“A Parable of Forgiveness” Orange Congregational Church UCC, September 13, 2026 (Matthew 18:21-35) Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Last Sunday we explored conflict resolution.  We engaged with the step-by-step process Jesus shared about how we can be in community together.  For where two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, there can be disagreement.  And where two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, he is here among us.  We can take heart.

Today we are moving onto forgiveness—another super easy topic to tackle on this Welcome Back Sunday!  Because right after Jesus discusses conflict and lays out that process of resolution, Peter asks a question.  “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?”  Jesus responds, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”[1]  That is a whole lot of forgiveness!  Then Jesus shares The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant to bring the message home.

Jesus says that there is this king who wants to settle accounts with his slaves.  One of the slaves owed him 10,000 talents and since he couldn’t pay, the king ordered him to be sold along with his wife and children and all his possessions.  One of the key realities to keep in mind would be the power dynamics of a king and someone who is part of the king’s household.  The king could represent God.  The slaves could represent you and me, all of humanity.  It’s worth remembering that God has the power here.  And we depend on God’s mercy in our lives.  As Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”[2]

Professor Arland Hultgren (who wrote my favorite commentary on Jesus’ parables helps explain the scenario).  Because a denarius was a day’s wage for a common laborer, and that laborer may work 300 days a year or so.  One talent would be worth about twenty years of wages.  So the amount the slave owes the king is 200,000 years’ wages for one person or a year’s wages for 200,000 people.  The amount owed is astronomical.  In today’s context the man would owe the king many millions.  There is no way on God’s good earth that anybody could repay this astronomical amount.[3]  Hence the slave falls to his knees upon hearing what he owes the king.  The man pleads, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything” even though he knew he couldn’t repay even half this amount.[4] 

Now to his credit, the king does indeed have pity.  The king releases this man.  The king even forgives him for the debt.  The king in effect is saying, “Sure, you owe me 200,000 years’ worth of wages, but we’re good.  All’s forgiven.”  That is worth noting here—the slave is not simply given an extension to have more time to pay off the debt (which is what the man asked for in the first place).  He is forgiven the debt entirely.  The slate is wiped clean.  This is far more than he would have hoped the king would do for him—extravagant mercy is extended.  Forgiveness did not have a limit.  Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

And with that remarkable life-changing act of generosity, with that opportunity to not have debt weighing him down, we would think that this man would pay it forward, right?  Just as he received mercy, he would show mercy to others.  Instead (as Jesus tells the parable) the man sees a fellow slave who owes him 100 denarii and demands immediate repayment.  That debt owed would be about four months’ wages.  It would be possible to pay off this debt, yet it would probably take some time.  They would need to figure out a repayment plan.  Some patience would need to be shown.  The slave who just had his astronomical debt forgiven shows no mercy, seizes this other slave by the throat and demands payment now.  When that does not happen and the fellow slave pleads, he has him thrown into debtors’ prison until the debt can be paid. 

Now their fellow slaves saw all of this go down and tell the king what happened.  The king summons the slave and says, “You wicked slave!  I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?”[5]  The king has the slave handed over to be tortured until he would pay off his entire debt—which we remember is impossible, right? 

It’s an uncomfortable ending to the parable.  Maybe Jesus intended our discomfort to help the lesson to sink in for us.  Forgiveness is essential for living a Christian life.

We know that if we have ever been wronged by someone, that forgiveness is not always easy.  Sometimes people hurt us and the resentment builds within.  Though as a wise friend once shared—holding onto resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.  You’re drinking that poison and slowly hurting yourself as a result.  The power of this parable is that there is only so much energy any of us have in our lives, only so much energy we have in the depths of our beings.  And if we are directing our finite energy toward something so negative (like holding onto resentments), it hurts us the most in the end.  This doesn’t restore our spirits.  In fact, it starts killing our spirits.  It’s hard to let go of hurts in our own families and with our friends let alone in the church.  Though we can remember that sometimes we are the ones wronged, and other times we are the wrongdoers.  Perhaps this can lead to humility.  

Because we will have times when we are the ones who need to forgive someone.  And we will have times when we are the ones who must seek forgiveness because we were wrong.  Jesus shows both sides of the story in this parable.  That is part of what makes it so meaningful.  The slave is forgiven at first by the king.  And then he has the opportunity to forgive someone else and pay the mercy forward, but he doesn’t.  This parable ends harshly because it is meant to make us think.  This is another example of Jesus’ brilliance as a storyteller.  If we expect people to forgive us when we wrong them, then we had better be willing to forgive others when they wrong us.  Forgiveness must go both ways.  Forgiveness is essential for living a Christian life.

Here’s something to keep in mind though.  Jesus telling us to forgive as many as seventy-seven times must be in conversation with the Greatest Commandment.  We can be vigilant in contemplating the implications of Christian teachings.  Otherwise serious harm has been (and continues to be) perpetrated by certain leaders of the church in the name of God.  Telling a domestic violence victim to stay in an abusive relationship because Jesus said to turn the other cheek and Jesus said to forgive if people sin against us ultimately goes against the Greatest Commandment Jesus taught.  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”[6]

We spend time every week looking at our Christian faith and asking important questions.  Because what we believe and what we’re taught in church has consequences for how we live our lives way beyond these walls.  Getting to the heart of Jesus’ message matters—love of self matters, in addition to love of neighbor and love of God. 

We can forgive those who hurt us and let that anger and pain no longer be at the center of our lives.  This is for us to be healthy and to keep God at the center as opposed to the wound dragging us down.  God willing, the outcome will be peace—peace for God’s sake and peace within and for ourselves.  Author Marianne Williamson once reflected, “Forgiveness is not always easy.  At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one who inflicted it.  And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.”

At the end of the day, we figure out what extending mercy looks like in order to have peace.  As the old song goes, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”  We figure out what receiving mercy looks like and the ripple effect it can have.  Peter’s original question and the parable Jesus tells about the king and the slaves is a call to examine our own lives and figure out how forgiveness works.  Knowing that we do not have infinite time and energy, any more than that slave had 10,000 talents to repay the king. 

So what can we do to live the lives God intends for us?  How does forgiveness play out in our families, with our friends, at work, in our church?  Do we hold onto grudges and never let stuff go?  Do we say we’re sorry and mean it when we’ve been in the wrong?  This is a two-thousand-year-old story Jesus told, and this story continues to challenge.  Though we can remember, for these words are true: blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Matthew 18:21-22, NRSVUE.
[2] Matthew 5:7.
[3] Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary, 23.
[4] Matthew 18:26.
[5] Matthew 18:32-33.
[6] Matthew 22:37-40.

Photo by Snappy Shutters on Unsplash