Parable of the Unmerciful Debtor.

(Mat. 18:21-35 and Luke 17:3-4).

The Lord’s instructions about the forgiveness of a sinned and repentant brother, elicited a question from Peter as to how many times do you forgive your brother. The question was raised because according to the Jewish Scribes’ teachings, you can forgive three times only. Wishing to surpass The Old Testament justness and appear magnanimous, Peter asks is it sufficient to forgive seven times. To this, the Lord responds that you need to forgive up to seven times seventy i.e. you need to forgive every time — unlimited number of times. As an explanation of this essential, perpetual and boundless all-forgiveness, the Lord narrates a parable about a merciful king and an unmerciful debtor. In this parable, the Lord appears in the guise as a king that is owed money by his servants. Similarly, a person appears as a debtor before God, because he doesn’t create good works that he is obliged to do, but sins instead. “Settle accounts” means demanding payment of the debt, which is depicted in the Parable where the Lord demands from every person that all accounts be settled at Judgment Day, and in part, at an individual judgment upon the death of each person.

The debtor that owed ten thousand talents, represents each person-sinner who appears before God as an undischarged debtor. Ten thousand talents is an enormous sum: one Jewish talent equaled 3000 sacred shekels, which in turn a shekel was worth 80 Russian silver kopeks. Therefore, one talent equaled 2400 silver roubles. Instead of an undisclosed sum, the specific amount of the debt is nominated. In accordance with the laws of Moses — Leviticus chp.25; the king ordered that the undischarged debtor be sold. However, taking pity upon him after his impassioned plea, the king forgave him his debt.

This is a wonderful example of God’s mercy toward every penitent sinner. The released debtor, locating his agent who owed him some 100 denarii, one denarii being worth 20 cents — an amount that could not be compared to the first sum — started choking him (according to Roman laws, the lender could torment his debtor until the amount was repaid), demanding the repayment of this insignificant amount. He didn’t take pity on his pleas and had him thrown into jail. Having witnessed this and feeling aggrieved, went and related all this to the king. Angered by the evil servant’s actions, the king summoned him. After giving him a severe reprimand for not following his example of being magnanimous toward his debtor, he was handed over to his tormentors, until such time as he discharged his debt — i.e. forever, as he will never be in a position to repay such a huge sum (a sinner is saved only through God’s mercy — he himself is never in a position to satisfy God’s just judgment, just like the undischarged debtor).

The brief denotation is expressed in the last 35^th verse: “So My Heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” The Lord wishes to instill into us, through this parable, that as all of us sin so much, we appear before God as undischarged debtors; the sins of our brothers are as insignificant as the 100 denarii — in comparison to the huge sum of 10,000 talents; however, through His boundless mercy, the Lord forgives us our sins only if we, in our turn, reveal a merciful attitude toward our loved ones and forgive them their sins against us; although, if we show ourselves cruel and merciless toward our loved ones and do not forgive them, then the Lord will not forgive us, and condemn us to eternal suffering. This parable appears as a wonderfully demonstrative explanation of the petition in the Lord’s Prayer: “and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”