Reading
Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 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.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Meditation
In contrast to the commandment of the Scriptures for Lamech's vengeance "If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times" (Gen 4:24), given to contain the spread of violence, the ordinances of Jesus for his disciples provide for an unlimited availability to forgive the brother who repents of his sins. This is the meaning of the number expressed by Jesus: "seventy-seven times" (v. 22).
The parable that Jesus presents to answer Peter's question in detail shows the reason why one must always be willing to forgive. God was the first to forgive us all debt and since we do not have from our neighbor a right to compensation higher than that which God has towards us, it follows that we are called to imitate him in his infinite goodness, forgiving, in turn, all debts to who makes amends.
From the size of the patrimony administered by the servant of the parable, it is evident that he is a minister of state. The value of one talent, which could be made of gold, silver or bronze, was very high (six thousand denarii for a talent of silver and thirty times more for a talent of gold). The figure of ten thousand talents is therefore enormous. The dishonest servant, who had contracted such a debt, cannot escape the accounting required by the king, just as it is impossible for our conscience to escape the judgment of God.
According to Levitical law, a debtor who could not return the stolen goods could be sold as a slave by the creditor and so could his children. The slaves could then be freed, and therefore have their debts forgiven, in the Jubilee year, which occurred "every seven weeks of years", that is every forty-nine years. The parable relates that the king asks to sell the debtor, his wife, and his children until he has paid off his debt. The image is therefore that of an Eastern despot who implements a more rigorous law than the Jewish one.
The debtor does not contest the king's sentence, in front of his conscience he finds it right, for this reason, he throws himself on the ground begging for his mercy. The first reaction of the dishonest servant is to make a rash promise to the king, in order to save his life: "Be patient with me and I will pay back everything" (v. 26). He certainly could not have fulfilled such a promise. But the king's response exceeds all expectations and he forgives all debt to the servant, letting him go.
God is not persuaded to use mercy by our good intentions, he does not treat us according to our merits; he knows our misery and immediately offers what we need: his forgiveness. He only asks us to accept this forgiveness with gratitude. This implies in turn exercising the remission of sins towards our debtors, making ourselves an image of his mercy. But in the servant of the parable fear leaves no room for love. Moved solely by the fear of being punished, he was unable to understand the significance of grace, his heart accepted God's forgiveness with superficiality, without allowing the gospel to transform it. For this reason, once the moment of gratitude towards the king has passed, he falls back into the world and into his perspective of inflexible justice, behaving as a tormentor towards those who had to give him back a paltry sum (one hundred denarii).
If the heart of the debtor had truly opened to God's mercy, it would have poured out and the joy of being saved would have sustained a generous soul in him (Ps 51:12). The friends of the fellow, who go to report everything to the king, should make us reflect on the multitude of prayers that come to God from those who are denied mercy by their oppressors.
The conclusion of the parable shows God's righteous judgment of those who have rejected his grace. The debtor is handed over to the torturers until he has returned everything, just as he promised.
Jesus asks us to forgive from the heart, sharing the joy of grace; this can come from the awareness of having a God who is the first to forgive us, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Prayer
Create in us, o Lord, a pure heart; replace the heart of stone with a heart of flesh, so that we can share the joy of your forgiveness with our debtors. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
