The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
The Parables of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction: As we move through our studies of the parables, we shift from some that were more theologically heavy the last couple weeks to one that is more earthly practical this week.
In this parable we have a king, who is calling the loans of his servants who owe him money. The first servant in the parable owes the equivalent of many millions of dollars. It was a big debt, and the man simply could not pay it. So he and his family would face the collections department of ancient times, they would pay off the debt as slaves.
The man is broken. He falls at the feet of the king, worshipping him, and begging for mercy. The king in response shows compassion and completely forgives the debt.
Then the man goes out. He finds another servant who owes him less than a thousand dollars. He demands that this servant pays him immediately. When this second servant begs for mercy, he receives none and is throne in prison.
The other servants who saw this were very ashamed of this man, and when the king heard it, He was furious. He put the first servant into the prison to pay back the debt that he owed in the first place.
What a story! If we are real with ourselves, we would step back and look at that first man and say, what an idiot! What a fool! And that is exactly the reaction that Jesus is after, so let us dive into the parable.
The Context of the Parable
The Context of the Parable
As I have said so many times already, the key to understanding the parables of Jesus is study them in their proper context. We need to determine what is happening around this parable in scripture that would cause Jesus to tell this short story and convey this spiritual truth.
In this case the parable comes at the tale end of Jesus answering two questions:
Question #1: Who is the greatest?
Question #1: Who is the greatest?
1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
The disciples were always vying for positions of power and importance. They wanted to sit at Jesus right hand in His kingdom. Jesus answers this question by picking up a littl child.
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Then He begins to teach about what that kind of humility looked like in practice.
A life of service to those who love Christ (v 5-6)
A life of self evaluation and denouncement of pride (v 7-10)
A life that Jesus himself modelled as he came seeking to save the lost (v 11-14)
Then he comes to a passage that concerns church discipline. (v 15-20)
“Moreover f thy brother shall trespass against thee.”
In the previous verses Jesus warns us against being the ones who cause offense, but now he flips the coin and addresses what to do when our brother has sinned against us.
He gives a multi-tiered approach to handling offenses.
Go to your brother one on one
Most of the time when someone has been offended by another person in the church they immediately skip this step and go for the second.
It is hard to look another adult in the eye and with humility express their fault
Go with one or two more to your brother that witnesses may be established
If the offense is severe enough that the erring brother will not repent then the matter is to go before the whole church
If he will not hear the church as a whole, then he is removed from membership and excommunicated.
Very rarely do offenses get to this point. Either it is a trivial issue that can be easily handled in step one, or the erring brother removes themselves from membership.
Question #2: How often do I have to forgive?
Question #2: How often do I have to forgive?
21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Peter is looking to keep a register of offenses, before he is off the hook. He is looking to be able to by-bass steps 1-3 and go right to step 4!
So Jesus answers
22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
Jesus is not telling us to keep a liter log book of offenses. To try and count out 490 times we have had to forgive someone would be exhausting, and that is Jesus point.
The Content of the Parable
The Content of the Parable
One servant was forgiven an impossible debt
One servant was forgiven an impossible debt
In this parrable we have two servants who each owe money. The money is recorded in different amounts.
The first servant owed 10,000 talents.
The first servant owed 10,000 talents.
What is a talent? A talent was a measure of weight typically for gold and silver in the ancient times.
The second servant owed 100 pence.
The second servant owed 100 pence.
A pence (penny, denari) would be the equivalent to one days wage. The typical Jewish laborer would make around 300 pence a year. A talent would be worth 6,000 pence. A day laborer would have to work 20 years to make 1 talent.
The first man owed so much money that it would take him 200,000 years just to work it off. It was an impossible amount. For all intents and purposes this mans life was ruined. He and his wife and his children would lose everything and spend the rest of their lives in as slaves to pay off this mans debt.
If this sounds stupendous to you, that is because it is meant to. Especially when you compare it to the other man.
One servant was held accountable for a much smaller debt
One servant was held accountable for a much smaller debt
This second servant owed the first a mere 4 months wage. He could have paid it back within a year. Next to the man who owed 200,000 years worth of debt this seems almost silly.
Yet this is how Jesus sees us when we refuse to forgive our brother.
The Application of the Parable
The Application of the Parable
The parable was given to answer 2 questions:
Who is the greatest?
How often do I have to forgive?
Child like humility tells us that we are not great, because we were the ones who had the impossible debt, and because we have been forgiven the impossible debt we must forgive others.
Perhaps you sit here lost in the metaphor. You say, “I am debt free! I don’t owe anyone millions of dollars!”
The debt I refer to is a spiritual debt.
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
We had a sin debt. Sin is anything we think say or do that breaks God’s law, and we have all commited sin.
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
God’s standard is absolute perfection. He is absolutely holy. His design for the world that he made sinless innocence, but we have all rejected that design.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The gospel is the good news that Jesus came into this world for HELPLESS sinners like you and I.
11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. 12 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? 13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
We are the lost sheep. We were headed to destruction. Just as the sheep left to his own devices might be devoured by the wolf or cast into a pit, so we left to ourselves would find our lives devoured by satan and our souls cast into hell.
Jesus in His mercy and grace saved us from such a fate, and is willing to save all who would fall at His feet for mercy.
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Because we were forgiven this sin debt, Jesus expects us to forgive other.
35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
A refusal for us to forgive is more than just an absent mind, it is sinful disobedience.
Expository Thoughts on Matthew Matthew 18:21–35: Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Let these truths sink down deeply into our hearts. It is a melancholy fact that there are few. Christian duties so little practised as that of forgiveness. It is sad to see how much bitterness, unmercifulness, spite, hardness, and unkindness there is among men. Yet there are few duties so strongly enforced in the New Testament Scriptures as this duty is, and few the neglect of which so clearly shuts a man out of the kingdom of God.
We as Christians, if we be in fact Christians, have no right or privileged not to develop a practice of forgiveness.
An unforgiving spirit reveals:
A Spirit of Pride - Practically, you think that your’re great enough in the kingdom of heaven to have not needed forgiveness yourself. We will never come out and say that, but essentially that is the message.
A lack of compassion - Forgiveness is a product of grace, and grace is inseparable from love. I cannot claim to love God and not forgive others, because if I love God, then I must also be willing to love those God loves.
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Fidelity to this world - A refusal to forgive may suggest that we ourselves have not experienced God’s forgiveness.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Just as we saw in last weeks parable, a good seed produces good fruit. A man who knows Christ, will become like Christ. A man who is forgiven will understand the need to forgive others.