THE PARABLE OF THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT

-Matthew 18:23-35

-Context:  Matthew 18:21-22 – forgiving one another

-General Synopsis:  A king was settling accounts and discovered that a servant owed him

                               a very large sum of money.  The indebted servant begged for mercy

                               and the king forgave the large, large debt.  The same servant then

                               went and found a fellow-servant who owed him a much smaller

                               amount and tried to force him to pay the sum.  The servant who had

                               received mercy was unwilling to show mercy.  When the king heard

                               of this situation, he called for the servant that had been forgiven his

                               debt and had him sent to the tormentors.

-Main Point:  Matthew 18:35 – If we do not forgive one another, we cannot expect our

       Heavenly Father to forgive us.

-A Closer Look

-vs 24 – ten thousand talents

            -“In NT times this was not a weight of silver, but the Roman-Attic talent, equal to

              6,000 drachmas, or slightly over $1,000.” (Jackson, p40)

            -10,000 talents x $1,000/talent = $10,000,000.00

            -If this servant was paid as a common laborer, his daily wages would have been about

              “one denarius (18 cents) per day” (Jackson, p41)  At this rate, if this servant would

              have paid his entire wages to the king, it would have taken thousands upon thousands of

              years to repay repay the debt that he owed.  According to Wayne Jackson, “it would

              have taken a mere 200,000 years to liquidate the debt!” (p41).  

            -The point is this:  The servant had an insurmountable debt that he could never repay.

-vs 27 – compassion and mercy shown

            -compassion – (Vines) – splanchnizomai – “to be moved as to one’s inwards (splancha),

                                            to be moved with compassion, to yearn with compassion”

-forgave – (Vines) – aphiemi – primarily to send forth, send away, denotes…to remit or

                  forgive – debts, sins, trespasses – these being completely cancelled

-Here we find a representation of Divine forgiveness.

-vs 28 – a tragic contrast

            -Notice, this verse begins with “But”.

            -The KJV says that this forgiven servant was owed “an hundred pence”.

                        -pence – (Vines) – denarion – plural for denarius – “the daily wage of a common

                             laborer”  [see notes above for vs 24]

            -Using the daily wage for a common laborer of $.18, 100 pence would equal $18.00

            -This is not an insignificant amount (100 days of wages) but it doesn’t even begin to

              compare with 10,000 talents.

            -Notice the forgiven servant’s uncompassionate disposition toward his fellow-servant.

-vs 32 – lack of compassion = wicked

            -Notice how the king now refers to the servant to whom he had previously showed

              great compassion – “O thou wicked servant”

-vs 33 – mercy

            -NAS – “Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy

                           on you?”

-vs 35 – The main point:  If we want forgiveness from God (for the insurmountable debt of

              sin) then we must be willing to forgive one another (much lesser degree of

              forgiveness than that which has been shown to us).

Consider these passages:  1 John 1:9, 1 John 4:20-21

            -It is impossible to be wrong with your brother and right with God.

            -Therein, we find the vast importance of our willingness to forgive one another!