23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
Matthew 18:23-35
Dear God, my temptation is to focus on the unforgiveness of the servant, but this is about learning more about what this parable tells me about you than about the person with unforgiveness in their heart. It’s more about what do I see in you than what do I see in me. So what decisions do I see you making in this story?
- There will be a day when my account has to be settled with you.
- You are willing to extend me mercy out of your pure compassion for me.
- You care about my heart and what kind of compassion I am willing to show others.
- It is possible for me to evoke your wrath against me.
One thing that becomes clear as I go through these parables is that you are not to be taken lightly (it seems like there’s a better phrase that I just can’t come up with right now). You are not to be mocked (that’s the phrase). You are not to be disrespected. Jesus makes it very clear that there is a limit to your mercy. You will throw the weeds in the fire. You will separate us from yourself. Frankly, I like to think that there is no limit to your grace and that Jesus’s sacrifice gives all of us a “Get out of Jail Free Card.” But that is not the picture Jesus paints at all. Is there some squishiness around the edges of your law? Probably. But anyone who openly mocks you is probably not in good shape eternally.
My wife played something for me yesterday with a priest talking about Catholic theology around loving you. During the talk, he used an example of a woman who had said (paraphrasing), “Even if I saw God Himself in the east, as high as Mount Everest, I would not serve him.” It made me think of Milton in Paradise Lost quoting Satan saying, “It is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” Some people just feel that way. They are incapable of coming to the end of themselves. And when we come to the end of ourselves and start to climb the ladder of faith and getting refined by you, we find mercy for others, even in extreme circumstances, becomes easier because we become more like you. It doesn’t mean we don’t put boundaries on those relationships that are harmful, but it does mean we don’t have to carry around bitterness and our right to bitterness in our heart.
Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, walk with me this morning. Walk with me in mercy. Walk with me in joy. Walk with me in peace. I sang this song while I was in the shower this morning by Keith Green that I want to close with here: “Oh, Lord, you’re beautiful! Your face is all I seek. For when your eyes are on this child your grace abounds to me.”
I pray all of this under the grace of Jesus,
Amen
Emails to God 