The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Part 1: A Prison of Our Own Making

Libby was a member of a church where I served, and over the years, we became great friends. We spent hours discussing genealogy and history. She let me hold her prized possession, a revolver that her grandfather carried in the Civil War. Libby’s favorite movie was The Shawshank Redemption, and she was insistent that I watch it. Every time the movie came on TV, she’d call me on the phone: “Shawshank’s on!” With three kids and crazy schedules, it took me a while, but I finally watched the movie – a classic! As soon as it was over, I called Libby to let her know.

After moving to Ohio, Kim and I visited the old prison where Shawshank was filmed. I actually sat at the warden’s desk. If you ever get to Mansfield, Ohio, make sure you visit. During the tour, two things were on my mind: my friend Libby and an intense desire to avoid prison.

Jesus came to offer us freedom from the power and penalty, and, ultimately, the very presence of sin. The world, though, is filled with Christians who are walking around not in freedom, but in a prison of their own making. I’m talking about the prison of unforgiveness.

In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus taught the disciples how to respond when someone sinned against them. Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” He thought he was being super spiritual, since Jewish leaders taught that we should forgive the same person three times. Peter more than doubled that, so he was expecting praise. But Jesus said, “No, Peter, you need to forgive them 77 times.” Jesus was saying, “My disciples forgive without ever stopping.”

Some of your Bibles in verse 22 may say “seventy times seven,” or 490 times. Either way, what Jesus is saying is that when someone wrongs us, there’s no limit to the number of times we should forgive them.

While the original Greek of Matthew can be interpreted as either “seventy-seven times” or “seventy times seven,” I believe Jesus said the former for a very important reason. He was reminding Peter and the disciples of the story in Genesis about a man named Lamech.

Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold,
then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.” (Genesis 4:23-24)

Lamech is referring to his ancestor Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, who killed his brother Abel. God punished Cain by sending him out of Eden, and Cain said to God, “I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me” (Genesis 4:14). God replied, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold” (Genesis 4:15). In other words, they’d receive seven times the punishment that Cain got.

Lamech is discussing this in his statement above. A young man had injured him, so Lamech killed him. God had promised Cain that if anyone killed him, they’d get seven times Cain’s punishment. Lamech is saying, “I’m far more important than Cain. If anyone tries to hurt me, they’ll get seventy-seven times Cain’s punishment.”

The focus of Genesis 4 is revenge. Far too many of us live in the world of revenge. “You hurt me, so I’m going to hurt you worse.”

So when Peter asked Jesus whether he should forgive someone seven times, Jesus responded by saying, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven.” And Peter would have immediately remembered the story of Lamech and realized that, right before his eyes, Jesus was disavowing a lifestyle of revenge and calling instead for a lifestyle of forgiveness.

Immediately after making that staggering statement, Jesus launched into a parable:

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.” (Matthew 18:23)

The story is about a king who had people who owed him money – lots of money. So he went to one servant (we’ll call him Servant 1) and demanded what was owed him, 10,000 talents. Some Bible scholars put this at about $400 billion! Servant 1 could never have repaid what he owed.

This part of the story reminds us of the massive debt we owe God because of our sin. We could never repay God for what he’s done. Forgiveness can’t be earned or deserved.

Servant 1, though, fell on his knees and begged the king to give him more time and promised to repay him all he owed. The king knew this was impossible, but in his great grace and forgiveness, he released the servant from his debt completely. This, of course, is a picture of God’s mercy and grace, and his provision of the cross to pay the penalty and debt of our sin. So far, so good.

It just so happened that another servant, let’s call him Servant 2, owed Servant 1 “a hundred denarii” (v. 26). This was one-six-hundred-thousandth of what Servant 1 had owed the king. But instead of forgiving as he’d been forgiven, Servant 1 demanded full repayment from Servant 2. And just like Servant 1, Servant 2 begged for more time and promised to repay the debt. Unlike the king, however, Servant 1 has Servant 2 thrown into prison until he can pay back what he owes.

Note that both servants owed a debt they couldn’t repay, and both begged for mercy. But while Servant 1 received incredible mercy from the king, he wasn’t willing to offer any mercy at all to Servant 2.

Word got back to the king about what happened, and it didn’t sit well with him. He called Servant 1 to stand before him and said:

“You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (Matthew 18:32-33)

And the king, in his anger, had Servant 1 put in jail until he could pay back all he owed. This was a life sentence with no possibility of parole, because, as we’ve seen, there was no way possible for this servant to repay the huge amount he owed.

Then Jesus closed the story by saying, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:35).

This was Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question in verse 21 – but what exactly is he saying? Is he saying that God will only forgive us if we forgive others? If we hold a grudge, does God withhold or withdraw his offer of salvation to us?

No, that is not what Jesus is saying. What, then, does he mean? And how can this forgiveness Jesus calls for play out in the real world with real people who have hurt us deeply? For answers to those questions, stay tuned for the second part of our look at The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant!