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Lumen

The Unforgiving Servant

A servant forgiven an unpayable debt will not forgive a small one — and Jesus' answer to Peter's question about counting.

Read Matthew 18:21–35 in the reader

Awaiting theological review

Before you read

Who Jesus was speaking to

Scripture

Peter asks whether he must forgive his brother as many as seven times. Jesus answers, “till seventy times seven times”, and tells this parable.

Interpretation

Peter thought seven was generous. The parable moves the question from how often I must forgive to how much I have been forgiven.

Matthew 18:21–35

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition · Public Domain

How often shall I forgive?21Then came Peter unto him and said: Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22Jesus saith to him: I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. The king settles accounts23Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. 24And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. 25And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. The servant and his fellow servant28But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: Pay what thou owest. 29And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 30And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt. The king's judgement31Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. 32Then his lord called him; and said to him: Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me: 33Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee? 34And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. 35So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.

Forgiven much, forgiving nothing

The king and two servants

Mercy beyond the request

The king

Asked for patience, he forgives the whole debt. Then, hearing what his servant did, he holds him to the standard he refused to share.

  1. 18:23–25 — Takes account; orders the servant sold
  2. 18:27 — Moved with pity, forgives the debt
  3. 18:32–34 — Shouldst not thou then have had compassion?

Scripture

The servant only asked for time; the king, “being moved with pity”, forgave the debt outright.

Church teaching

The Catechism, explaining the Our Father, teaches that God's mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we refuse to forgive those who have wronged us.

Think about it

The king gave more than he was asked for. When have you received more mercy than you asked for?

Forgiven much, forgiving nothing

The forgiven servant

Freed from an unpayable debt, he walks out and seizes a fellow servant by the throat over a small one.

  1. 18:26 — Falls down: have patience with me
  2. 18:28 — Throttles his fellow servant: pay what thou owest
  3. 18:30 — Has him thrown into prison

Scripture

His fellow servant pleads with the very words he had used himself — “Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all” — and he does not recognise them.

Interpretation

He received forgiveness as relief, not as a gift that changed him. That is the danger the parable warns about.

Think about it

Is there a debt you are still collecting from someone, while forgetting what you have been forgiven?

Grieved, and speak up

The fellow servants

They see what happens, are deeply grieved, and tell their lord everything.

  1. 18:31 — Very much grieved, they tell their lord

Interpretation

The parable closes a chapter about life in community. The others do not stay silent in the face of cruelty; they bring it to the master — compare the steps for correcting a brother earlier in the chapter (Matthew 18:15–17).

Think about it

When someone is treated unjustly, what does faithful speaking up look like?

What first hearers would have noticed

Context

Ten thousand talents

History & scholarship

A talent was a very large weight of silver, worth some six thousand denarii — about twenty years of a labourer's wages. Ten thousand was the largest number in ordinary Greek counting. The sum is meant to be absurd: no servant could ever repay it.

History & scholarship

For comparison, Josephus reports that Herod Antipas received two hundred talents a year from Galilee and Perea. (This note awaits scholarly review.)

A hundred pence

History & scholarship

A hundred denarii was about a hundred days' wages: a real debt, but roughly one six-hundred-thousandth of what the first servant had owed.

Sold for debt

History & scholarship

Selling a debtor and his family into servitude was known in the ancient world (compare 2 Kings 4:1). Debtors' prison, which the servant uses against his fellow, kept a man from working until his family paid.

Look closer

Symbols

Seventy times sevenMatthew 18:22

History & scholarship

The phrase can be read as seventy-seven or four hundred and ninety. Either way it reverses Lamech's boast of being avenged seventy-sevenfold (Genesis 4:24).
Have patience with meMatthew 18:29

Interpretation

The repeated plea is the hinge of the story: the same words, two different answers.
From your heartsMatthew 18:35

Scripture

Jesus ends: “So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.”

Interpretation

Forgiving from the heart is not pretending the wrong did not happen, and it does not require staying in danger. It means letting go of the debt, as God has let go of ours.

Bible Lens

Look at Matthew 18 through…

The heart of it in plain words

Explanation (AI-assisted)

Be humble like a child, never push anyone away from God, go after the person who has wandered, talk honestly with someone who has hurt you — and keep forgiving, because God has forgiven you far more.

Remember

Quiz me

Question 1 of 5beginner

How many times did Peter suggest he should forgive?

The next question

How do I forgive someone who hurt me?Forgive us as we forgiveThe Prodigal SonWhy did Jesus forgive Peter?