Matthew 18:23-35
The Lord said this parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and as he could not pay, his lord 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, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison till 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 lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord delivered him to the torturers, till 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.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Our Gospel reading presents us with a study of contrasts. A man, the servant of the king, owes his master a great debt. The king is settling his accounts, and his ledgers show that the servant owes him ten thousand talents. Even if you don’t what a talent is, it sounds like a lot. But when you do know, you realise that it is a staggering amount.
A single talent of gold weighed around thirty kilograms, which is worth over three million dollars in today’s money, an enormous sum. And the unmerciful servant owed his master ten thousand of them, or something like thirty billion dollars. It was a debt that the servant, if he was earning an average wage for the time, couldn’t have hope to repay even if he lived for a hundred thousand years.
Not being able to pay, the servant faces a terrible fate. As was the custom of the ancient world, he will be sold into slavery to help satisfy the debt. And not only he, but his wife and children and everything else he owes.
Facing such a catastrophe, the servant begs for mercy. He falls on his knees before the king and pleads for more time: ‘’Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything,’ he says. And the king, in his great mercy, takes pity on him and gives him far more than he asks for. Instead of additional time, he forgives his servant all of his great debt.
Now, if our Lord had stopped there, we would have here a parable concerning the great mercy of God towards His children. For, as the Church Fathers tell us, we are to see ourselves as the servant in the story, the king is God, and the debt represents our sins. Without God’s mercy, we are lost.
But, as we know, the story does not end there. It continues, following the servant as the leaves the presence of his master and goes back out into the world. There he encounters a fellow servant who owes him one hundred denarii. This man is also unable to repay his debt, but instead of showing mercy in the way mercy was shown to him, he has the man cast into prison until he should pay the debt.
Here, just as we need to understand the value of a talent of gold, we must also know what a denarius was. It was a small silver coin, and it would have been the amount of money that a working man would receive as his wages for a day’s work at that time.
The Fathers tell us that the amount this other servant owed represent the wrongs we suffer from those around us. And it important to understand that our Lord is not saying here that these are trivial. To those sitting listening to Jesus as he told this parable, one hundred denarii would have been an enormous sum of money, the kind of money these fishermen, shepherds, farmers, labourers, and other kinds of workers might have hoped to earn over the course of four months.
It was the kind of money that they were unlikely to have had in their possession at any one time; it was the kind of money that might well have represented the life savings of such a man if he worked hard and saved harder over the course of many, many years. It was the kind of money that none of them could afford to lose. And it was the kind of money that if they had been generous enough to lend it to a friend that they would be likely to be very upset indeed if, when the time came for the debt to be repaid, their friend told them he could not do so.
But that, I think, is the point. It is not that the amount owed by his fellow servant was tiny. It was not. But it was nothing in comparison to the debt that was owned by the unmerciful servant to his master. Or, as the Fathers tell us, the debt that each of us owes to God. The offenses our brothers and sisters have committed against us may indeed be great. But they are as nothing when compared to our own sins and the mercy we need from God.
But, again, our Lord does not stop with how this man treats his fellow servant. For when the king learns that his servant will not also show mercy, things do not go well for that unmerciful servant. The king hands him over to the torturers until he should repay every penny, something that he was unable to do when he first begged for mercy, and something that he will never be able to do.
And the final words of our Lord are ones that should be burned into our hearts and brought to mind every time someone hurts us or offends us or wrongs us in some way: ‘So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.’ The forgiveness of God we so desperately need ourselves if we are to enter into eternal life will be denied us if we do not also forgive others. And forgive them sincerely, from our hearts. If we refuse to forgive, we refuse God’s mercy and salvation.
Is it easy to forgive? It is not. But it is necessary. Pray to God to give you the strength to do so; even as you pray to Him to forgive you your sins. Amen.
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