Anchor My Faith

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Scripture: Matthew 18:23-27

We ended the previous lesson realizing that it wasn’t the amount of faith that one had as much as it was the ability of God to meet our need. When the focus is on the amount of faith, then the focus is on us, but when it is about God and his ability and love for us, then the focus is on him. In this lesson, Jesus gives an example of the kingdom of heaven.

^{Mt 18:23} “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ 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.”

When you see the word “therefore” one needs to ask, “What it is there for?” It is a pointer back to what has been covered, that relates to what is to be covered. The previous material may provide information to help in understanding the new material, or the new material may be an illustration of what has been covered, to provide better understanding of that covered. We have looked at the steps to follow when a church member sins, which led to the question Peter asked about forgiveness, which leads into our current example about what the kingdom is like.

In the illustration that Jesus is developing, we have a king who has servants who may be officials through which large sums of money may pass. Their accounts are to be kept up to date and in balance and from time to time the king may call in these servants to check on these accounts. As the accounts of his servants were check, one was found in which the outflow to the king was much below, in fact ten thousand talents below the input to the account, indicating possible fraud. This flow of money may come from the collection of taxes in which more money was being collected than was being paid to the king. This was a reason why these servants of the king, these tax collectors, were so hated by the people who paid taxes.

The servant was ordered to balance the account, but when he was unable, he ordered him to be sold along with his wife and children and all that he owned. In 2 Kings 4:1 ESV: “Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”’ The widow’s children were going to be taken to cover her debt. The Jewish law allowed debtors to be sold to pay off the debt, but in time the law was changed by the enactment of the jubilee.

^{Mt 18:26} “So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.”

This servant owed ten thousand talents, which is estimated to be equivalent to several billion dollars today. It was an amount he could not possibly pay, but as was customary in an eastern culture, the servant, in polite reverence, prostrates himself before the master and implores him to have patience with him and he would repay. Based on the amount owed, his promise would be impossible to keep, but his master, showing compassion, seeing his distressed condition, he pitied him and his family and released him and forgave him the debt.

Conclusion

Each one of us was, or still is, like that servant. Because of our sin under God’s law we were in debt, owing an amount to God that was so large we would never be able to pay it. Because of love and compassion, God sent his son to die on the cross as our perfect sacrifice to pay the debt we could not pay, allowing him to show mercy toward us and by his grace through faith providing us with salvation.