Forgiveness is hard. It’s not just hard for us—it has been a human problem all the way back. Today’s gospel reading was occasioned by a conversation about forgiveness. Peter says to Jesus just before he tells this parable, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times?” Wow, he’s doing well, right? Not just once, but seven times. And Jesus, of course, responds, “No, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” And I don’t think he means work out the math and keep track. Then he tells this parable.

This parable is, I think, one of the greatest tools in our spiritual arsenal for figuring out how to forgive. I do want to make one comment, though, about the nature of the story. In the parable, it’s a king, but we all know who the king is supposed to represent. And yet, of course, at the very end of the parable the king delivers the servant over to the torturers until every last cent of what he owes is paid. He seems like a pretty strict guy.

It’s actually kind of interesting. If you look through the parables Jesus tells, when a character represents God, it’s not infrequent that God comes off as pretty strict, harsh, and even scary. Think about the parable of the talents, where the servant hides his master’s talent. What does he say to him? “Lord, I knew that you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown.” Or take the parable of the unjust judge. If you’re tracking who God is in that parable, he would be the unjust judge. I sometimes wonder if Jesus is having a bit of fun with us, because as human beings our biggest struggle is that we tend to think of God as harsh, unjust, maybe even terrifying—if he exists at all. Some might even prefer he didn’t exist, because that would feel easier.

It could also simply be that the Jews of the time had a very strong sense—drilled into them over many generations—of God’s power, justice, and even arbitrariness. Yet they also held a deep understanding of his goodness. Perhaps Jesus was playing with that tension. But whatever the case, the king in this parable wants to settle accounts, and he has a servant brought forward who owes him ten thousand talents. That’s obviously an ancient measurement we don’t use anymore. For perspective, one commentary notes that in 4 BC the total taxes collected in Judea, Samaria, and Idumea combined was six hundred talents. So this is a debt on the level of a nation-state.

There is simply no way the servant could pay it back. Yet he falls at his master’s feet and says, “Be patient with me and I will pay you all.” It’s absurd—he never could. And so he’s in danger of being sold into slavery with his wife and children. But the king forgives him. This is the real revelation of God’s character.

If Jesus is playing with our assumptions about God, we tend to assume that God is not only big and scary and perhaps kind of arbitrary, but also unforgiving. He has this law that he wants us to keep. And we have a debt according to that law, and we must pay it off no matter what. We'll be sold into slavery or thrown into prison or handed over to the torturers.

But what does the king do here? He forgives his servant the entire debt—all ten thousand talents.

So the servant goes away presumably very happy—like he dodged a bullet. But then he finds a fellow servant who owes him one hundred denarii. For context, one denarius was a day’s wage, so this was significant—maybe equivalent to about $10,000 today. His fellow servant begs him (and this is sounding familiar…), “Be patient with me and I will pay you.”

Now, this is a debt that he could actually pay: it's within human ability to pay something like this. It might be a stretch, and it might take a while, but it would be something that he could do. But the forgiven servant refuses, demanding payment, and throws him into prison.

Now this is where I usually point out—and I will point it out again—this is the biggest and most important weapon in our arsenal as we struggle with forgiveness. Because we can look at this and just see how stupid it is—how irrational and how dumb this servant is, what an ungrateful wretch he is. And, as soon as we manage to get to that realization (which hopefully isn't too hard), we need to then turn that inward and look at ourselves.

Have we gotten angry with somebody?

Have we got a grudge against somebody?

Has somebody hurt us?

It might be a very significant hurt, one that would take a very long time to repay, even if there was a willingness to repay.

But how often is our response exactly like that servant's response?

But today I want to go on and note there are other people in this parable. And that's actually kind of significant. Because, you know, it's not usually just God and me and the guy who was offended. All sin takes place in a context. And generally speaking, it's in the context of a community, in a context of relationships. There are other people who are involved.

And one of the things I've often said is how dangerous it is to take offense on another person's behalf. This is really dangerous. Don't do it! That person on whose behalf you are taking offence might end up forgiving the person who has done them the wrong. And then you still are hanging on to the other person’s hurt for dear life, while the person who has been hurt is now fine, having forgiven. They're reconciled and you're left stewing.

So, it's interesting to see, given this context of relationship, that there are fellow servants involved here. And the fellow servants hear about this incident. They've heard about both incidents, actually. They've heard about the generosity and the forgiveness of the king and how this person's been forgiven this completely unrepayable debt. And they also heard about this, what the servant then did to its fellow servant.

And what do they do?

Do they go and they tell everybody about it and gossip and maybe even go up and confront the servant?

No, they don't do any of that.

It's actually kind of interesting because that is our tendency if we're honest, right?

We want to set things right. We want to make sure everybody knows what was wrong. That they shouldn't do that.

But, that's actually not what they do.

They go to the king, and they tell the king about it.

And then the king deals with it, with the very harshness that we actually have come to expect.

This, I think, is our greatest tool for forgiveness. Forgiveness is a process. It’s hard. It takes time, patience, and energy—like paying off a huge debt. But it’s also important to get the channels of communication right. Where do we go when we see wrongdoing, injustice, or sin? We go to the King. Tell him about it. He will deal with it.

And as I say, I think Jesus is having a bit of fun here with our understanding—or, perhaps I should say, misunderstanding of God. I mean, how do we understand God?

His ways are higher than our ways. He is the one who governs the entire universe. There's no way we can understand really what his goodness is like.

We can come to some understanding of God through analogies, but when we start to evaluate God's righteousness or his goodness according to what a human being should do, we're just not qualified to judge him in his divine goodness.

But we should know that already. He's the creator and sustainer of the entire universe. Of course, he's beyond us. And the laws of the universe—even the spiritual laws that he has laid down—are immutable, and, in that sense, they tend to be pretty harsh.

But the good news is that the ultimate revelation that we have of his character is that he forgives.

Yes, he will also make sure that justice is done. That is important too. Because otherwise, we end up trying to take justice into our own hands and become a whole bunch of vigilantes running around hurting and killing one another. And that is not a good scene.

That's why God says, “Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord,” as the Apostle Paul quotes in Romans chapter 12.

So, leave judgment in the hands of the one who is qualified to judge the universe because he is the one who created and maintains it and who knows the secrets of men's hearts.

And when you see injustice, when you see wrongdoing being done, when you see sin that is maybe not being done against you, cry out to him.

He will do something about it.

But also, and again I want to bring us back to this tool in our toolbox.

Remember, as we fall down before him, as the chief of sinners, saying ,“Be patient with me and I will pay you everything” to the King of the universe:

* He is patient.

* He is loving.

* And he extends that love and mercy to us.

And the only expectation really that he has of us is that we then turn around and extend what we have freely received and freely give that same love and mercy to those around us, that our actions in this matter, that our forgiveness in this matter, that our love in this matter may mirror his.

That we might be to his glory, the glory of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit. Now and ever unto ages of ages. Amen.

Scripture readings referenced:

* Matthew 17:14-23

* Romans 12:19-21

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