Wednesday, March 20, 2024
The Parables of Jesus Series
Tonight’s Study – Session 11: The Parable of The Unforgiving Servant
Introduction: In the Parable of The Unforgiving Servant, Christ teaches the great need for those who have been forgiven by God to forgive others themselves. In God’s great mercy, He gave His Son to die in our stead. Jesus died for all our sins and God forgave us of all our sins. In turn, we must forgive others.
The Parable of The Unforgiving Servant is only found in the Gospel of Matthew.
LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THIS PARABLE
Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.
The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So, his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.
So, when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. “So, My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” (Matthew 18:23-35)
The 3 P’s
- The Picture (vv.23-27)
God’s kingdom is narrowed down to the relationship between master and servant. The problem therein lies with the servant owing his master ten thousand talents. A talent was an incomprehensible amount of money.
Talent – A unit of currency used in the New Testament times. One talent equaled about 33kg of gold which equaled about 16 years wages.
The servant owed the master 10,000 talents (v.24) which is worth about 160,000 years wages, obviously a tremendous amount of money he could never pay in his lifetime in his own strength and ability. Since the servant was unable to pay the debt, He and his family were to be sold as slaves (v.25). This was a way that the master could at least recoup some of his loss. This was punishment for the servant not being able to pay the extravagant debt that he owed.
The servant asks and pleas for mercy. The master is moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him of his debt (v.27). In the same way, God is moved with compassion when a lost sinner cries out to Him and asked to be forgiven of their sin debt. A debt we could never pay in this lifetime.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23)
The master forgave the servant his huge debt. God forgives us of all of our sins. He forgives us for all of our sin debt.
Who forgives all your iniquities, (Psalm 103:3a)
- The Problem (vv.28-30)
The forgiven servant becomes the unforgiving servant and accosts a fellow servant who owed him a relatively small amount of money. The amount of money the fellow servant owed him was roughly a hundred days’ wages compared to the 160,000 years of wages the unforgiving servant had originally owed his master.
The unforgiving servant quickly forgot about how much he was forgiven. It is amazing how quickly the forgiven can become the unforgiving. The fellow servant even fell at his feet and begged him for patience to repay him (v.29). But the unforgiving servant had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt (v.30). The actions of the unforgiving servant towards his fellow servant is an outright affront to God in relation to His mercy, forgiveness, and patience toward sinners who owed a debt they can never repay.
The Words of Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer of Matthew 6
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)
Jesus also says in Matthew 6:15 that if we don’t forgive men their trespasses against us, neither will God forgive us our trespasses. There’s obviously a strong correlation between being forgiven and forgiving others. Christians should be the most forgiving people in the world because we have been forgiven so much ourselves.
God forgives and forgets our transgressions. As followers of Christ, we too should forgive and forget.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
(Psalms 103:12)
- The Principles (vv.31-35)
Fellow servants saw the forgiven man being unforgiving, a lack of appreciation towards the master’s kindness (v.31).
The fellow servants reported to the master everything they witnessed about the unforgiving attitude of the forgiven servant. The master calls the unforgiving servant to account and even refers to him as a wicked servant (v. 32). The unforgiving servant should have had compassion and forgiveness toward his fellow servant who owed him money, just as compassion and forgiveness had been shown to him by his master to whom he owed a lot more money to (v.33).
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)
Because He is holy and just, God is always angry at sin, including the sins of His children (Hebrews 12:5-11). Therefore, when the unforgiving servant is delivered to the torturers, it was not for execution, but for severe discipline. The master would discipline the unforgiving servant until he was willing to forgive others (v.34).
Our heavenly Father will do to each of us what He did to the unforgiving servant if we do not forgive others (v.35).
Conclusion: A Christian’s love for God can be measured by the way he or she treats their fellow man. Those who have had compassion, mercy, and forgiveness extended to them by God are the ones who should be quick to extend it to their fellow man. There is nothing that anyone has done to us that is any worse than what we have done to Christ. He took all of our sin to the cross, died in our place, rose again, and forgave us. May we never fail to love and forgive others as God has loved and forgiven us.
Next Week, Session 12: The Parable of The Workers in the Vineyard