Stories: The Parables of Jesus - Week 3 (Matthew 18:21-35)
Matthew 18:21-35
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Matthew 18:21-35 〰️
Forgiveness is one of those very Christian topics that we’ve become known for here in the West. As a core tenet of our faith, passages like this help us understand how our Lord views forgiveness and how we, as His people, should live it out. After all, the greatest act of forgiveness was displayed by our Savior on the cross, where Jesus not only forgave our sins, but paid our debt on our behalf. And so this is Jesus’ point in this parable: Just as He has forgiven us, we should forgive others.
This passage kicks off with the disciple Peter asking Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?” (v21). Jesus responds by saying, essentially, “more than you can count.” (v22). There’s a debate among scholars as to the true number Jesus was referencing, but most land on “seventy times seven” as meaning 490; Jesus' point was that there shouldn’t be a limit to how many times we forgive. As a point of clarity in regard to this, we should make the distinction that there’s a difference between forgiveness of the repentant vs unrepentant. Followers of Jesus can sometimes feel like, or even become, a social doormat to those who abuse this call and command to forgive, but forgiveness is not the same as standing there and “taking it.” Because we are all sinful and broken, we will all be seeking forgiveness from someone at some point, and we should extend the same grace to others that we ourselves seek.
Jesus begins the parable by, again, pointing to the nature and design of the kingdom of heaven. “In Jewish parables, a king symbolizes God and to settle accounts symbolizes divine judgment. The ten thousand talents was equivalent to a billion days’ worth of peasant wages.”¹ Yes, you read that right: a billion days’ wages. This wasn’t intended to be an exact figure as much as it was supposed to represent the incalculable debt that the servant owed, and the incalculable debt that we owe to God. Later, in v34, we get an additional glimpse of this cost: “jailers,” translated from the Greek, means torturers, so the unforgiving servant would be tormented by his debt permanently (“until he could pay everything that was owed”). This was meant to connect the cost of our sin (Romans 6:23) to the punishment that it yields.
The parable continues with this servant having his own debt forgiven, only to turn around and not extend this same kindness to another. In the end, the unforgiving servant was punished by the king for this evil towards his fellow servant. “‘You wicked servant!’” the king told him. “’I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.” (v32-35).
A parable such as this was not only meant to be a warning, but a call to action for the hearers, including us. Jesus calls the hearers to forgive their “brother or sister from [the] heart.” (v35). So as we enter discussion, there’s little application beyond the question: have I harbored unforgiveness in my heart after the good King forgave mine? Much of this time will be reflecting inward and asking the Lord for wisdom as we search our hearts for unforgiveness and ask that He bring it to light. The greatest place and way to bring these things to God is in community, between trusted friends and believers.
Discussion Questions
Could a few people read Matthew 18:21-35 for us?
What stood out to you from the passage?
Does this passage remind you of another part of Scripture?
Do you have any questions?
What point was Jesus trying to make in v22?
What does this passage teach us about extending forgiveness? What is the reason we should forgive others?
Jesus’ call in this parable is to forgive without keeping score. What does that look like in relationships, and how should that principle be applied towards unrepentant sin?
1. Charles L. Quarles, “Matthew,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1533.