Stories Jesus Told: The Unmerciful Servant Matthew 18:21-35

Stories Jesus Told: The Unmerciful Servant Matthew 18:21-35

Into - different spin - Rob Bell
Peter want to be unforgiving
I forgave 7 times!!!
Let me do enough to be religious and then I want to go back to being human

As if it were optional, for many Christians, Forgiveness is pushed over in the corner, like maybe one of these days I will get around to it

Jesus makes it clear that it is a central part of being a part of the kingdom.
an integral part of being a Christ follower.
Don't think that this is easy - it is a constant battle.

Peter beings in one direction...Jesus turns it around.
Peter wants to know how much he should offer grace to another,
Jesus shows him how much grace he has received.
When we realize how much we have received, our outlook changes...

3 characters
king-unmerciful servant - servant 2
Where is Peter in this story? What role do we play in the story?

the actions of the king
wants to settle accounts - he is a good businessman - bring me the book.
Calls in servant
Servant asks for mercy = Be patient, I will repay
the king does not say, "okay, I will give you more time"...the Debt is cancelled

the actions of the servant
Finds a fellow servant, throws him into debtors prison
I love what the other servants do
the other servants know what is right...they are distressed at the injustice
People know what is right...

The size of the debt
1 denarius is a days labor. 100 denari = 1 denarius. One days pay

6000 denarius = one silver talent X 10,000
60 million days of work 164,000 years of working.
5 billion, 400 mission dollars [at minimum wage]

not large vs small
but unrepayable sum vs a small sum

can the debt be paid
As a side bar, what kind of servant racks up this kind of debt?

Boy this is a stupid king...look how much he has loaned me...
He thinks I am going to pay him...
He is ungrateful and he doesn't understand why the debt is forgiven

I will pay back the debt
Can he pay it back? 154,000 years
Does the king release the debt because of what the servant says?
No
Is it because it is good business?
The king has become a bad businessman
the king is no longer in the business business.
It does not make sense it does not add up in the book.
the king lets the accounting system go
If I stay with the system, the debt will never be cancelled
So for some profound reason, he tossed the book - makes no worldly sense.
There is something going on inside of the king that makes him want to forgive.

How sad that the servant, even after being forgiven, is unforgiving
He sees a fellow servant and busts him
The servant holds onto the book. he refuses to set aside the book.
As long as we hold onto the book, the other person will never be free.

Torture-Great ending...parable about grace that ends in torture...
What is the torture...surely Jesus did not mean that people should be beaten...

The servant could not put put down his book. He carried it in to see the king, he carried it in the streets, he carried it to prison.

If you want to stick with the book, then you will pay by the book
He clings to his books, his idea or right and wrong.
And he totally misses grace
He spends the rest of his life in prison, a prison of his own accounting
This is possible for people...to know God's grace, but still hold the books

living by the book is not an attractive way of living
life rooted in the books - shapes everything
If you hold others to the books, then you yourself are also tortured by the judgement.
It is a torture of the heart and soul

It looks like good business, but it is a form of torture
It is judgement, it is hatred, it is separation it is hell on earth

Do you want to live in an account ledger relationship with God?

What the king does in the story is to decide that we will not live by the books
The man asks for grace, the king gives the grace
This is good news - God has tossed out the books.
If the gospel gets a hold of you, then you have to toss the books.
Because you have seen what torture they can be, and not you are free.
God's love and grace are amazing!

what happens to the debt - the books are gone, but what about the debt?
Forgiveness cost someone
When we exact revenge, we make them pay.
When we hold our forgiveness,
We take the pain, we absorb the hatred meant for them, we absorb the energy
we take the pain and we die to the bookkeeping system so that someone else can go free

What happened to the debt - Who pays it, where does the $ go? Who eats it?
the master writes it off as a bad debt
Jesus tells a story about a king who pays the price bears the cost and sets aside the bookkeeping so that a servant can have a new life.

This is what we are to do - set aside the books
I think of 1 Corinthians 13:5 - love keeps no record of wrongs
If I see myself as wounded, I look for the perpetrator
If I see myself as whole, I have to let go of the offense
If I concentrate on what others have done, I am wounded
If I concentrate on what God has done, I am so overwhelmed by grace that I

Today Jesus asks us to set aside your system of accounting
Offer forgiveness to any persons that the Holy Spirit would bring to your mind.
Let's move forward into the rest of this day and into our future with a clean heart
Forgiveness coast someone
when we exact revenge, we make them pay.
When we hold out forgiveness,
We take the pain, we absorb the hatred meant for them, we absorb the energy
we take the pain and we die to the