By Chalcedony Williams
Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
“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. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 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.
“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“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.
“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. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 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. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
We know that grace is a free gift, given by God, bought by Christ and received by faith. We know that God’s grace is abundant, sufficient to cover every sin and to empower us to live the life Christ calls us to. There should never be a day when the believer is not fully dependent upon the grace of God. Without this dependency, we would never be able to receive God’s grace to begin with, or, after receiving grace, we would fall into attitudes that can work against the grace of God. That’s not to say that we are able to unearn God’s grace or be unworthy of it – but we can certainly be in a posture of turning up our noses and snubbing all that God has freely given.
One of the attitudes that works against grace is ingratitude. Jesus demonstrates this problem for us in the parable of the unforgiving servant. This parable is interesting because Jesus approaches it from the angle of explaining how many times we should forgive. Forgiveness is a real challenge for any person because it requires us to do something none of us like to do – absorb the wrong that has been done to us and forfeit our right to demand satisfaction. When we are wronged, justice dictates we have the right to give the person what they deserve, which is likely punishment. Justice is fair, forgiveness is unfair. When God forgives our sins He does not give us what we deserve, He gives us more than we could ever deserve.
In Jesus’ parable, the king decides to have mercy on the servant. He does not simply let the servant go in order to pay back his debt, but cancels the servant’s debt completely, essentially paying for it himself. Such great mercy was shown from the king to the servant. Justice would have demanded the servant paid for everything with his life, but grace allowed for the servant to be forgiven. I hope you realise by now that the servant in the parable represents us. But what does this servant do with the grace he received? He finds another servant who owes him a much smaller amount than he owed and aggressively demands payment. The other servant begs for mercy but is ignored. From an outsider’s perspective, we might be shocked. It appears what the king did for the servant was too quickly forgotten, or maybe the servant just did not care. Either way, his actions demonstrate a lack of gratitude and the result was catastrophic. The king was furious with the servant and sentenced him to the punishment he deserved.
There are many lessons to be learned from Jesus’ parable. But the one for today is this: gratitude for the grace of God makes us into conduits of grace, to receive abundant grace and to dispense it to others. But ingratitude causes us to not only block others from grace but also ourselves. I know I am so grateful that God never gave me what I deserved. How about you?
Ask: Why did the king decide to punish the servant?
Seek: Do you fully understand all that God has given you? How does your heart respond?
Knock: Heavenly Father, thank You that You do not give me what I deserve. What I deserve is death for my sins, but You took that on Yourself so that I could be free. Please give me a heart of true gratitude and make me into a conduit of grace.
(Upper Photo by Nikko Balanial on Unsplash)
(Inner Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash)
