A Visit with the Second Servant in Debtors’ Prison

Links: This post read as a YouTube video. Full playlist for this series.

Remember the other servant?  The one the Unforgiving Servant threw in prison instead of showing him mercy?  I thought so.  Most people don’t.

I know nearly everyone thinks this story is only about the relationship between the Lord and the Unforgiving Servant.  That’s why it is usually called the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant—even though Jesus did not give it this (or any other) title.

I’ve even seen it taught, and heard it preached, that this parable teaches that, when I refuse to forgive someone, I hurt only myself, not the person I’m not forgiving.  But that’s not what the parable teaches at all!

The parable tells us the stories of two of the Lord’s servants. One servant owed an astronomical debt to their mutual Lord which was forgiven, as we have seen in the last two installments. The second servant owed a much smaller debt to the first (“Unforgiving”) servant, a debt which, as far as we are told, was never forgiven.

Indeed, all we are directly told about the second servant is found in the three verses immediately after the Lord forgave the first servant his huge debt:

But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe!”  So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will repay you!” He would not, but went and cast him into prison until he should pay back that which was due.

Matthew 18:28-30 (WEB).

And that’s exactly where the story leaves this unfortunate servant—languishing in a debtors’ prison until he found some way to pay the forgiven (but, alas!, unforgiving) servant the full amount of his debt to him.

The rest of the story involves other people doing things about the Unforgiving Servant’s injustice to the second servant.  Unfortunately, none of these things was able to effect the second servant’s release from prison.

First, the Lord’s other servants, who in themselves had no power to change anything, saw what had happened, and went to the Lord to complain about it:

  So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told their lord all that was done.

Matthew 18:31 (WEB).

The Lord was also displeased, and did all he could to reverse the injustice that had occurred:

Then his lord called him in and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’  His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors until he should pay all that was due to him.

Matthew 18:32-34 (WEB).

And, as was said in the last installment of this series, the only thing the Unforgiving Servant still owed his Lord was the duty to have mercy on the second servant and release him from prison. This would permit the second servant to resume profitable service to the Lord.   

But wait!  Couldn’t the Lord have simply forgiven the second servant’s debt and released him from prison on his own authority? 

No, he could not do this, for the exact same reason that I can’t forgive your mortgage.  I’m not your bank. I don’t own your mortgage.  And the Lord didn’t own the second servant’s debt to the Unforgiving Servant, either.  So the Lord could not forgive that debt.

Until the Unforgiving Servant himself forgave the second servant’s debt, he had a legal right to have his debtor imprisoned, and even their mutual Lord couldn’t directly interfere with his exercise of this right.  Recall what was said in a previous installment—because God created us with free wills, forcing  a person to reconcile with another person (or with God!) is one of the things God cannot do. 

So the Lord did all he could do: he convicted the Unforgiving Servant of being “evil” because he would not extend his fellow servant the same mercy the Lord had shown him, and then made his life hard until such time as he showed mercy to his fellow servant.  He imprisoned him and turned him over to torture until he forgave his fellow. 

But there was no guarantee that the Unforgiving Servant would ever yield to the torture and forgive his fellow.  There was always a real possibility that he would go to his grave cursing his Lord for his torture and holding onto his legal right to have his unfortunate fellow servant pay his debt in full.

And, if this happened, both servants would simply remain in prison. 

So the Unforgiving Servant held the key that would release both servants from prison.  And it was the same key for both:  The Unforgiving Servant had to forgive his debtor’s debt.  As soon as he forgave, both would go free.