Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Jesus starts by saying that the kingdom of heaven is like this. He’s telling us something about what the kingdom is like. This is a principle of the kingdom. It’s like a king taking account of His servants.

Ten Thousand Talents

10,000 talents. Now, the Strong’s Concordance says a talent of gold in Israel weighed 200 pounds. That would certainly be worth something. And this man owed the king 10,000 talents, an astronomically high amount.

It only made sense for the king to minimize His losses by selling the man into slavery along with his wife, and his children, and also to liquidate his property, which wouldn’t pay off the debt, but at least it would give him something in return.

The man fell on his face and begged and pleaded with the king for more time to pay the debt. What else could he do? He had no money, and now his life was at stake, and his family member's lives were at stake. So, he begged for mercy, as anybody would in that situation.

Moved with Compassion

The king was moved, He pitied the man, and out of His compassion, He canceled the man’s debt. He gave him a fresh start, just like the fresh start every believer in Christ receives when they invite Jesus into their life and receive the forgiveness of sin. Anyone who ever received God’s forgiveness through Christ has experienced the same as this man. The symbolism is obvious.

It says he owed 100 pence. Now, a pence was a Roman coin, a denarius, worth ten donkeys, according to one definition, and in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, it represented the value of a full day’s work. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan gave the innkeeper three of these coins to take care of the injured man he had brought to the inn.

So, a hundred pence was somewhat of a debt, about the value of 100 days of work, but very small in comparison to the 10,000 talents the other man had owed the king. It was well within one’s ability to pay off over time. But the man grabbed this fellow, choked him, and told him to pay up.

He fell on his face, exactly like the man himself had done when the king demanded payment. And at this point, the man who had been forgiven had the opportunity to do exactly what the king had done and forgive this fellow of the debt. But what does it say?

He wouldn’t forgive but threw him into prison. Now, debtor’s prison was a way for creditors to get paid and was common practice back in those days. Debtors who were unable to pay their notes or their court fines could be put into prison by their creditors or by the court and do hard labor until the debt was paid, and each day counted for a certain monetary value. And so, he opted to put him into debtor’s prison.

It should be clear by now that we are talking about symbolism. What could this speak of in our own lives? It represents the bondage we keep people in when we are unwilling to forgive them their trespass debts.

The other servants were disturbed about their friend being thrown into prison, and so they went to the king and told Him about it. What can we learn from this? If we have a habit of being insensitive and unforgiving, the king’s going to find out about it.

You wicked servant, You wanted me to forgive you and I did. Now, It appears from this verse that the Lord, the King, takes a hard line against His servants being unwilling to forgive. He called the man wicked. And He reminded him of the enormous debt he had been forgiven of.

What does that tell us? It tells us that it’s not a good idea to allow ourselves to forget about the debt Jesus paid for us. Oh, how clear it was when we were first saved. How wonderful it was to be forgiven and to know the Lord, to have Him in our lives.

Friend, shouldn’t you have done for him what I did for you? What a simple question. Shouldn’t you have pitied him and forgiven him his debt, like I forgave yours? Wouldn’t that have been the right thing to do?

Wait a minute. Didn’t the King forgive the man’s debt? Yes, He did. But wasn’t it within the king’s power to take back what He had given? Yes, After all, He WAS the King.

Notice that this was a much worse penalty than what he had faced earlier when he was going to be sold into slavery. He could have had some semblance of a life as a slave.

But now he was to be turned over to the tormentors, to be tortured until he paid the debt, a debt, by the way, that could never be paid in full, no matter how long he was tortured. We might say that it was an eternal penalty.

He was being sent to a place of torment, which could only symbolize one place, and I don’t think we even need to name it. Now, look at the conclusion of the story, as Jesus, the Master Himself, gives us the meaning of the parable of the unforgiving servant.

Now, these are the words of Jesus. He says here that our heavenly Father will take back His forgiveness if we are unwilling to forgive. It couldn’t be stated more clearly. And the truth is that many Christians refuse to believe such a thing, even though it’s right here, as plain as it can possibly be said.

