Matthew 18:23-35 ~ The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant is another of many troubling passage in the
Gospels. A “servant” owes money to his master, and when the master demands
payment, the servant begs for more time. In compassion, the master agrees.
Then, the forgiven servant goes to a fellow servant who owes him money
and demands payment. The borrower begs for more time, but the lender servant
has him thrown into prison “until he would pay the debt.” There’s my first
problem. How can he pay if he’s in prison? Is it assumed by either lender that
the debtor has the money to repay the loan, and is simply refusing to pay?
As the narrative continues, the other servants report the
forgiven-but-unforgiving servant to the master, who in turn orders the
unforgiving servant to be tortured (NRSV) “until he would pay the debt.” That’s
my second problem, which is essentially the same as the first.
But my third problem with this parable is devastating. Jesus says, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every
one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Until that closing statement, the
application of the parable has been crystal clear: indeed, I wonder whether the
“unpardonable sin”[1]
is to refuse to forgive when we have been forgiven.
This statement, on the lips of
Jesus, lends support to my conservative Christian brothers and sisters who
continue to hold on to an understanding of God as wrathful and vengeful. But if
taken literally at face value, Jesus’ comment participates in a description of
a schizophrenic God who punishes and/or forgives unpredictably. Even the
legalism of the Pharisees is to be preferred! It at least is consistent.
Nor do I find comfort in the
“God-is-God-and-can-do-whatever-he-pleases” platitude.
I would have no difficulty
seeing this statement as a part of the ongoing testimony/counter testimony approach
of Jewish Scriptures[2]—except
that the statement is on the lips of Jesus, who already has taken a specific
side in the debate by presenting God as capricious in forgiveness as the “other
side” presents God as capriciously vengeful.
Jesus seems to be
contradicting his own teachings![3]
Jesus was a rabbi, and the
rabbis saw no incongruity in stretching or bending reality in order to make a
point. The point is the point, and the hyperbole is the method. Humans in
general always have had difficulty keeping means and ends in proper
relationship.
At the infamous bottom line,
if we can see through the smoke, Jesus is again[4]
lobbying for forgiveness on the part of his followers. To be forgiven and then
to refuse to forgive others is something God takes very seriously. When in
doubt, forgive. Such is the way for a follower of Jesus.
That's the way it looks
through the flawed glass that is my world view.
Together in the Walk,
Jim
[1]
Matthew 12:18, see comments in devotional for Day 39 of Lent, page 24 above.
[2]
See devotional for Day 13 of Lent, page 9 above.
[3] In
all fairness, this is not the only time in Matthew that Jesus presents God as condemning
and even wrathful. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25 comes
to mind. But on the whole, those statements represent a tiny minority of Jesus’
total teachings, and present us with a serious conundrum: Jesus seemingly as
inconsistent and self-contradictory.
[4] See
discussion in yesterday’s devotional, page 40 above.
