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The next part of Jesus’ discussion of forgiveness in Matthew 18 asks the question “is infinite forgiveness shown to us by God. and are we supposed to do the same?”
Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?”
Peter thought he was being really generous. The rule of thumb in those days was you get your revenge. Maybe you might be merciful two or three times, but you get your revenge on your enemies. Seven times? That was a lot!
So, Jesus’ answer would really have shocked Peter:
Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.”
OK, there are two different lines of thinking in the commentaries about what “seventy times seven” actually means in this verse:
It could mean just 70 multiplied by 7 is 490 times. So, on the 491st time do we get to take revenge? I don’t think so.
But even 490 is more than the number of times most people will sin against me in a lifetime.
The other line of thinking is that it means 70 times 70 times 70, repeated 7 times, or 70 to the 7th power, which is that big number written on the slide: 8 trillion, 235 billion, 430 million times. This is more than the number of seconds in 263 thousand years. That’s a lot of times for my brother to sin against me!
And what is even more important, it was a lot farther than you could count in Roman numerals!
So, after Jesus had just told Peter that the number of times he needed to forgive his brother was either a big number, 490, or a number so large that no one even knew how to think about numbers that large in those days, essentially an infinite number of times, he told a story to illustrate it:
Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he had begun to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
Well, in this story, the Kingdom of Heaven–the Kingdom that’s all around us, the Kingdom of the Heavens, where God operates from in our lives, is like a king. The king is the picture of the kingdom. The king wanted to settle accounts with his servants. Guess what? We’re the servants. One servant was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. It isn’t stated here. but the talent was a measure of gold currency. Now here we have some big numbers again:
I’ve seen different estimates of what the value of 10,000 gold talents would be. One of them said nine million years’ wages, approximately. Another one said enough to pay all of Rome’s Legions for more than 50 years. It’s like that big number, 70 to the 7th power–it’s such a large number that people couldn’t even think that big.
But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!’
OK. This huge number, 9 million years’ wages–will selling the servant, and his wife and children, yield that much money? Nowhere close. But it was the lord’s right to do that. He had a right to collect on his debt as much as he could. A legal right there. But the servant, the one who owed this huge debt that was so big you couldn’t even think of the number, fell down and knelt before him (I think I would, too!), saying, “Lord, have patience with me and I will repay you all!”
The “have patience” is a genuine request. The “I will repay you all” is very wishful thinking. There was no way this servant was ever going to be able to pay nine million years’ wages, not in one lifetime or ten thousand!
The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt.
Well, this is unexpected! This lord, the picture of the Kingdom and of the King over that Kingdom, God, when the servant begged for mercy, showed mercy. He wasn’t hearing the “I will repay all,” he was hearing the plea for mercy, and he was moved with compassion. He really felt for the guy!
And he released him, released him from his imprisonment, released him from the debt, and forgave the debt, And you know what? Forgiving a debt had the same effect then that it does now: once a debt is forgiven, it is permanently gone. You can’t bring it back up again.
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!”
Well, this servant did not do for his fellow servant what his lord had done for him. This other servant owed him quite a bit of money, really, but not near what he owed the lord. And he grabbed him by the throat, got really aggressive, choking him, saying “pay me what you owe me!”
Here we have more numbers. One hundred denarii were about 100 days’ wages–a little over three months’ wages–for an average laborer. So, the second servant owed the first servant a substantial debt. It was a lot of money. Not trivial at all. It is a picture of the injury caused by a fairly serious sin. Not a little thing.
But it was a debt the second servant could likely have repaid, if given a few years to do it. All the second servant needed was mercy–and some more time!
So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will repay you!”
Well, where have we seen these words before? We have seen them when the lord called the first servant in to collect his debt. The first servant, the one who owed the huge debt, the debt so big that no one could even think of it, fell down and said exactly the same words: “Have patience with me, and I will repay you!”
Does this work for the second servant?
No, it does not!
He would not, but went and cast him into prison until he should pay back that which was due.
The first servant, the one who had owed the huge debt, would not have mercy on the second servant, who owed a much smaller debt–one he could actually repay if given some mercy. Instead, the first servant used his legal right–it was his legal right to do this–to cast the second into prison until he should pay back what was due.
But now, a question: how was the second servant supposed to pay back anything while he was in prison and not able to work?
Well, that’s a good question.
And we’ll leave it right there for today, with the first servant running free and the second in prison until he makes a payment which he now can’t make.
Next: A Visit with the Unforgiving Servant on the Rack. What did he Still Owe?
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