This parable is a message about forgiving the debts or the trespasses of others against us. Jesus says that the heavenly Father will do the same thing to us as the king did to his servant if we don’t forgive sincerely, or from our hearts, the wrongs that people have done to us.

You see, wronging another person creates a debt, something owed to that person, and the need for reconciliation, a settling, for the victim. We’ve all heard the expression, he owes them an apology. He OWES them.

Now, a debt usually refers to a monetary debt, but it also speaks of any sin or offense, any wrong by which one person owes something to another, and that’s the type of debt Jesus talks about, a trespass debt.

Holding grudges and being unforgiving is not something we have the luxury of playing around with. If we’re not willing to sincerely forgive the wrongs of others, it can have a devastating effect on our eternal salvation.

Forgive Us Our Debts as we Forgive Our Debtors

Are we trying to make a doctrine out of an isolated scripture passage? No, because it’s not isolated. Take the Lord’s prayer, for instance.

So beautiful! We love that passage so much. And that’s where we usually stop reading, but He’s not finished. Keep going.

If You Don’t Forgive

That sounds like the Lord’s forgiveness is conditional. Now, look at the great faith passage in Mark chapter 11.

And obviously one would get excited about such a promise. I can have whatever I pray for! But He’s not finished. There’s a disclaimer attached. Look in the very next verse.

Out of the Mouth of Two or Three Witnesses

How many times does He have to say it? Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established. We have three witnesses right here to the same truth.

But we have all known people over the years, Christian people, who, every time you see them, want to talk about something somebody did to them decades ago.

A Root of Bitterness

The enemy, the devil, has formed a root of bitterness in the hearts of these unforgiving ones and they just can’t seem to get over it. And you can tell them they need to forgive that person and they’ll say, well, maybe I should, but I’m sorry, I just can’t forgive them for that.

And we should recognize that’s a dangerous place to be. According to this parable, they are risking their eternal salvation. Okay, so we need to forgive. I get it. But how do we do it? How do we, from our hearts, forgive the wrongs of others?

The Wiles of the Devil

Well, first of all, we need to understand that the majority of wrongs seemingly done to us are merely perceived wrongs. You see, the devil is such a master of deception and manipulation of the mind. One of the biggest deceptions is that he doesn’t exist in modern society, or that he does exist but he does not affect us as Christians because we’re Spirit-filled believers.

That’s hogwash! He can and will convince us in our minds that someone has done us wrong when it’s only a perception on our part. They didn’t do a thing to us. And so, we can resolve a lot of those situations by recognizing the wiles of the devil and not being so gullible. So, number one, stop being gullible. Don’t be ignorant of the devil’s devices.

But, on the other hand, there are cases in which somebody does indeed hurt us and they meant to do it. We might as well just face the fact that it’s going to happen to us at some point in our lives. So then, what do we do to keep ourselves from being unforgiving? The Lord gives us the answer in Matthew chapter five if we will hear it.

Bless Them that Curse You

Bless them that curse you, and pray for those who despitefully use you. But Lord, I don’t want to do that. Why would I bless someone who has cursed me, or pray for someone who has done me wrong?

Why would we do such a thing as that? To let go of the animosity or bitterness we have for that person. You see, unforgiveness and bitterness in our hearts kill our relationship with the Lord. It hinders our prayers. So, we sincerely pray for those who curse us and we sincerely bless those who despitefully use us, from the heart, with sincerity and gusto. And our prayers do indeed help them and bless them, but it helps us even more than it helps them. It delivers us from unforgiveness.

You see, it’s impossible to sincerely bless someone who has cursed us or to pray blessings upon someone who has done us wrong and at the same time keep unforgiveness and ill feelings against them in our hearts. It’s impossible.

Here’s an example. God, I bless so and so, I pray that the blessings of heaven would come mightily upon them. Lord, I ask You to bless them in every area of their lives. Show them Your goodness. Meet all of their needs according to Your riches in glory, and I pray that You would pour out Your blessings upon them. I pray In Jesus' name. Amen. And then we leave it at that and walk away free.

Is that easy to do? Well, it may not be. But is it within our power to do that? Of course, it is, or Jesus wouldn’t have told us to do it.

May we always be aware of the eternal consequences...