The Parable Of The Unforgiving Servant

Transcript

The Parable Of The Unforgiving Servant

Welcome to World Events and the Bible. I’m Brandon T. Ward. We’re going to talk about one of Jesus’ parables today. This one’s called The Unforgiving Servant. All right. Now Jesus spoke in parables for a few reasons. One, not everybody was supposed to understand the parable. It was meant for his disciples and Christians like you.

The other reason, is it kind of gives us a little bit more depth to a story. It gives more depth to a point that he’s trying to make, by telling us a story really. Okay. Now before we’re going to jump in this one. Let’s just say a quick prayer. Father, we ask you for wisdom of your word in Jesus’ precious name amen.

All right. So with that, let’s go ahead and jump over to Matthew chapter 18, verse 23, Matthew chapter 18, verse 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king. Which would take account of his servants. Now, this king is going to be symbolic of God, okay. And the servants are all of us.

You, I, and just all the people of the world, all of God’s children. He’s going to look them over verse 24. And when he had begun to reckon, when the king began to reckon again, to check out all these servants. One was brought unto him, which owed him 10,000 talents. One of these servants owes him 10,000 talents.

How Much Is A Talent?

It sounds like a lot, but how much is it really? So let’s talk about it. So a talent is equal to 75 to 100 pounds. It varies some, you got to think about it. The reason when I say it varies is because back in those days, they didn’t have measurements like we do. Weights and measurements.

You know, a pound is a pound in America. You know, in another country, their measurement is their measurement. But back in those days, it kind of fluctuated. All right. So 75 to 100 pounds is equivalent of a talent. So let’s put some monetary aspect to this because that’s exactly what this is about 10,000 talents.

So let’s use silver, which is just kind of the common metal of the common man, you know, for trading. So we’re going to do a little conversion here. You’re going to get a little bit of a math lesson. This one. I’ll try not to make it too painful. Okay. So one Troy ounce of silver is about 0.069 pounds.

One troy ounce of silver is 0.069 pounds. All right, so we take our talent, which was 75 pounds, and we’re going to divide it by 0.069 pounds. And it comes out to 1,086 ounces of silver is one talent. 1,086 ounces of silver is a single talent. That’s crazy. So I, I looked at the spot price of silver today and it’s roughly around $28.

So we’re going to go with that. All right. So let’s do a little bit of multiplication here. 1,086 ounces of silver multiplied by $28 an ounce, comes out to each talent being $30,000. $30,400. All right. That’s how much each talent is worth. This servant owes this king 10,000 talents. So take 10,000 talents, multiply it by $30,434.

And it comes out to the grand total of $304 million. So when this king is looking over this servant, and this guy was brought to him. This this servant owes the king $304 million. I want to put the financial aspect of that, because it really kind of helps, it’s going to help us draw the point where we’re going to get at here in just a moment.

So kind of keep that under your head for just a second. Let’s jump down to verse 25. And it says, but for as much as he had not to pay the servant, didn’t pay it yet. And how could he? $304 million. I don’t know about you, but that’s a couple of bucks short what I got. It says his Lord commanded him to be sold.

The guy couldn’t pay, he’s sold. He’s going to be a slave now, but that’s not all. And his wife and children, and all that he had. And payment to be made. This guy’s life was beyond over. Not only is he done for cause he doesn’t have the money for the debt, but now he’s going to be a slave. And so is his wife and kids.

The Unforgiving Servant Begs For Mercy

And anything that he ever owned is gone. I mean his, his life is quite literally it’s over. It’s done. And his family and everything. I mean, this is a horrible situation he’s faced with here. We’re going to explain in just a moment. Verse 26, the servant, therefore fell down. What else could he do? What else could he do?

And he worshiped him the servant worshipped the king. Saying, Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all. He was never going to be able to pay all this money. There’s just no way. Right. One more verse. Then the lord of that servant, the king, he was moved with compassion. He saw, he realized the situation here.

I mean, this guy didn’t have the money. He’s going to lose his family. He’s going to be a servant, a slave rather. And the king loosened him and forgave him the debt. Think about that. So this king didn’t just let him go. He forgave the debt, which means he erased the debt, the $304 million. He said, forget about it.

Jesus Paid Our Debt

It’s gone. It’s done. This is amazing. So you got to think about this. This King is God and we are the servant, right? So this is what happens. You think about Romans six 23. It says for the wages of sin is death, right. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So when we sin we have a debt to pay and it is worthy of death because we sinned.

Right. But when we believe in Jesus Christ, he pays the debt for us. He, He redeems us. He makes it possible. So just like this servant, there was no way he was going to be able to pay the debt. There’s no way that we can pay the debt that Jesus’ sacrifice did for us. It made salvation possible.

The Unforgiving Servant Repented

It made this eternal life possible. And so that’s kind of what the, the whole point of this parable is about. And I want to tie in one more verse here, it’s Acts three 19 and it says repent and be converted. Okay. Now this servant here, he certainly repented, right? He fell down, he’s asking the king, Hey, please forgive me.

You know, I’ll pay everything I can. And so he repented, but would he convert? Would he convert? And when we do, when we do that, as individuals though. Acts three 19 says, and our sins will be blotted out. They will be forgiven, they will be erased and that’s what this king did to this gentleman who owed $304 million.

