"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

 

            I was talking to Carl Ball of Love, INC. about a situation where I felt manipulated by some people who came to the church for financial help. His response was to say, "Welcome to the world of helping people who are in poverty. When people are poor, they feel desperate, and will often do whatever they feel they must in order to get their needs met. Sometimes they don't tell the truth and they can get angry with you when you do not give them what they want."

            I think that applies to all people in some ways. If you stress people around financial matters, they will often act out of character.

            So when I read this parable, I saw that in it we meet three desperate men, each of which is feeling the pressure of financial strain. The first is a king who feels the need to settle accounts. When we find out the amounts owed him by servants, we can well understand the pressure he feels. He has loaned out way too much unsecured money. The first servant owes him 10,000 talents, which in today's language is a zillion dollars.

            Now, why would a king loan out so much money? Perhaps Caesar deregulated the Royal Savings & Loan industry? No, it's just a story Jesus is making up here. Some commentators, though, feel that he may be referring to a custom of contracting with individuals for tax collection. This servant may have been responsible for a whole region for taxes, and he just did not get them collected. That makes the story a bit more believable. But in the end, the point is that a king is under pressure to collect some pretty big sums of money or else he is in real financial trouble, and the servant standing in front of him has a debt that is far beyond his ability to repay.

            So the king, who is stressed about money, gets angry and threatens the man. Klyne Snodgrass points out that the threat of selling his wife and children into slavery was not legal under Jewish law. But that does not mean it never happened. It is a desperate move, anyway.

            The servant begs for patience. Literally, what he says is, "defer your anger over me." He begs and promises things he cannot possibly do. He is indeed desperate.

            Now the king has compassion on the man. He does not merely extend the debt repayment schedule; he forgives the entire debt. Out of compassion he acts in a way that sets the servant free, but it comes at great cost to the king. He cannot afford to write off ten thousand talents. Yet he does.

            So here we stop the story, and enter into a reflection on the king as a figure of God. Jesus is leading his listeners here into the depth of God's love and mercy. For in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God will release people from an enormous debt they cannot pay. The sin of the world cannot be measured, cannot be repaid, and cannot be worked off with good deeds or promises of doing better.

In this story Jesus is also speaking of the astonishing forgiveness associated with Jubilee. The Jewish people were instructed in the Old Testament to announce from time to time a Jubilee, the canceling of all debt and the return of all land to its original owners. The trouble is, they never did announce a Jubilee. Jesus here announces a Jubilee from the enormous and unpayable debt of sin. At the cross that debt was paid.

            The next part of the story is upsetting to the listeners. Their cheers for the servant-set-free quickly fade, even turn to cries of outrage. For the one set free soon met another servant, who was also desperate. Though he owed just a small sum, he also could not pay. Now the servant just set free grabs this man by the neck and chokes him. The choking servant is truly in a desperate position, but he summons enough air to say the same words the first servant had just said to the king, "defer your anger over me." But the first servant refuses to be merciful, and actually has the man thrown into prison. Both servants seem desperate for money. The one who had been shown mercy now demands justice.

            Those who listen to the story do not like this. They begin to hiss and boo. Some shout their outrage. It is puzzling why this first servant cannot forgive a small debt. But money does strange things to people. The servant seems desperate for the money. He cannot put two parts of his life together. He can receive, but he cannot give. He can be forgiven, but he cannot show mercy. He can see how his actions made the king vulnerable, but he demands his own security.

            So the king confronts the man. The key is in verse 33, which in a literal reading states, "Is it not necessary for you also to show mercy to your fellow servant as I have shown mercy to you?"

The story ends with the man receiving his punishment. You can see by now the crowd is cheering. "That's right, Jesus, he got what he deserved."

            Then Jesus looks at the crowd. Now the story is over.

            "This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

            It is hard to forgive. It is hard to extend mercy when we want justice. It is hard to treat others in the same way God has treated us.

            What is the point of this teaching?

            There is to be in our lives a connection between being forgiven and forgiving, between receiving grace and extending grace. We can so often compartmentalize our lives. We receive grace and love from God, but then rather than loving others we become consumers of love, and then we cannot give. We do not always connect the grace we have received from the Lord to our giving, our stewardship.

            Here is how it works:

•     I am a generous person and I want to be, yet sometimes I know I am not. I am cheap. I grasp and hold, even in petty ways.
•     I am a loving and forgiving person and I see myself in that way. Yet sometimes I get stuck in vindictive or vengeful thinking, and I call it justice or fairness.
•     I am a hospitable and giving person, and I like it when I extend myself in that way. Yet sometimes I am tired and I simply want to rest, and then I become a consumer. I have a tendency to not return to hospitality after I rest. I build a permanent home in my comfort, rather than just pitch a tent for a short time.

            How do we deal with this issue of getting stuck when we are under stress?

I think we must begin by returning to the oceans of God's grace. When the servant felt the urge to choke his brother, he should have stopped right then, gone back to the king, and heard again that his debt really was forgiven, that he was free. We need to go back again and again to God the King and hear of his love for us and hear him say, "You are free and forgiven."

            Then I think we need to focus on living each day. Jesus says each day has enough trouble in itself. I think we need to sing more often the old hymn,

"Day by day and with each passing moment,

Strength I find to meet my troubles here.

Trusting in my father's wise bestowment,

I've no cause for worry or for fear."

            Life is hard. We need to be careful not to take on too much, and not to allow our worries about tomorrow to stop us from living today in God's grace. We do not need to rely on our own strength. We would be surprised what God can do, if we would ask him, and wait upon him.

            Finally, I think it helps if we can see that our giving, whether in ministry or in finances, connects with something larger. Even our forgiving others is not just about that one relationship, but is about the Kingdom of God. The money we give is not just about a church on a corner that has some programs. It is a worldwide mission and it is one part of a great kingdom. We do the will of God in small and incomplete ways. But it is all used by God for the great jubilee he is proclaiming in Christ.

            Amen.