Riddle me this...

Jesus used parables to establish His teachings and one of those is the parable of the unforgiving servant. This parable is about sin and forgiveness. It is not about God's supernatural debt relief program as I heard explained in a talk titled "Debt free in 2003" by a TV evangelist. It is nice to try and offer hope, but it was using Scripture to teach what people want to hear. This parable in Matthew's Gospel (18:23-35) teaches us what God thinks our debt of sin truly is...for all of us.

In this parable there are three main characters. The King is God, we are the servant, and the other fellow servant is our neighbor. God is calling in our debt, which is our sin. We owe such a sum that it can never be paid...not in our wildest dreams. All the servant (ourselves) can do is beg for forgiveness...there is no other option as the debt is not payable. The King states that there is only one thing that He can do...forgive the debt. God, forgiving our debt, watches us go out into the world and interact with our fellow neighbors. At once, we demand a paltry sum from our neighbor who has wronged us. We are unforgiving and make life for them miserable. In the parable, God asks us...you want my forgiveness for the sins you have committed before me, yet you hold grudges for paltry matters with others??? Then God warns us...forgive others like I forgive you, or risk having your debt called in where you won't be released from debtor's prison until every bit is repaid...and that is logically never.

Understanding that God is infinite and we owe an infinite debt, and recognizing that we are finite and have limited ability to pay, would say that through all eternity, we will never come close to paying God what we owe. The King chose to pay our debt because that is the only way any of us can be reconciled to God. Jesus teaches here that our sin is so great that not one of us will ever be able to pay back any debt. Jesus also uses this parable to teach that we are duty bound to forgive others. No one has the right to withhold forgiveness if we want to be forgiven ourselves.

What this means for our practical every day lives can determine our quality of life on this earth. I will explain this next time.