Matthew 18:21–35
Matthew is alone in recounting this specific lesson on forgiveness. He has illustrated the infinite importance of eternal life (18:9; Mark 9:43–48) and the irrevocable determination of God to save His people (Matthew 18:10–14). He will go to extremities to assure salvation, eternity in heaven, for those He has set His heart upon: “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (14 KJV). In light of such a divine purpose, the issue of forgiveness is addressed.
I. Peter’s Provocative Question
Peter rolls his thoughts over the instruction that Jesus has just given about sin involving a professing believer in the church (Matthew 18:15–20).
A. In this instruction, Jesus is teaching about forgiveness in its connection with discipline in the church.
This certainly pertains to matters involving a personal offense but might also pertain to a less egregious matter of public offense.
B. Certain issues of morality known publicly must be dealt with speedily with the intention of bringing the offender to repentance, manifesting a truly sorrowful spirit (1 Corinthians 5:4–8, 11).
Paul lists sexual immorality, public avarice, idolatry, someone that uses abusive speech, a drunkard, a thief; these should be excluded from the church and Christians must not even engage with them in social events as long as they remain unrepentant. The transformative power of grace is assumed leading to the observation that those who live in such moral disarray give no evidence of its changing power.
C. Certain personal offenses also could blossom into evidence of a deep-seated resistance to conviction of sin and unwillingness to repent.
If a person refuses to acknowledge sin even under the evidence of a clearly stated demonstration of sinful grievance, two or three witnesses to the offense should be brought in to establish the reality that this is not a case merely of an overly-sensitive spirit. Should the offense yet be unacknowledged after this biblically based manner of demonstration (Deuteronomy 19:15), the church should become involved in the process of seeking to promote repentance. Paul appealed to this principle in the matter of an accusation against an elder in the church (1 Timothy 5: 19). Should no repentance be forthcoming, the offender is to be considered in an unrepentant state, not only concerning this specific issue but as a matter of saving grace. The judgment of the church confirms the reality of heavenly truth—“whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven” (18:18).
D. Peter then observes.
Suppose upon the initial confrontation, the brother acknowledges his wrongdoing and repents. How many times can this be done? Should I be willing to make such an appeal as many as seven times? (21) Where should my patience with this kind of behavior end? Surely continual forgiveness of personal offenses is not fitting.
II. Jesus gave an immediate answer (22).
Peter thought he was generous in granting seven episodes of forgiveness. Jesus, however, multiplied the willingness to forgive to an inexhaustible perfection (7 x 7 x 10). This number should prepare Peter for some of the astonishing details of Jesus’ illustrative story.
III. Jesus illustrated His answer with a story.
This story illustrated a particular point about the kingdom of heaven (23).
A. Who are the characters in this story?
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- The dominant figure who possesses the ultimate power is a king. His riches are virtually incalculable and his rights are undisputable. He has the right to call his debtors to account at any time.
- The second most pivotal figure is a servant who somehow had accumulated a massive debt to the king. We are not informed about how such a debt was contracted. The point that Jesus makes has to do with the consequent relationship between king and slave.
- A second slave appears who also is in debt. His debt, however, is to the first slave.
- We find that other slaves observe the interplay between king and slave and between the slaves with each other.
B. What is the meaning of the respective debts?
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- When the king began collecting the debts he began with that debt that was the greatest. This servant owed ten thousand talents (24). The margin of the NASB calculates that a talent was worth fifteen years wages of a common laborer. The debt meant that for 150,000 years all the wages of this laborer were owed to the king. Poor, soul—a debt unpayable in this life or many lives besides. The point is, not that a specific amount would satisfy the debts, but that its weight was infinitely beyond any person to pay. To be sold meant to lose one’s self completely to the power of another master.
- The debt of the second slave that he owed to the first slave was just a bit over three months wages. With some planning, he could have paid the debt in a year. Comparatively speaking, the first was unpayable by the debtor, but the second was difficult but manageable.
