Matthew 18:23-35

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Mercy Required to Enter the Kingdom

We see here another parable around comprehending the nature of the coming kingdom. We have seen in Matthew 13 the kingdom of heaven compared to a mustard seed: the smallest of seeds which grows larger than all the other garden plants; to leaven hidden in flour: tucked away and unnoticed, yet what causes the bread to rise and take shape; to both a hidden treasure and a pearl of great value: one found by chance, the other specifically sought after, yet in both instances being of such value that it’s worth selling all you own to obtain. Finally, Matthew 13 shows us the kingdom as a net which catches all, but that leads to a sorting of the righteous from the evil and a place of eternal separation for the wicked.

• The Severity of the Debt

Now, in Matthew 18 we see a parable of extreme mercy, hypocrisy, and justice. The first thing that stood out to me was the magnitude of the servant’s debt – 10,000 talents would have been about twenty years’ worth of wages. We see the plan of the master to sell the servant along with his family and all he owns, but even this wouldn’t have been enough to settle accounts. This reflects the unconquerable heights of our own sin, a debt that is so enormous it’s impossible for us to pay. Paul wrote in Romans 7:18-25,

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

Here we see the truly impossible war we fight against our own flesh and against the world – impossible if not for God. As He said in 2 Chronicles 7:14,

“…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Or as Jesus said in John 3:17,

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

The insurmountable debt is forgiven when we turn to God, confess our sin stained nature and repent.

• Giving What we have Received

“But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.”

20 years’ worth of wages was an unfathomable amount to pay, but here we see the servant who was just shown incomprehensible mercy over his massive debt behaving cruelly and hypocritically over 100 denarii, the amount of a day’s wage. Paul wrote in Galatians 5:19-24,

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Similarly, Jesus tells the Pharisees in John 8:47,

“Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

While debated and contested by other faiths, it is a point of fact that salvation in Christ is faith based. There is no amount of work that can gain us entry into the kingdom (which is why the twenty year wage debt is so relevant) Paul puts this very succinctly in Ephesians 2:8-9,

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

So the matter of faith verses works is without question. There are however signs, fruits and works that accompany and validate true faith. As James wrote in James 2:14-17,

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

This is in no way a contradiction, but a clarification. The unforgiving servant displays a distinct lack of the grace he’s just been shown, showing a wickedness and works of the flesh in his behavior against his fellow servant in the absence of spiritual fruits.

• Judgement and Forgiveness

“When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

We see first that the unforgiving servant’s deeds do not remain hidden from the master. Jesus says in Luke 12:22-31,

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”

While what Jesus says here may not seem to directly correlate with the parable, it speaks to God’s omniscience, the intricacies of his knowledge and plans. There is nothing that remains hidden before God, nothing in the dark that will not be brought to the light.

Next, we see the master deliver justice to the unforgiving servant. Paul writes in Romans 12:19, quoting Deuteronomy 32:35,

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”

The master exacts vengeance, delivering the same judgement that the unforgiving servant passed upon his fellow. We are then told that this mirrors what God will do to those who withhold forgiveness from our brothers, not just in word but in our hearts. This ties into what Jesus said concluding His instruction on the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:14-15,

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

This also lines up directly with what He says in Matthew 7:1-5,

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

There’s an interesting contrast here that merits consideration. We are told not to judge, we are told that vengeance and justice are the Lord’s. This is supported time and time again, in Romans 14:13,

“Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.”

In 1 Corinthians 4:5,

“Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”

In James 5:9,

“Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”

The fact that it is not our place to pass judgement seems indisputable, however we see from what Jesus said in Matthew 7, (“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”), that there is a call to take action to help our brothers when they stumble. So, what exactly are we to do? The distinction is shown in the book of Job, or more pointedly in John 9:1-3,

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”

We see in the book of Job, a righteous man afflicted with trials and suffering to test him in order that his faith might glorify God. Large sections of the text consist of his friends, with ever increasing conviction counseling him to repent, believing that his suffering can only be the punishment from committed sin. This cultural assumption is revealed again in John 9 when the disciples see the blind man and assume that his affliction is the result of sin. This is rebuked by God in Job and more gently corrected by Jesus in John 9, showing that we cannot judge the spiritual condition of a man based on his standing or condition in the world. It is not that we cannot see good from evil, it is not that in the Spirit we should not help and hold our brothers and sisters accountable to the Way.  But it’s not about finger wagging and moralizing, it’s not about standing on the high ground and turning our noses up at those suffering in a fallen world or beset by sin. Jesus says right before the text we started in, in Matthew 18:15-17, 21-22,

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector…” “… Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

He says again in Luke 17:3-4,

“Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

We see not that there is to be no accountability among believers, but that our driving goal and thirst should always be toward love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. This is what is right, good, and proper – it’s what we have been shown by God toward an insurmountable debt and so it is only fitting that we show it to others in return. To withhold this is disgusting, hypocritical and spits in the face of our Father and the grace he has offered us.

Pastor Chris’s sermon on the text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R48zjY2Em8s