servant will be able to pay back that debt? It’s a joke, it’s like trying to empty Lake Winnebago with a teaspoon. At best, this plea is an insult to the king’s intelligence. What was the servant really trying to do?
Also notice the absence of any repentance? Who was the servant relying on to get out of his debt?
6. Now be amazed as you again read verse 27.
Everyone who heard this parable, knew the rule (you owe, you pay), and laughed at the audacity of the servants response now waited for the ax to fall. But what is the verb that moves the king to cancel the debt?
Moved with compassion the king looks at this frightened, selfish, desperate fool and is moved with pity. So he does two things, and in the original Greek he does them in this order. First, he releases the man. No prison. Saves his family, frees his children, gives him back his home. But then he goes way beyond that, he forgives the debt. The king absolutely cancels the debt, not extends the payment period. Yet this mountain of debt just doesn’t disappear, somebody has to pay. Who pays?
The king pays. He’s offering a whole new system of debt management, a new rule. YOU OWE, I’LL PAY. This is the economy of grace. God says to us, “I’ll pay the un-payable debt so you can go free.” What was the price God paid for our debt?
The parable suddenly becomes our story doesn’t it. This parable illustrates the truth of a God who is lavishly generous and painstakingly just, and human beings have accumulated a mountain of un-payable moral debt before Him. We add to it every time we sin. But the King comes to us and says, “YOU OWE, I’LL PAY.” It cost Him His Son. And now, He says we live in the economy of grace. Thanks be to God!
7. Check out verses 28-30. The servant then goes out and finds a man who owes him literally a couple of dollars and says, “Pay back what you owe me!” We think surely he will do to this man what the king had done for him. Surely he would show grace because he had been shown grace. Surely since he had been forgiven a mountain of debt, he would forgive an infinitely smaller request. Because he had been on the receiving end of the biggest grace operation in history he would surely be just waiting to overflow with grace at the first opportunity as just a tiny way to say ‘thank you’ to the king. It would actually be an honor to forgive a debt. Right???
What was his astonishing response?
We are shocked when this man, who had been saved by grace, has no compassion, not a tear of pity is shed. In fact, just the opposite happens. The unmerciful servant grabbed the man by the throat and began to choke him. This is a gesture of violence and contempt, you do this when you want to hurt someone. He violates in every way the spirit, tone, word and deed of the king who showed him grace. What does this say about the servant?
Compare this servant’s response to grace with that of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:5-10.
It’s clear that the unmerciful servant does not understand grace because he never allowed grace to come to him. Remember, he never asked for grace in the first place, he just asked for time to pay it off. He did not want to “owe” anybody or be in anyone’s debt – he just wanted to get off the hook. There is a world of difference between wanting to get off the hook and wanting to be forgiven. Wanting to get off the hook is simply trying to avoid the consequences. Wanting to be forgiven is a desire to rebuild the relationship. You want to repent. You want to set right anything you can. Not to earn it, but because that is part of reconciliation. Talk about the difference between the two.
8. Now read verses 31-35. The servant is brought before the king again. This time there is no pleading. The king says, “You have badly misunderstood me. You thought grace meant that I was a fuzzy-minded, incompetent that would let you get away with whatever you wanted and abuse whoever you chose. You were shown forgiveness but you won’t give it. You were granted mercy but you won’t bestow it. You were showered with love but you won’t extend it at all. You live in the economy of grace but you have chosen to practice the economy of vengeance. So have it your way.”
So the unmerciful servant is thrown in prison until he could pay the un-payable debt. How long would that be?
Then comes that frightening verse, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive you brother from your heart.” Could Jesus have made it any clearer?
What is the point of this entire parable?
9. Back to the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts AS we also have forgiven our debtors.” Now, in light of this parable, how will you pray this petition?
10. Does this mean that God’s forgiveness for us is conditioned or predicated on our forgiving others?
11. Obviously the answer to #10 is “NO!” God’s grace is free with no strings of our efforts attached. But if we are forgiven what will we seek to do? Why will we seek to do it?
12. Close by praying the Lord’s Prayer together. Stop for a few moments after “as we forgive those who trespass against us” and reflect on our lesson today. Then continue on with the rest of the prayer.
BONUS MATERIAL ON FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness is NOT the acceptance of unacceptable behavior. It is not excusing or tolerating wrong doing. There was no person more forgiving than Jesus but He still told it as it was and confronted evil and called it so. So confrontation is still necessary even though there is forgiveness.
Forgiveness does NOT mean that automatically there will be establishment of fellowship. To forgive someone does not mean you have to like them. Sometimes, even through we approach a relationship in the spirit of forgiveness, there must be a parting of the ways because traveling next to each other in life may not be possible anymore. But people can part ways without remaining enemies.
Forgiveness does NOT mean that you throw your brains away, that there are no differences in the relationship or that you abdicate judgment, or that you remain in a dangerous or unhealthy relationship. But it does mean that you want and pray for the best for that person and you will work to do all you can for their best – no harm to them physically or emotionally by you.
Now we want to forgive like that but sometimes the wounds are so deep and the emotions so raw or the relationship is so broken that it just seems impossible. So how do we do it?
Three basic considerations of the Christian faith that can be made to bear on deep wounds in order to bring healing that leads to forgiveness.
1) To realize the extent of God’s forgiveness to each one of us as individuals. The extent of His forgiveness that makes us acceptable to Him when we don’t even feel acceptable to ourselves.
There is no way that another could have sinned against you as much as you have sinned against God, and yet He forgives you.
So our ability to forgive others is really a demonstration of how much we value God’s forgiveness in our own lives.
2) To realize what it took for God to forgive you. Check out Philippians chapter 2. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, equal to the Father in every way, the essence of God from eternity to eternity and yet because of the need of forgiveness, He emptied Himself and became human. And having been made human He grew up to be servant. And having become servant, He even went lower, He consented to share in our human condition to the point of dying. And His death was the death on a cross, the very bottom of the bottom. It was here that He said, “Father, forgive them…”
He took upon Himself our deepest wounds and shed His blood that they might be healed.
3) To realize that we are not an island unto ourselves. God the supreme forgiver, makes Himself available to us.
If there is a desire for reconciliation God is immediately in it because it is His love, His passion – to bring us together in community. So, whenever there is a need for God’s power in reconciliation, it is there! We simply say, “I know this is beyond my power but not Yours!” Then we commit ourselves to the process of reconciliation one step at a time.
See 1 John 4:4. We are empowered to forgive!
