Matthew 18:23

“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.”

Jesus continued to stress the importance of forgiveness as his hour approached.  It is like he is saying that if those who are in the kingdom of heaven judge instead of forgive, nothing will go right. The kingdom relies on forgiveness.  Remove the desire to forgive and be forgiven and the kingdom is in bedlam.

Jesus told a rather long and detailed story to illustrate what he is stressing. It told of an unfortunate man who had huge debts that he could not possibly pay, no matter what. Knowing that his master had the legal right to take the man’s wife, family and his meager goods and sell them to pay off the debt, he begged without any good reason, to have his debts renegotiated. His master had pity on him and so, in a gesture of pure compassion, did not consider negotiating the debt but, surprisingly, forgave him all, outright. This is compassion indeed.

That is only a part of the story. What is to come is like piercing the heart – painful beyond telling. That man, forgiven and getting on with his life, did not forgive his fellows servant who owed him little.  In fact he determined to send the poor fellow to prison, fully aware that he could not possibly pay his debts.

In the meanwhile, the master who had forgiven the poor man’s debts had thought all was well with the man he had forgiven. He did not doubt that he had done the right thing by forgiving completely.

Then the master got word that the fellow servants of that man raised a ruckus. Those servants knew that the master had forgiven the man his huge debt. They were indignant about that.  When that news reached the ears of the master, he immediately rescinded his forgiveness and demanded that the ungrateful servant be punished severely.  The master had the man thrown into the debtors’ prison where he was tortured.

Jesus concluded this disturbing story with a strong teaching,  “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from the heart.”  v 35  His disciples learned through hard experience what Jesus was talking about.

Mutual forgiveness among us who love Jesus is not an option among many that we may choose, it is the only way to life in the peace of Christ.