Mercy...Who Needs It?

(a message based on Matthew 18:21-35)

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, everything was “very good”... including people. There was no strife, no sadness, no sin. And therefore, there was no need for mercy or forgiveness. Nothing had happened yet that required a just punishment, and therefore, no one had to decide whether or not to give out mercy instead of justice.

For that is what mercy is: rather than demanding what somebody owes you, according to justice, a merciful person chooses to give that person a break. To at least be patient. Maybe even forgive the debt completely, the way the king in Jesus’ story chose to do. The king showed mercy to a man who owed him a huge debt he could never have paid back. Why? Jesus said it was “out of pity for him.” The king felt compassion for the man and his family, and so he showed mercy by forgiving the debt.

In the beginning, back in the Garden of Eden, what did Adam and Eve owe to God? In a word, EVERYTHING: Life and breath, health and food, water and shelter, beauty and purpose, the glory of knowing and serving and sweet fellowship with God. All they could ever become and all they would ever wish for. All God asked for in return was for them to trust and obey Him. He didn’t expect them to “pay him back” for His kindnesses, for that was a debt they never could have repaid!

The first servant in Jesus’ story owed the king ten thousand talents. One estimate of just ONE talent of money places the amount at what a typical worker would earn in twenty YEARS. So if we do the math, and assume that the servant really intended to pay the king back what he owed...he would have had to work for at least two hundred THOUSAND years to do it! Obviously, Jesus wanted to make a serious point here, by choosing a ridiculously large amount for the debt the servant owed. He wanted to show that any plan he had to pay the king back was totally hopeless.

When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree, they believed the serpent’s lie. He told them “You shall not surely die.” God had made it plain that disobedience would bring death. “In the day you eat of it,” God told them, “you shall surely die.” And, being a just and holy God who always keeps His word, His justice demanded that Adam and Eve should be put to death. Because of their disobedience, the guilty couple owed God their very lives!

But, just like the kind, compassionate king in Jesus' parable, God took pity on Adam and Eve, and on all their descendants. Even though they had to leave Paradise and suffer in a fallen world, and eventually die physically, God showed them mercy by promising a path to victory over the devil and a Savior who would one day pay off the debt of their sin. Actually, this promise was given to the serpent. God told him, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.” This was the first declaration that the Savior of the world would come, namely Jesus Christ.

Well, Jesus eventually did come. And He had been teaching His disciples about how we should treat those who sin against us. He told them they should be willing to forgive and receive back a brother or sister who is willing to admit their fault and turn from their sin. Peter, who was often the spokesman for the disciples, came to Jesus with a question. How many times were they expected to forgive the same person, presumably for the same kind of offense? Is there a numerical LIMIT for one’s willingness to forgive, after which justice has been delayed long enough?

We shouldn’t be too hard on Peter for asking this. All of us have been sinned against by others. All of us have seen sinful people getting away without being punished, and have felt angry and indignant about it. After all, each of us is made in the image of our Creator, who loves justice and righteousness. We long for a just world where everyone is treated fairly and all the wrong things are made right. Jesus even said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Jesus answered Peter’s question, telling the disciples--and us--that “seven times” is far too small a number! “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times!” (Or, seventy times seven). In other words, the demands of mercy far outweigh the requirements of justice. At that point, Jesus tells his story of the unforgiving servant. He wants His followers to know who it is that really has the right to administer true justice, and the merciful way He has of dealing with all His servants.

Like the servant and his family were to the king in the parable, all our lives are in the hands of God, who can deal with us in any way He pleases. He alone has the right to sell us, use us, cause us to live or to be ill or well, or even to die. We are His creatures and we belong to Him. The Psalmist says in Psalm 100, “We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.” It would certainly be a fearful thing if God were not so kind and gracious, so loving and faithful. What if He delighted in inflicting pain and agony and tragedy on all His creatures instead of supplying them with all they need to live and grow and thrive?

And yet, rather than thanking and praising our good Creator and King, how do we treat Him? Do we often forget to pray and thank Him? Do we often complain and forget how much we owe the Lord for all His blessings? I know I do. I constantly need to be reminded of the enormous debt I owe to Him. A debt of gratitude, of love, of worship, of obedience to His commandments. And every opportunity I lose to pay that debt, is one I can never get back. It is a debt that can never be repaid. Even in a thousand lifetimes.

But the hopeless servant was shown mercy by his king. “Out of pity for him,” the master forgave him the entire debt he could never have paid. What a burden was lifted from the servant’s shoulders in that one moment! He entered the king’s presence with the weight of the world on him, and left that throne room completely debt-free! He was a forgiven debtor, without a care in the world.

Sadly, though, that’s not the end of the story. Apparently, the king’s kindness to him had made little or no difference in the servant’s own wicked heart. All the man could think about after leaving the throne room, was finding his fellow servant to demand back what he himself was owed.

Let’s consider for a minute the depth of this kind of wickedness. If the king had NOT shown mercy to him, forgiving his own enormous debt, then the amount the other servant owed to him would have seemed next to nothing! In fact, compared to what he owed the king, it would have been just a drop in the ocean! And the money would have been the king’s anyway, even if the first servant did collect it.

But this wicked, ungrateful servant chose to insist on justice, rather than show mercy. Instead of being melted and molded by the generous king’s example, instead of having his own heart moved to feel pity and show compassion on others, instead of being instructed by the abundance of forgiveness he himself had received, this first servant had the second poor wretch thrown into prison. And when the other servants informed the king about it, the king was filled with anger!

Jesus is telling His servants that all of them NEED mercy, and day by day, year by year, all of us RECEIVE mercy from the generous hand of our kind Creator and King. Every time we sin, every minute we withhold from God the worship and glory and honor and obedience we owe to Him, we are piling up a mountain of debt we can never hope to pay. And yet, because of the grace of God, and the once-for-all sacrifice of His Son Jesus on the cross, our sin debt has been paid!

Do you believe this? Do I believe this? Truly believe that my mountain of debt before God has been paid and forgiven? To really accept and believe it, I need a changed heart. You need a changed heart. A heart that is clean and new and loves God and His ways. A heart that longs to show the same mercy and grace to others that I’ve received from my Master.

Adam and Eve’s children, all their descendants, have proven again and again that it is much easier to insist on “our rights” and demand justice from others, than to love mercy and walk humbly with our God. The first, unmerciful servant was handed over to the jailers because he failed to show his own Master’s mercy to a fellow servant. In that way, the king was making a clear statement: You are surely no true servant of mine!

A “good and faithful servant” of our Father’s kingdom will do what he sees his Father doing, acting as He acts, forgiving as He forgives, loving as He loves, and, as Jesus taught us, “doing unto others what we would have them do unto us.” Let us all be quick to show mercy and forgive, and leave justice in the hands of the Lord. Truly, an unforgiving heart...is an unforgivEN heart!

Jesus, God's Son, paid our unpayable debt so we'd be freed from sin's slavery, and out of gratitude, emulate God by showing mercy to others.

Have YOU trusted this merciful Savior, and turned from your sin to follow Him?