4 September | Youth
«Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.» Matthew 18:27
The parable of the unforgiving servant is a true treatise on forgiveness. Jesus told this story in answer to Simon Peter’s question: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (Mt 18:21). Jesus then taught that forgiveness is not just about quantity, but about quality: “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (v. 22). In other words, Christ said, “Forgive as I forgive.” This is the “math” of Heaven.
In the story Jesus told, God is represented by a king who calls his servants to a reckoning. One of them owed him 10,000 talents. To give you an idea, one talent was equivalent to 16 years of work by an average person. Doing the calculation, we discovered that that servant’s debt was 160,000 years of work, that is, an unpayable amount! The king then felt sorry and forgave his debt.
This exorbitant value represents our “record” before God. We are sinners and deserve eternal death. But the good news is that Christ grants forgiveness to those who confess and turn from their mistakes. It does not matter the size of our sins, because “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
However, the story does not end there. That forgiven servant was not able to transfer forgiveness to one of his companions, someone who only owed him 100 denarii (about three months of work). He grabbed the servant by the neck and threw him into prison until he paid the debt.
Eventually, the king found out. Truly angry, he sent for the servant and, instead of forgiveness, offered him justice: he took the same action and sent him to prison until he paid the entire debt.
Christ’s lesson is clear: just as God forgave us, we must forgive our fellow humans. What have others done to you? Did they talk bad about you? Did they cheat? In the eyes of the King of the Universe, their debt is exponentially less than your debt to God. Therefore, “forgiveness” has nothing to do with what the other person did. Forgiveness is about what God has done for you. Go and share the grace you have received.