The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
Forgiven an unpayable debt, a servant chokes a man over pennies.
A servant owing ten thousand talents — an impossible sum — is forgiven the whole debt by his king. He then seizes a fellow servant who owes him a hundred pence and throws him in prison. When the king hears, he delivers the unforgiving servant to the tormentors.
The parable
Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion... even as I had pity on thee?
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
The sobering application: forgive from your hearts, or face the same reckoning.
What it means
Peter asked how many times he must forgive — seven? Jesus answered, seventy times seven, and told this parable to explain why. The math of the debts tells the whole story: ten thousand talents was more than a labourer could earn in a hundred lifetimes; a hundred pence was about three months' wages. The difference between what we have been forgiven and what we are asked to forgive is that vast.
The unforgiving servant's crime is not that he wanted his money — the debt was real — but that he demanded from another the very mercy he had just been shown, and refused to pass it on. Having been forgiven the unpayable, he would not forgive the trivial.
The parable's ending is severe: so likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. This does not mean forgiveness is earned by forgiving; it means that a heart truly gripped by grace received cannot withhold grace given. Refusing to forgive reveals a heart that has never really understood being forgiven.
Quick answers
- What does the unmerciful servant parable teach about forgiveness?
- That we must forgive others because we have been forgiven infinitely more by God. Refusing to forgive small debts, after being released from an unpayable one, exposes a heart that has not grasped grace.