C. How do the slaves respond to the demand for repayment?
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- The first slave, indebted to the king, begged for time to pay off the debt and not to be sold, his family also. He prostrated himself in a posture of absolute subjection and in apparent recognition of dependence on the sheer mercy of the master. In a statement of demonstrable impossibility he said, “I will repay you everything” (26).
- The second slave responded with the same intensity of supplication and of humble, pleading posture. His fellow slave had taken him by the throat and begun to choke him in a vicious and impatient demand for immediate repayment.. His plea to allow time for repayment was not entirely unreasonable (29).
D. How did the respective debtees respond? (27, 30)
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- The king has a threefold response. First, he felt compassion. He saw the desperate condition of the slave, knew the debt was impossible, that life from that point forward would be intolerable, and identified with the emotion of the supplication. Second, he released him, meaning that the plan to sell him to another master was called off. Third, astonishingly, he forgave the debt. He did not require even minimal partial payment. He eliminated this impossible load that had been accumulated by the servant.
- This forgiven servant now proceeded to demand payment of the debt owed him by a fellow servant. When an earnest plea was given, this debtee refused to listen and threw his fellow servant into prison “until he should pay back what was owed,” (30) an impossible requirement with no means of earning income. The debt itself was not insurmountable, but the demand was.
What followed this disturbing response of the forgiven servant?
A. Fellow servants, having observed the relative responses of debtors and debtees, reported to the master what had happened.
They believed this report was entirely defensible and fitting for they had seen the radical difference in responses between the magnanimous master and the intransigent servant. They were “deeply grieved” at what had happened. When a sense of mercy should have ruled, they saw a narrow bigotry in operation.
B. The master, upon hearing this report, summoned the unforgiving servant to him.
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- Upon summoning him, he called him a wicked servant and reminded him that his debt had been forgiven upon his pleading for patience and time to repay. The debt was not simply delayed but eliminated.
- He told this unforgiving servant that he should have shown mercy in the same way that he had received mercy. He had an unpayable debt and was forgiven. How much more should he show mercy to one whose debt has no comparison to what he was forgiven.
V. Jesus brings a startling conclusion to the story.
A. The master—that is the king of verse 23—now revoked the former mercy of forgiveness and handed the servant over to those whose task is torture.
The prospect of forgiveness was gone. The opportunity for repayment of the debt was impossible. This king who formerly “felt compassion,” now was “moved with anger.”
B. Is the point that God will change His mind about forgiveness; or that salvation once granted can be revoked because of our bad actions?
No. The lesson is this. Only a heart that truly sees the gravity of its sin and thus has a qualitative understanding of the freeness and infinite kindness of mercy is able to receive forgiveness. Such a suppliant for mercy senses “from the heart” (35) the infinite gift that has been given in forgiveness and will never hesitate to forgive those who wrong him and ask for forgiveness. Where a heart is unwilling to forgive, we find a heart that has never repented.
C. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
“Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Chrit forgave you, so you also must do” (Colossians 3:12, 13).
POEM
Forgiveness is a grace
That our hearts must understand.
It leaves us with no trace
Of offense or reprimand.
God’s justice will erase
Each fall from Law’s just demands.
Convicted of our debt—
Its infinite dimensions—
Remorse, sorrow, regret
Blast self-righteous pretensions.
The Son of God has met
The Law’s perfect intention.
His death absorbed God’s ire,
Expressed His pure holiness.
His life, sincere desire
To honor revealed righteousness.
Both thoughts and acts conspire
To bring to us forgiveness.
When we discern our need
And supplicate God’s kindness,
And trust His grace indeed,
Remorseful for our blindness,
No issue can recede
To spiritual supineness.
When we have been received,
Forgiveness is a treasure.
Our conscience is relieved
By mercy beyond measure.
All others who believed
Are objects of our pleasure.
Whose sins God does remit
And to His side admit,
Such by God’s grace will live
And find joy to forgive.
