Matthew 18:21-35
Let’s remember to pray for Jim and Marty – Debbie and Julie too (arriving home today)!
“Notice what you notice.” First point, a numbers thing – my Study Bible said that one talent was worth 20 years wages for a laborer. So 10,000 talents would be worth 10,000 x 20 x 365 denarii, equal to 73 million denarii. Or if they don’t work on the Sabbath, then 6/7 times 73 million denarii. Compare either number to 100 denarii!
What I noticed in this reading was the word “torturers” in verse 34 (“torturers” in the NKJV and NASB, “jailers” in the ESV). I wonder how someone in jail or being tortured is able to raise the cash to pay the debt. But when the debt is so huge (10,000 talents), this must have been a well-to-do servant, someone who could find a way to pay off that huge debt if he were given enough time. That is, I imagine a servant with his own vast holdings of property, for which he had borrowed extensively to buy, and he was highly leveraged.
So I’m imagining that the servant had collateral that he would have had to sell in order to pay off his debt to the king. It’s why he asked for delay and he would pay it all. But even if that scenario is true and he could pay it off over time, the king simply forgave him that huge debt sum, with no expectation of the servant having to ever pay it off – which, if this scenario could be true would have made the servant a wealthy man in his own right. That scenario makes his demands for payment of the lesser debt even more troubling – to demand payment of 100 denarii when you’ve just been gifted 73 million denarii!!
But let’s not forget the header to the story. The Kingdom of Heaven is being compared to this generous, merciful king. The King of Heaven can forgive huge wrongs if we are truly repentant. Let’s not forget that first half of the story! The King of Heaven can forgive huge wrongs, period!! The forgiven servant and the second debtor just adds another layer to the story. Our Lord can forgive us anything we have ever done, period!
But maybe, just maybe, that second debtor is ourselves, …if <we> forgive <ourselves> from <our> heart. (v. 35)
Slava Bohu!
To me, the beauty of this story—the astonishing, overwhelming mercy of the master—is deeply moving.
I think any attempt to explain it weakens the point Jesus seems to be making: that there was no way that the servant (even if he were a well paid steward of some kind) could ever repay that kind of debt, even though he protested that he would someday…
And of course, the parallel is our debt for our sins, which we can also never pay.
So sorry, Fred! I can’t buy into this explanation! 🙂