Speaking in parables was one of Jesus’ most effective methods of teaching. A master storyteller, he had the ability to gain his listeners’ interest and involve them in the story’s drama. But Jesus’ parables weren’t simply engaging stories—they reveal to us the love of God and the values of his kingdom. They call us to deeper conversion.
To bring a lesson home forcefully, Jesus often used exaggeration – a common Semitic practice – or contrasted opposites like wisdom and foolishness, generosity and stinginess. Surely, there’s no clearer instance of exaggeration than the reading about the unforgiving servant (Matt 18:21-35). A man who was forgiven an enormous debt – the equivalent of 150,000 years’ wages –refused to cancel another man’s debt that equaled a hundred days’ wages – a debt that was only 1/20,000 of one percent as great as his own. Although the servant acknowledged his own need for mercy, he didn’t allow that mercy to soften his heart. And the consequence for him was devastating.
The blunt ending of this story is a direct challenge for us to be just as forgiving to others as God has been to us. It also underscores something Jesus told his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” If we are not trying our best to be merciful, compassionate, and forgiving, we will find it very hard to pray or to know God’s own love and mercy in our lives. If you think the consequences to the man who refused to forgive his neighbor’s debt were devastating, how much more devastating will be our own consequences if we fail to forgive the sins and transgressions of others. He paid the debt of imprisonment and slavery in this life. We will pay that same debt and for all eternity in the next life.
But as long as we breathe in air and walk this earth, we have the opportunity to come to grips with our need for mercy and to let God’s mercy soften our hearts so that we can change the way we relate to the people in our lives. God doesn’t want us to hold a grudge or treat anyone unkindly who is “in debt” to us. He doesn’t want to see our hearts darkened by bitterness or resentment. Rather, God wants his peace to rule us – and through us, to touch everyone around us. I am sure that we want that, too.
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