“Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?” Jesus gives Peter an answer to this question immediately, but to more fully illustrate the concept of forgiveness, Jesus once again turned to a parable concerning the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:21-35).
The first character revealed is a king who is taking account of a servant who owes him ten thousand talents. Of note here is the fact that 10,000 was the highest Greek numeral used and that a talent was the highest unit of currency, so ten thousand talents was the highest describable debt possible! Based on the average daily wage at the time, this amount was worth approximately 200,000 years of wages! Once we understand the magnitude of the figure that is being used here, we may question how it was that one could accumulate a debt of this size. Incurring such a debt certainly would have taken a very long time, and further, what type of person would keep extending credit to someone already so deeply in debt and who obviously could not pay the debt already accumulated?
Nevertheless, the debt exists and the king decides that payment is due. Probably to no one’s surprise, the servant cannot afford to repay the debt so the king orders the liquidation of his estate, including the sale of the servant and his family into slavery so that he can collect at least a portion of that owed him. The servant prostrates himself before the king, asking for patience and promising to repay all the debt if only the king will allow him and his family to retain their freedom. The king must have been either so rich that writing off a loss of even this size wouldn’t affect his wealth, or he was compassionate above all other men in that he forgave the man his enormous debt. The text of Jesus’ parable assures us that it was the latter.
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Author: Mike MacDonald
Keywords: Debts, Forgiving our debtors, Forgiveness, Debtors, Ten thousand talents, Talents, Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Ungrateful servant
Bible reference(s): Matthew 18:21-35
Source: “Exposition: The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant,” The Christadelphian Advocate, August 2013, pp. 219-222.
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