This is part of a year-long series. Find out more about this series by reading the introductory post here.

Matthew 18:21–35  Forgiveness

“Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

“I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus said to him, “but 70 times seven. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him. Since he had no way to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.

“At this, the slave fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’ Then the master of that slave had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.

“But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’

“At this, his fellow slave fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he wasn’t willing. On the contrary, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. When the other slaves saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened.

“Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And his master got angry and handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. So My heavenly Father will also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart.””

Again, we see forgiveness playing a crucial role in Matthew’s gospel (Jesus talks about the importance of forgiveness after the Lord’s Prayer in ch. 6).  Peter asked Jesus Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?  Here, it seems like Peter is wondering at what point he is no longer required to forgive his brother for sinning against him.  Jesus gives his answer through a parable, and his message is that there is an expectation for us to forgive others after we have received forgiveness from God.

I am struggling with this passage because of a knee-jerk reaction that I’m not sure is correct: I notice the master initially forgave the slave but then revoked his forgiveness when the slave did not forgive the debt of his fellow slave. My followup question is this: will God revoke his forgiveness to us if we do not forgive others? I don’t have a definitive answer to this yet, but I would like to seek a clear answer through further study and prayer. If that is the case, it is very sobering.

One thing I do feel like I can walk away with is following Christ is to forgive.  No matter how often we worship God, do good things in His name, or bring people to Him, we will ALWAYS be the slave who owed 10,000 talents. This is humbling, and it makes me desire to be ever on the lookout for any seeds of pride that tell me I’ve got a handle on this Christianing thing.

Matthew 21:45–46  The Parable of the Vineyard Owner

“When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they knew He was speaking about them. Although they were looking for a way to arrest Him, they feared the crowds, because they regarded Him as a prophet.”

The Pharisees were not ignorant.  They knew all the Scriptures that Jesus was referencing.  They knew the Messiah would eventually come, and they knew the signs of His coming.  They knew about John’s role as the one who paved the way for the coming Messiah (see Isaiah 40:3-5).  Jesus’ parable told the Pharisees that they were being replaced because they rejected the messengers from God – and the Pharisees themselves agreed that the wicked vineyard workers should be destroyed (see Mtt. 21:40-41).  The Pharisees could not accept Christ’s message because they had spent so much time deciding what was righteous in God’s eyes instead of relying on the Scriptures to reveal righteousness to them.  To accept Christ would be to go against and deny the tenants they had declared most important.