Sermons | Forgiveness with the unmerciful servant

At college, I've been going to this local church whenever I can. This semester I noticed how their attendance looked a lot less than it was before the summer. Today the pastor mentioned it, along with how strong repentance is and asking for forgiveness. I'm not sure what all happened at the church this year, but I believe God is really working with them still. The hard thing about forgiveness is when it becomes really personal. I really liked how the pastor noted that we have to remember that repentance doesn't have any "but"s. You cannot say "I'm sorry I did this, but..." - "I didn't know what you were going through", "you never told me", etc. You have to know where your faults were and really repent it all.

For forgiveness we looked at the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:21 - 35).

First off, a parable is a simple fictional story with a meaningful moral or lesson behind it. Jesus taught a lot in parables for three reasons:

1.  To conceal - Jesus taught in parables to conceal his teaching from those outside of the kingdom of God who may have been hostile to him. 
2. To reveal - Sometimes He used parables to reveal to those on the outside. These were his simple stories that those from the outside could easily related to.
3. To confirm - Jesus also taught in parables to confirm how God wants us to live. In parable he can better clarify how God wants us to be and make it more understandable. 

In this parable, Jesus is answering Peter's question of how many times one should forgive someone who sins against them. Peter asks if seven times is enough because that was the number of completion in that culture. 

Verses 23 to 25 sets up the stage. We are introduced to the main characters: the king who wants to settle accounts with his servants, and the servant who owes 10,000 talents. Now 10,000 talents is worth A LOT. Just imagine, King Herod the Great had the annual salary of 900 talents; so in other words Jesus is say that it was impossible for the servant to pay back his debt. In Matthew 5:25, Jesus explains the culture of the courts in those days and how creditors can put those who owe them money in prison. 

It seems that Jesus adds a bit of humor in verse 26 when the servant says "I will pay you back everything" because it is a debt so large it would take over his lifetime to pay it off. But as we know, the King took pity on his servant and canceled the debt, letting him go. Then once the servant sees one of his fellow servants who owes him a much, much smaller amount, he demands his money back and has his servant thrown in prison. The king soon hears about this outraging story, and says, "I cancelled all your debt because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?"

Hearing this story today, I've never understood it better. God has forgiven our sins, so we should not hold anger against others and forgive them of everything they may do to us as well. John Piper puts it well, " In other words, God’s forgiveness is underneath ours, creates it, and supports it. So that if we don’t give it to others—if we go on in an unforgiving spirit—what we show is that God is not there in our lives – we are not trusting Him."

Unforgiveness reveals that we don't agree or understand Jesus or His teachings. Jesus came down to forgive all of ours sins. We are already forgiven 10,000 talents, therefore we should forgive everyone of even just 100 talents. This reminded me a lot of how much hate goes on with churches and things that go on in society, such as with LGBT groups. I believe that this verse is really telling us that no matter what pops up during our time here on earth, we have no control over it and we also have no right to judge and persecute anyone for this sins. I think there are many churches out there that need to repent. No one sin is greater than any other. I feel so much sadness for those who are persecuted so harshly for their sins by other sinners. Though I see in our times today, we are becoming more forgiving. Progress takes time, give it all up to God. 

"If we do not forgive others, we have not yet received or do not understand the very cost of God's forgiveness."