The Lord said this parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison till he should pay the debt.
When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord delivered him to the torturers, till he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Matthew 18:23-35
Today’s Gospel highlights the importance of mercy, forgiveness, and divine wrath, reminding us to reflect God’s mercy in the way we treat others while truly receiving the gift of mercy He offers us all.
Before continuing, it is important to note how we experience God’s attributes, such as His wrath and mercy. It is easy to hear of God’s wrath and believe that God is passionately wrathful. Yet St. John Chrysostom explains that God remains good even when He punishes.
This tells us that God, as we see throughout Scripture, is inherently good, for He is the source of all goodness and life. When we think of wrath, it is easy for us, as human beings, to project the passions associated with our own anger onto God.
God becomes man, yet we are not called simply to anthropomorphize God, as easy as that may be since human existence is the only experience we know. Rather, we are called to see humanity as God sees and transfigures us, thus theomorphizing His creation—that is, seeing creation and our very lives through our relationship with Him.
Chrysostom distinguishes human anger from God’s in Homily VII on the Statues, showing that, unlike ours, God’s actions are free from passion and rooted entirely in goodness, whether expressed through mercy or punishment.
There is no passion, in the patristic sense of the word—meaning something rooted in human fallenness—in God’s actions toward His creation. Rather, everything we find in the actions of God is rooted in love, for He is its source.
Thus, we can describe the punishment or wrath of God as our experience of the gift of His goodness and love when we want nothing to do with it. When we reject God and the gifts He offers us, we set ourselves in opposition to Him and reject the life He continually and freely offers.
He continues to offer us the gift, and it is our choice either to receive it eternally or to continue rejecting it, wanting nothing to do with Him.
God is not personally vindictive toward us; quite the contrary, He is endlessly loving toward us all. Yet when we choose sin over His love, experiencing His love while simultaneously desiring separation from it, the discomfort and torment of such an existence is what we refer to as hell.
This understanding of how we experience God’s mercy and wrath sets the stage for the beginning of today’s parable, as we hear:
“The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.”
Remember that in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask our Father to forgive us our debts—or trespasses—as we forgive the debts and trespasses of others. This highlights our calling to forgive and encourages us to live compassionately as we become more Christ-like.
In the parable, we next hear:
“When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.”
When the master saw that his servant owed such a great sum, he ordered the punishment required for failing to repay what was owed.
Yet we are then told:
“The servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.”
Seeing his servant’s desperate state, the lord chooses pity and mercy, forgiving everything that was owed rather than merely granting the additional time for repayment that the servant had requested.
Our Father does the same for us all.
There is nothing we can do on our own to erase the debt of sin humanity has accumulated over time, let alone the depth of our own personal sin. Yet our Lord forgives the debt of sin by offering us the whole of Himself through His Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection.
In His actions, God forgives our debt and gives us the true model for how we are called to forgive others.
Yet here lies the hardheartedness of the servant. After he has been forgiven his debt, we hear that he:
“Came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison till he should pay the debt.”
In this parable, we see the master, who stands as an image of God, show mercy to his servant when he begs for mercy.
Yet in return, what does this servant do toward his fellow servant?
He takes the mercy he has received and throws it away by refusing to extend mercy to another who pleads with him in the same manner.
Not only does he refuse to show the same complete mercy that his master showed him, but he does not even grant his fellow servant’s request for more time—the very request he himself had made before his master.
Instead, he responds with passionate wrath and has his fellow servant thrown into prison.
Seeing this interaction, we hear:
“When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place.”
This servant has received so much goodness, yet he responds by inflicting further evil.
Seeing this shocking turn of events, the other servants report the matter to their master. We then hear his reaction:
“Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord delivered him to the torturers, till he should pay all his debt.”
The lord first calls the servant wicked, and this description encapsulates his actions well.
The lord of the house had already shown him mercy, yet the servant transformed that received mercy into passionate wrath toward another. Rather than forgiving the debt of his fellow servant, who is no better off than he once was, he has him imprisoned.
The man now standing before the lord was forgiven because he begged for forgiveness. Yet where was this same mercy when his fellow servant begged him?
In anger, we hear that the earthly lord delivers the servant over to the torturers until he pays his debt.
Christ our Lord then concludes:
“So also My heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Practically speaking, the message of this entire Gospel is that we must continually model God’s mercy.
As passionate human beings, we cannot fully comprehend the wrath of God, for it is far too easy to project our own passionate condition onto His actions.
God’s wrath purifies us from sin, and God’s mercy—our means of salvation—knows no end. He extends His mercy even into the grave, revealing that He is present everywhere.
God’s wrath corrects our actions, while His mercy transforms our fallen condition.
This tells us that we are always standing within the merciful presence of our Lord. Yet we also have a responsibility to receive this mercy and to live lives consistent with it, continually course-correcting through repentance when God’s correction reveals our fallenness.
We may believe that we are forgiven by God, attend Church, and live what appears to others to be a decent life. Yet if we treat our brothers and sisters with resentment, hardheartedness, and wrath rooted in our passions and egos, we cannot truly receive the gifts of love our Lord mercifully offers us.
We are offered freedom from sin and from the debt that once stood between God and us. Yet to become free from the debt of sin, we must forgive others their debts just as our Lord forgives ours.
Practically speaking, let us ask ourselves: What debts are we holding against others in our hearts?
Perhaps the debt is financial, or perhaps it is something entirely different.
What I want us to focus on is whatever weighs upon our hearts right now—something we continue to hold against someone whom we love, or perhaps even someone whom we despise.
What impact has holding onto this debt had upon our lives?
And what might our lives look like if we offered what we are holding onto to God and allowed the debt to go?
When I think about the debts I have held against others who have hurt me, or whom I felt owed me something, I have seen time and again that I am often the one causing further harm to myself by holding onto the resentment and pain associated with those debts.
Yet I have also learned repeatedly that forgiveness does not mean allowing others to hurt us further, nor does it mean justifying the wrongs committed against us.
Rather, forgiveness means refusing to continue carrying the pain, resentment, and sense of debt that we believe is still owed to us.
On our own, we are helpless to free ourselves completely from these debts. We naturally seek our own justice, revenge, or sense of equilibrium in these situations. Yet because those efforts are rooted in ourselves, their end will always remain shallow and ultimately meaningless in the grand scope of life.
This is why Christ has come to show us, through His actions, the forgiveness of the great debt between humanity and God, accomplished through His saving work.
Because of the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, we see God’s mercy on full display.
God meets us where we are in order to raise us to His saving heights. He forgives our debts and provides us with a path toward full union with Him.
Thus, in order for us to become full participants in these gifts, we must be merciful as our Lord is merciful.
We are called to love as our Lord loves. And when this seems too difficult for us, we must remember that He is the One giving us everything we need to do so, for He never abandons us.
So let us ask ourselves today: How can we show mercy to those whom we believe are indebted to us?
Living such a life is a struggle, and perhaps it is too early for some of us to forgive the enormous debts that weigh heavily upon our hearts.
If so, it is okay to begin small.
Yet we must begin somewhere.
So let us begin today, and in this struggle, let us continually call upon our Lord in prayer, asking Him to provide us with the strength we need to forgive as He forgives us.
For in His forgiveness, and in all the gifts He offers us, we see that truly to Him belong all glory, honor, and worship, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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