The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. Matthew 18:27 (NIV)

The Debt – Forgive Series – Part 4

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5  |  PART 6

Peter asked Jesus a question about forgiveness. In his response, Jesus told this parable:

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this, the servant fell on his knees before him. “Be patient with me,” he begged, “And I will pay back everything.” The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.” – Matthew 18:23-27

In today’s terms, the servants owed the King about 2.5 billion dollars.

Yep.

I don’t know anyone who has 2.5 billion dollars, let alone someone who has spent someone else’s 2.5 billion dollars (Seen the movie, “The Big Short“? – woah!). Two things are apparent: The king is generous and trusting, and the servant knows how to spend someone else’s money pretty well.

Have you ever owed someone something you can’t repay? Whether its physical and practical or emotional and spiritual, we’ve all had debts that we’ve trouble paying back. Whether it's been an emotional debt, or a crazy bank loan, when asked to pay up, we’ve been found wanting. The pain and suffering that an un-payable debt brings are a terrible havoc for everyone involved. In Jesus parable, the significantly in-debt servant begs, not for mercy, but for patience… “I’ll pay it back, I will, I promise… just give me one more chance!”

In some cases, there won’t ever be enough time, money, or kindness to repay a debt so large. Something else needs to happen.

Instead of granting the servant patience, the king is merciful and forgives the servants 2.5 billion dollar debt.

WHAT??!! That’s a crazy grace.

The king could have made more money off interest, had he given the servant more time to repay, and he could have used the debt to manipulate the servant. But he didn’t. He forgave the debt. Wiped it clean. Back to zero.

Can you imagine what would happen if we took on that practice in our own lives? In our communities? Radical.

The king’s mercy and forgiveness are extravagant. It’s not a small debt, it hasn’t cost him next to nothing to absolve it… his grace and kindness seem endless.

Receiving this kind of grace can be hard.

Just the other day, I got a quote from a beautiful artist to do some rebranding for us. The quote came back, and although it was entirely reasonable (the artist is worth every cent), I realized that I didn’t have enough room in my budget to pay for it. The artist came back to me and said that they would reduce the price if we needed to. And for some reason, I couldn’t accept this beautiful grace.

Last week, I was having a coffee with one of my besties, when she told me that she and her husband had bought Jesse and me tickets to see Coldplay in December. I had a really hard time accepting the gift and begged her to let me pay it back.

Sometimes grace and forgiveness and kindness are hard to receive. It's a vulnerable and humble thing to do.

Even though the incidences mentioned above didn’t involve a previous debt, receiving ANYTHING, gifts of grace or mercy can be a hard thing to do. I think our pride would rather that there was something we could DO to make up for debts; that we could settle things ourselves. But often, with wounds of the heart, there is no “making up for it.” Forgiveness is the glue in a floored and humanity. To give it and receive it is essentially the only way we can all live together in peace.

“Freely you have received; freely give.” Matt 10:8 (NIV)

To freely give, we must first learn to freely receive.

Do you struggle to accept grace and forgiveness? Leave us your comments below.

Go to Part 5 – Unjust Servant »

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