The hard sum of grace
Matthew 18:21-35 Link below
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018%3A%2021-35&version=ESV
Let me start with a question, and it’s probably something we’ve all wrestled with at some point in our lives.
How many times do you have to let someone off the hook before you’re allowed to say, that’s it, I’ve done my bit, no more?
Perhaps it’s because a family member broke your trust. Maybe a friend who said something they can’t take back. You’ve forgiven them once. Twice. Maybe even a third time. But now they’ve gone and done it again, and something deep inside you screams,
“That’s it, I’ve had enough, I’m done.”
If you’ve ever felt like that, you’re not on your own, you’re in good company. Because Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends, came to him with a similar question. And the answer Jesus gave has the power, if we let it, to completely reprogramme how our brains deal with forgiveness, how we administer freedom, and care for our own mental wellbeing.
Let’s look at verse 21 of our text, where we find Peter’s gracious mathematical question
Peter asks, (v21)
“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Now, here’s the thing, we need to understand that Peter thought he was being extremely generous. The rabbis of his day taught that you should forgive someone three times. Three strikes and you’re out, that was the order of the day.
But Peter as he tries to be righteous doubles it and adds another 1, just to be sure, he goes for ‘Seven time’
The number of completion, the number of perfection, surely he’s got it right?
And in his mind he’s basically saying, “Jesus, look how merciful I’m willing to be.”
Now, I love the fact that Jesus doesn’t roll his eyes or dismiss his question.
Rather, He meets Peter right where he is.
And then he does what Jesus always does; he takes the ceiling off as He says,
“I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
(some translations say “seventy times seven.”)
Either way, it’s doesn’t matter because this isn’t an upper limit score.
This is a heart reset. For Jesus is basically saying,
“Peter, stop counting” and that’s the whole point.” because
Grace doesn’t keep score; grace settles the score once and for all.
Then to help explain what he means, Jesus tells a parable that changes everything. And the numbers in this one are wild!
He says the kingdom of heaven is like a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
One man was brought before him who owed ten thousand talents.
Now to put that amount into perspective, we need to equantify it in todays money.
Back then one talent was worth about twenty years wages for a labourer
So, ten thousand talents? Well that’s two hundred thousand years wages by my reckoning!
It’s vast, so large that it’s an unpayable debt. And it’s an absurd amount on purpose, because Jesus wants us to feel the weight of it.
This man could work every day for the rest of his life, and his children’s lives, and their children’s lives, and never make a dent in what he owed. It’s so enormous that it’s unpayable!
So, the king orders him to be sold; along with his wife, his children, and everything he owns; to try and recover something.
Distraught the man falls to his knees and begs,
“Be patient with me, and I will pay back everything.”
Which is laughable, because he can’t, it’s impossible!
But what else can he do but fall on his knees and beg for a second chance.
And then we get one of those beautiful sentences that we find in Scripture:
“The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt, and let him go.”
The master didn’t say ok, we’ll work out an instalment plan; sure, time flies between repayments. He didn’t release him on probation as long as he kept up with the repayment schedule. No. It was a full cancellation; the debt was wiped out and with it came freedom.
The king took the hit; he absorbed the loss himself.
Now that’s grace; unearned, undeserved, and unthinkable!
Is the penny starting to drop with what Jesus is teaching?
What each of us owes God is unpayable. But what he gives us is undeserved and unforgettable.
Then Jesus adds a twist in the story that we didn’t see coming!
Now, you’d think a man who just had the equivalent of billions in debt wrote off would be the most happy, generous, merciful person on the planet, yeah? You’d think he’d be skipping out of that throne room and looking for someone to bless.
Not so, instead, he walks out and the first person he finds is a servant who owed him a hundred denarii.
Now a denarius was about a day’s wage, so we’re talking about roughly three to four months wages.
It’s not nothing; this is a realistic debt for anyone to have. But in the shadow of ten thousand talents? This is insignificant, a pittance, mere pocket money!
And here’s where the story gets ugly. The forgiven man grabs the other servant by the throat, choking him as he demands repayment.
This poor man falls to the ground and begs, he’s down on his luck; and using almost the exact same words the first servant had used before the king, he says;
“Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.”
But this time, there’s no mercy shown and the wicked servant throws the man into debtor’s prison until he can pay back what he owes.
