The Gospel of Matthew
Forgiveness: Mt 18,21-35
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount teaches the importance of forgivenesss and reconciliation as the way forward, 5,21-26. His climax in the series in chapter 5 is that we must love our enemies, 5,43-48. This explicitly becomes forgiveness in the prayer we know as the Lord's prayer in 6,12, which is then further stressed by Jesus, 6,14-15.
Peter's Question: 18,21-22
Peter calls Jesus "Lord", the title of Jesus as the risen Lord. His question therefore reflects the needs of the early Church. The verse begins with "then" which as we have seen before is a word that connects. Forgiveness is follows on from the exclusion of the erring brother.
Seven is the number of completeness so Peter probably thought he was being generous.
Jesus' reply in verse 22 puts that into perspective. Genesis (4,15.24) tells of Lamech, son of Cain and his revenge.
The Story: Mt 18,23-35
Stories are by their nature a flexible way of teaching. With this story in particular, we must be careful not to put it into one fixed view. The traditional title (the parable of the unforgiving servant) does that all too easily as can commentaries.
I mention the commentaries because they usually tell us there are three scenes in this story. Looking carefully at the change of characters actually reveals four - and that means there is a group whose place in this story is all too easily passed over.
Scene 1 involves the king and his servant (verses 23-27)
Scene 2 involves the servant and his colleague (verses 28-30)
Scene 3 involves the fellow servants and the king/master (verse 31)
Scene 4 like the first scene involves the king/master and his servant (verses 32-34)
Jesus gives his conclusion at the end in verse 35.
The difference between scene 1 and scene 2 is that a talent was a huge amount of money whereas a denarius was just a day's wages for a labourer (20,3). The contrast could hardly be greater.
In both cases, the response of the debtor was the same (verses 26 and 29).
Yet the response of the creditor could hardly have been more different (verses 27 and 30).
The role of the other servants then becomes crucial (verse 31). This we can see as the role of the community as whole. That is why I suggested there may be a hint here of 18,17 where the role of the church assembly is highlighted.
God, says the psalmist, is "slow to anger and rich in mercy" (Ps 103,8, among many possible references). Whilst God is undoutedly rich in mercy (18,27), he can also be angry (18,32). As Psalm 98 points out, our God is a forgiving God but he punishes the offences of the Israelites (specifically, he did not allow the Exodus generation to enter the Promised Land). We can never presume on God's mercy; but his mercy means we must be merciful to others. If we are angry with others, then God will be angry with us.
The story concludes therefore stressing the importance of forgiveness as earlier stressed in 6,15.
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