The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant: Forgiveness
We continue our Pondering the Parables reflection/Bible study by looking at yet another “The Kingdom of Heaven is like …” parable. There are between 12 and 15 “Kingdom” parables, depending on how you categorize a couple of them. Most are in Matthew (and as we have seen, there is a heavy concentration of them in Matthew 13); there are some that are duplicated in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, and there is one, The Parable of the Growing Seeds, that is recorded only in Mark.
We turn our attention today to The Parable of the Unmerciful (or Unforgiving) Servant, which is found in Matthew’s fourth discourse (known as the Church, or Ecclesiastic, Discourse). The five discourses are longer segments that record Jesus’ teachings and sermons. The Unmerciful Servant is this discourse’s last teaching. We know we reach the end of a discourse because Matthew uses the same language at the end of each discourse, “When Jesus finished saying these things …” and then proceeds with his narrative of Jesus’ comings and goings.
Let’s read the text from Matthew 18: 21-35 … it’s a top-fiver for sure!
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[a]
And here we have to take a bunny trail after two verses. The first thing that jumps out to me is in the very first verse, the set-up to the parable, where Peter asks Jesus how many times a person should forgive a brother (or sister) when they sin against you. And he offers an answer: seven times … which seems a reasonable number given the symbolic natures of numbers in general in Hebrew thought and theology and the symbolic meaning of the number seven, specifically.
Seven is very special in Hebrew theology. It is G-d’s number, a number signifying perfection and completeness. Any time seven is used in Scripture, you can be sure there is deep theological and spiritual meaning behind it.
Thus, Peter’s suggestion seems correct: we should forgive completely and perfectly.
But that doesn’t satisfy Yeshua! With emphasis, Jesus replies, “I tell you not seven times, but seventy-seven times (or also it could be translated seventy times seven). And I think immediately, Peter and the rest of disciples perked up … because the phrase “seventy-seven times or seventy times seven occurs elsewhere in the Scriptures, specifically in Genesis 4: 24 as part of a story about a man named Lamech.
And by now, you know the drill … this is another example of a ‘Remez,’ the Hebrew word for “a hint” that invites the reader/hearer to go to that other text and read that story and in doing so, will likely shed light on the teaching at hand. Again, this is Biblical intertextuality, where one section of Scripture is commentating and “conversing” with another part of Scripture.
So, let’s go to Genesis 4 and see what Jesus is inviting us to bring into the equation. Chapter 4 begins with the story of the two brothers Cain and Abel. It narrates the events surrounding Cain’s murder of his brother. The text continues as Cain receives punishment from G-d: Cain will no longer be a productive farmer and will be a “restless wanderer on the earth.”
Listen to Cain’s plea to G-d at this point in the story (from Gen. 4: 13-15):
13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so[a]; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.
We see the number seven used here … to describe complete vengeance for those who might kill Cain, AND we see G-d demonstrating mercy and grace by giving Cain a “mark of protection.”
What follows is a short genealogy of six generations from Cain to a man named Lamech. By the way, six is also a significant Biblical number that represents imperfection, incompleteness, falling short of the mark, humanness, and also evil. The text implies to us the evil nature of this family unit that reaches its pinnacle of evilness with Cain, the sixth generation. Listen to Gen. 4: 23-24:
23 Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
24 If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
We note here that an alternate translation/interpretation of the Hebrew word ְפִצְעִ֔ (‘pay-TZAH’) which most Bibles translate as wounding has as its primary translation the much softer term ‘bruising.’ So, Lamech kills a man for bruising him and puffs his chest out and says that his revenge isn’t seven times (remember, this is complete and perfect revenge) rather it is the emphatic and over the top seventy seven, or seventy times seven).
So, before even getting to the teaching, we have a teaching. It’s classic Jewish compare and contrast. If evil will avenge seventy times seven, then goodness and Godliness requires nothing less on the forgiveness front!
I am sure Peter had wished he never asked the question! Because he probably knew that Jesus was going to expand on the theme, which he does with the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant … which we will now read!
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
A bunny trail: the amount that the man owed was upwards of $300,000,000 and we note here that one of the characteristics of a parable was the use of elements of surprise and reversal in order to get the attention of the audience. And certainly, this far-fetched and hyperbolic debt would grab attention!
25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii (less than $2,000) He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
There are several conclusions to draw from this parable. First, and most obviously, the Kingdom of God is a place of complete, perfect and radical forgiveness and mercy. It starts with G-d forgiving us in the extreme. As with the servant, we can truly say that the debt forgiveness was of “seventy times seven” quantity and quality. But there is more to this thing called forgiveness. It is my experience that when I have been wronged and have forgiven a person … that forgiveness often has an expiration date. Seldom am I able, through my own spirit, to keep a person in the completely forgiven camp. It seems that forgiveness must be renewed periodically, maybe even daily, and maybe that is the seventy times seven aspect of Godly forgiveness. And further, forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting the sins, acts of betrayal, etc. that have affected your being. Forgiveness doesn’t mean returning to abusive relationships or putting yourself back into the presence of evil people who have encouraged you to do stupid things in the past.
The other conclusion to draw from this passage and its commentary on the Kingdom of God is this: that conclusion is that the Kingdom includes elements of judgement. And this shouldn’t surprise as we saw in Matthew chapter 13. This parable, the end of the fourth discourse, warns against pending judgement for those who do not pass on G-d’s grace, mercy and forgiveness that they have received to others in their midst.
And so, we see another parable that acts like Old Testament prophesy, teaching us a lesson of the hope offered by the Kingdom (in this case Forgiveness and Mercy) as well as a lesson of warning that should guard us against unforgiveness.
Father God, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Amen.
Shalom,
D-Wach
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