As you picture the scene you can almost sense the tension rise in the room when Jesus told this part?
People would have gasped. The injustice is stomach-churning, and it highlights that
The greater tragedy here is not the unforgiven debt; it’s the unforgiving heart!
Jesus continues, by telling us of the righteous king’s anger.
The other servants had seen what happened and boy were they annoyed, ‘this isn’t right! So they go and tell the king everything.
Hearing what’s happened the king summons the unforgiving servant back before him. His words cut like a knife: v32
Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?
Then In anger, the king hands him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay back all that he owed.
Jesus concludes the parable with these sobering words, (v35)
So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Now, let’s pause, for this sounds really harsh. But here’s what I believe Jesus is doing: he’s not saying God’s love is conditional or that we earn salvation by forgiving others. He’s saying that a truly forgiven heart will naturally forgive.
If we refuse to release others, it reveals that we’ve never really grasped our own release. Unforgiveness is a symptom of an unrepentant soul with a forgetful mind; because they’ve forgotten what they’ve been forgiven and saved from!
Forgiveness isn’t a condition of God’s love; it’s the evidence of it.
Before we go any further, let’s clear up what Forgiveness Is and Isn’t,
Forgiveness is not:
Pretending a wrong didn’t happen. We need to call out the wrongs
Staying in an abusive situation/relationship. We need to get away from people that try to harm us,
Trusting someone instantly again. No, trust has to be earned Letting someone off the hook without boundaries. The old saying ‘Good fences make good neighbours’; well,the same rule applies with people.
But ‘forgiveness’ is releasing the debt. It’s handing the case over to the ultimate Judge and saying,
“Lord, I’m not going to carry this anymore. I’m not going to let bitterness rent space in my head and soul. I’m choosing freedom.”
Forgiveness is far less about the other person and more about us. It’s like unlocking a prison door; and realising that you were the one locked up all along trapped by our hurt and bitterness where,
Bitterness is the prison cell where we hold the key, but refuse to unlock the door and walk away free.
Today we live in a world where the culture operates on a one-strike-and-you’re-out mentality.
Mistakes go viral. The spectator sport of shame drives the social media gossips into a frenzy of vile comments. Then cancel culture kicks in, as people withdraw support, taking sides when they only know one side. Boycotting ensues as individuals are shunned. Which only serves to tell us that some people are beyond redemption!
But Jesus offers a radically different way. Not cheap grace that ignores justice, but costly grace that absorbs it.
The Cross is where justice and mercy meet. For God didn’t pretend that our sins didn’t matter; instead he paid for them himself.
And when we follow him, he turns to us and says,
“Now go and do likewise.”
It doesn’t mean we ignore wrongdoing or sweep abuse under the rug. It means we refuse to become what we despise. We refuse to let an offense define our future. We break the cycle; not because the other person earned it, but because we remember the cycle that was broken for us first.
We can’t cancel someone that Jesus died for. We can only love them the way that we’ve been loved.
Themes of radical forgiveness echoes all through the Bible:
Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
The motive for our mercy isn’t their apology; it’s our own story.
Colossians 3:13 “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Not partially. Not conditionally. But Freely.
The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:12) “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
This is the only part of the prayer Jesus stops to comment on. He knew we’d struggle here.
Genesis 50:20 Joseph, who was betrayed by his own brothers, sold into slavery, and forgotten in prison, later says to them,
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” That’s forgiveness with eternal vision; seeing God’s redemptive hand even through the wounds.
So where does this leave us?
Maybe you’ve been carrying a weight you were never meant to carry. A grudge, a open wound, someone’s name you can’t hear without your stomach churning. And you’ve been waiting for an apology that probably will never come.
But here’s the good news: our freedom doesn’t depend on their response. It depends on our release.
The king The Almighy, has already cancelled our ten thousand talents.
The Cross has already spoken the final word over our debt and we are forgiven, fully and forever.
And now, Jesus invites us to walk out of that throne room; not to lay hands on someone and choke them with their debt, but to open our hands and let the dept fall. Not because it didn’t hurt. Not because they deserve it. But because you remember what it felt like when mercy came running for you.
Forgiven people forgive freely. Freed people free people. And grace, God’s grace, once truly received, can’t help but overflow from us.
Have a peaceful week, God bless,
Trev