Thursday in the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 11, 2022

Matthew 18, 21–19, 1

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.” When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

“Peter approached Jesus.”  St, Matthew writes this as though to intimate that Peter had mulled over his question for some time and had come to no conclusion.  He waits until the Lord has a spare moment and asks him about it.  Perhaps Jesus and the Apostles are eating, or they may have been walking to a village to preach the Gospel.  That Peter seeks to speak privately with Jesus like this tells us that he is seeking to resolve a private matter.  “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” We should not assume that by “brother” Peter means Andrew, but some other person.  This person has harmed Peter on several occasions, not necessarily seven.  Peter uses “seven” to mean an indefinite number of times.  The harm might have come in the form of insults, lies, or even petty theft.  “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”  The Lord multiplies Peter’s indefinite number to emphasize that there should be no limit to his forgiveness.  Peter may have started at hearing his answer, for the Lord immediately begins to tell him a parable to explain what he means.

“That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants.”. The Greek has “slaves”, not servants.

“When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.”  The Greek tells us that the slave owed ten thousand talents.  In today’s money, the amount the slave in the parable owed was $262,460,000, or, over a quarter of a billion dollars.  As difficult as we might find it today to visualize this kind of money, so much more in the Ancient Middle East.  On top of the difficulty in imagining this sum, it was owed to the king by a slave, which meant that a slave had managed to accumulate this sum from the king.  The situation is absurd on its face.  “Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.”  A free man would have been imprisoned for the debt, but a slave would be sold for it.  But in this case, no amount the slave and his family would bring could come anywhere near covering the cost of the debt.  “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.”  This plea might have provoked smirks in the royal court because of its pitifulness and impossibility.  Even so, “moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.”  Here we might note that the king squanders mercy on this man who has squandered vast quantities of his money.  

“When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him.”  The amount his fellow-slave owed him was a hundred denarii, about $260.  This would be a lot for a slave to owe, but much easily imagined than what the first slave owed the king.  We should keep in mind here that the first slave does not need this money.  The king has canceled his debt and no other mention of a debt is made.  Even so, he physically attacks the second slave as if to threaten his life.  In sheer relief of his own new lease on life, he should have waved off the second slave’s debt and even invited him to a calibration for what he had received from the king.   Instead, “he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt.”  This action reveals the character of this man, that though he is a slave, he sees himself as having to account to no one for what he does: he thoughtlessly squanders the king’s money in such a way that there is no property to sell in order to get at least some of it back, and he assaults a fellow slave and has him put into prison over a relative trifle.  In today’s terms, we might think of such a one as a narcissist.

“You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?”  The king is furious that the first slave has abused the mercy he received and assaulted the second slave, who was his property.  “Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.”  The translation of the Greek word as “torturers” goes too far.  The alternative “jailor” works better, as debtors were not tortured but left to languish in their misery.  Of course, this particular debt would never be paid off.  

“So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”  The Lord is speaking directly to Peter and looking into his eyes as he says this.  Peter has asked a question on a personal matter and the Lord tells him how he must handle this matter.  He is to forgive without a limit those who harm him, in light of the forgiveness we have received from God.

If we ask for a definition of forgiveness, we should look again at this parable.  What does the king do when the slave begs for pity?  He remits the debt owed to him.  He does nothing more or less.  The relationship between him and the slave does not change.  The king sees that he is out a quarter of a billion dollars, and then moves on.  This is what we do when we forgive.  We remit any vengeance we might take on the one who has harmed us, and continue on, not allowing the fact of the harm to hinder us in the conduct of our lives.  At the same time, we need not offer one who has harmed us a further opportunity to do so.  We can in good conscience avoid such a person: the king is hardly likely to trust his slave again with any money.

We stand back from the parable and wonder at what a munificent king we have, one who is so easily moved to compassion for the transgressions we commit against him, even disdaining to realize the magnitude of what we have done.