Matthew 18:21-35 Commentary

As we discussed last week, Peter’s question about forgiveness escalates as it personalizes the conversation about wrongs done against one another. Whereas last week intentionally sets accountability front and centre, this week forgiveness takes center stage. The two belong together. 

We might understand the parable as describing internal accountability: we have been forgiven and therefore know the power of forgiveness and ought to forgive others. 

Of course, the object lesson comes by way of contrast: the servant who is forgiven much refuses to forgive very little. Hypocrisy doesn’t seem like a robust enough word to describe his actions. No, something more vindictive feels at play—like the servant played his master, another swindle like all the money he stole. But the fact of the matter is, begging his master for mercy was the only play he had left; he was caught red-handed and knew there was no way he or his family would be able to get himself out of the debt. He asks for patience and promises to repay.

The Master has pity—feels sympathy for this servant, even though he knows that the man will not be able to pay. The Master does the unthinkable and forgives the debt, releases the burden and sets the servant free. No longer under threat, the man has gotten out of the jam!

What drives this man to so easily forget what he has just experienced? Fear? Shame? Does he feel untouchable? Powerful? Perhaps he’s twisted the events in his head and somehow thinks that he’s the one who concocted his freedom, swindled the Master yet again but this time getting his life and freedom instead of money. Somehow, grace has become something he’s earned, had a right to. And because of that, grace has become something under his control.

At least, that’s what it seems when he comes across a fellow servant who owes him a pittance—a rounding error—in comparison to what he himself has been forgiven. (100 denarii is about 100 days wages, but just one talent is worth 15 years’ wages and the forgiven slave owed 10,000 talents!) The man lacked the internal accountability to check himself. Even more violently than he himself experienced, he punishes his debtor and shows absolutely no mercy.

Do you notice how the explicit procedure laid out in last week’s passage isn’t the one that’s followed this week? The other slaves are greatly distressed about how the forgiven servant has handled things but they don’t talk to him; instead, they go back to the Master. I imagine that the forgiven servant is dangerous, or that the other servants are aware of their powerlessness so they go to someone who actually has the status and position to hold the offender accountable. They keep the spirit of the process even as they go against its steps. The Master offers the accountability that the man lacked within himself and that his fellow slaves could not provide.

The point of the parable is that forgiveness isn’t just a concept or tool to be manipulated or used, it is a posture and state of the heart that takes over our very being. For forgiveness to be known, it must be practiced and applied. Otherwise, we are tortured by the life lived in vengeance and reckonings, waiting for the score to catch up to us. To be forgiven is to recognize mercy. We are given access to a deep well when we live in the freedom God’s forgiveness has given us. We are free to do likewise, not to go back to doing the thing that trapped us in the first place.

Forgiveness is not a one-time thing—something to be taken but not given. Jesus tells Peter he can forgive over and over and over again. The parable surprises us because it seems like a story of forgiveness failing. The Master forgives but the forgiven person does not. After listening and sitting with this story, it hits us like it probably hit Peter and the disciples: the character we are meant to identify with is the servant, not the Master. We do not set the rules, but we live from what is in our heart. We ask how many times do we need to forgive a small thing because we’ve forgotten how much of our own stuff has been forgiven. The parable provides the accountability we didn’t know we had coming. 

Textual Point

The numbers hold some meaning in this passage. Jesus says we ought to forgive 77 times and some scholars point to the fact that this is a reversal of Lamech’s promise to take revenge in Genesis 4. Within the parable, the amount of 10,000 is the highest number in accounting, so basically, the servant’s debt is unfathomably large. 

Illustration Ideas

I’m reminded of Nathan’s confrontation of King David about his sin and abuse against Bathsheba and Uriah in 2 Samuel 12. As the former shepherd hears a story about a rich man stealing a poor man’s sheep, he burns with anger, not realizing his own hypocrisy.

I think of this video a lot whenever I’m reminded of how we so quickly fall back into something we’ve just been freed from. In less than 20 seconds, a sheep is rescued and leaps right back into the ditch it was just pulled out of…