No Longer a Debtor
- Strength For Life
- 14 hours ago
- 4 min read
What if the parable on forgiveness had turned out differently? In Matthew 18, Jesus told a parable about a king who, while reconciling his accounts, discovered that one of his servants owed him ten thousand talents. That much money was well over 100,000 years of wages and, as one commentator points out, “probably represented more than all the actual coinage in circulation in most kingdoms at the time.” Obviously, such an absurdly large debt is unpayable; to make any attempt would require “him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had" (Matt. 18:25). The king had authority to recover his own money by any means he thought just.
Yet, at the servant’s plea for patience, the king “is moved with compassion” (18:27) and completely forgives the debt. Upon leaving court, the forgiven servant leaves to go find another servant that owed him 100 days wages. In an act of inexcusable anger, the forgiven man assaults his own debtor and sends him off to prison for failing to pay this much smaller debt.
At this point, pause to consider what the parable means. We are the ones who owe God a sin debt of divine proportions. The only possible attempt for our offenses to be repaid is eternity in torments. However, God forgave our sin debt by assuming responsibility for it on the cross. Just like the king in the parable, God satisfied the debt from His own account of righteousness. His personal perfection paid for our wickedness.
At this point, let’s deviate from the parable. A servant with a debt the size of the kingdom foolishly asks for patience to pay and instead receives mercy equal to his offence. At that point, if he were to simply return to his home and his post in the kingdom, he might easily have been one of the servants from another parable of Jesus.
In Matthew 25 Jesus tells this other parable, also about a lord and his house. In this parable, a nobleman prepares for a journey. Before leaving, he “called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods” (25:14). The lord is wise and discerning, and so he gives each man money according to his capability. However, here the ruler again deals in talents, apparently of silver. The lowest amount he gives to a servant is around 20 years wages; the others get up to five times as much. The servants obviously belong to the household of a wealthy man, especially considering he calls their stewardship only “a few things” later in the parable.
In the parable, two of the three servants invest and double the money. The third does not. However, this brief introduction to the parable is sufficient to identify the characters. Once again, God is the lord and we are the servants. The Lord distributes out of His abundance gifts, position, material prosperity according to our capacity. In the absence of His physical presence, we are tasked with offering to Him at His return more than He gave us. We are to multiply His gifts. To Him, these stewardship opportunities are small. To us, it is abundance that fills our life and occupies our time.
Remember again our premise that binds these parables together. What if the forgiven servant from the first parable was one of the stewards in the second parable? What a change of fortune it would be for someone like that once to owe a kingdom-sized sum, and then later to be entrusted with as much money as he was capable of managing.
We are that servant. We are forgiven because God, who is rich in mercy, took our debt of sin on Himself. Not only are we forgiven, we are restored to such a privileged position in God’s household that we are entrusted with God’s gifts and riches. Our status changed from impossibly indebted to steward of God’s house, increasing His glory in His absence.
Does it seem like such a servant wouldn’t belong among the others? Should he think of himself as inferior to the other servants? Should he abandon his stewardship, knowing what he truly deserves? The answer to all these questions is no. The joy and humility of the believer’s life is knowing that God has been impossibly merciful to him, and that God’s grace toward him is meant to focus our attention on increasing God’s glory in the world until He returns. Here are the words of Paul to that effect: “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).
The above article was written by Jonathan Kyser. He is a pastoral assistant at NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.
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