The Unforgiving Servant Had No Mercy For Others

Right. He wiped it out. Let’s see what else happens here to the rest of the story. So let’s go to verse 28 here and see what happens. But the same servant went out. Now he’s free, free of debt, free of being in bond. Free to go back to his family. And he found one of his fellow servants. So this guy, he has servants under him even. Which owed him a hundred pence

Whoa, and he laid hands on him. And he took him by the throat. He choked him out saying, pay me that thou owest. So this guy was just forgiven $300 million. And the first thing he can think to do is go choke somebody out who owes him some money. So how much money does this guy does this other servant actually owe him?

He’s The Unforgiving Servant, right? Because he’s not showing forgiveness to this other guy. So let’s talk about it. The pence it’s actually a denarius. All right. And a denarius is about an eighth of an ounce, an eighth of an ounce, right? When you, Matthew 20 verse two kind of helps us understand just a little bit, a denarius would be about a day’s wage.

So all in all, this servant here, he owes The Unforgiving Servant about three months wages. When I did the math, when I ran it, it amounts to about 12 and a half ounces of silver, which is worth about $350. So he over here chokes this guy out for 350 bucks when he was just forgiven 304 million.

I mean, think about that. What do you think, what do you think the whole point is? Why do you think we’re being told that. I’m going to let you think about it for just a second. Let’s read verse 29, And his fellow servant fell down. The guy that owes the 350 bucks, he fell down, at his feet and besought him. Does this sound familiar?

Saying have patience with me and I will pay thee all. He’ll pay him all. Just have patience. This is exactly what The Unforgiving Servant said to the king. Hey man, forgive me all. I’ll make up, and he was forgiven. What is this guy going to do? What’s The Unforgiving Servant going to do. Verse 30, and he would not. But he went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt.

He threw him in prison. So this shows beyond a lack of compassion, this Unforgiving Servant has for the people who are under him. Not only is he not forgiving him, the debt, a measly debt, right? Measly debt, even by today’s standards. $350 is not that much money, but not only that he wasn’t even thinking about the guy’s family. Because when a man’s in jail, he’s supposed to be providing for his family financially.

Right. But when you’re in jail, you can’t provide any money for your family. You can’t go and earn money. So what’s going to happen to this guy’s family now? The family they’re going to go hungry probably cause they’re not going to have any money. They’re going to lose the roof that’s over their head. So this, this Unforgiving Servant he’s pretty low, right?

He’s lower than dirt. So the whole idea here is, if you ask God to forgive you. And He does, if you, if you repent in your heart and you’re truly converted, right. Then your sins are blotted out. You are forgiven, but then when your brother or sister, coworker, whoever asks you to be forgiven, if they’ve repented and they’ve converted, then you’re supposed to forgive them.

All right. You’re supposed to forgive them. It doesn’t mean you have to set yourself up to be abused all the time by them. If they continually harm you, you know, but you do forgive them and you move on with life. It doesn’t mean you need to bring him, bring him back in the center. Fold if you keep getting abused, but you do need to forgive them.

The King Punishes The Unforgiving Servant

Otherwise you’re like this Unforgiving Servant, and you don’t want to be like this guy. Trust me. You’re going to see. Verse 31, so when his fellow servants, this is some of the other servants that were around when they saw what was done, they were very sorry. Oh yeah they were and came and told unto their lord, all that was done, they went and told the king, they went and told the king what happened?

Hey king, remember that guy that you just forgave the 304 million? Well, he didn’t even forgive his servant that owed him only 350 bucks. What do you think this king is going to do? What do you, how do you think he’s going to feel. Verse 32 then his lord, that’d be the king. After that he had called him, said unto him.

He said to The Unforgiving Servant, Oh, thou wicked servant. I forgave the, all that debt because thou desirest me. You asked me to, you got down and you worshiped me and said, you were sorry, and you were going to pay it. Verse 33, shouldest not thou have also had compassion on thy fellow servant. Even as I had pity on thee. I had pity on you and you didn’t have pity on them.

What do you think’s going to happen? Check this out. Verse 34 and his lord was wroth. That means he was ticked. This king is mad, and he delivered him The Unforgiving Servant. The king delivered him to the tormentors. Till he should pay all that was due unto him. The tormentors, these are tortures they are working him over now.

The only thing this Unforgiving Servant is doing is yelling and screaming in pain. All because he couldn’t return the favor that was given him. Listen to the words here in verse 35. So likewise, Jesus speaking, shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you. If you from your hearts, forgive, not every one his brother of their trespasses.

If you don’t forgive your brother, when they mess up against you, then don’t expect God to forgive you when you slip up. Because we all slip up, we all mess up, ain’t none of us perfect. So think about that. So think about. So this is why, you know, this is a beautiful parable. It’s kind of laid out here. It puts a monetary aspect to it, so we can better understand the whole idea of forgiveness, you know, and debt in that regard. And how we’re supposed to forgive our brother.

It’s not talking about forgiving our brother debt wise in a monetary aspect, but just anything, any kind of forgiveness that comes along. Okay. And one more thing before we wrap this up is I just want to show you how complete God’s word is. This message is all throughout the Scriptures, this message of forgiveness and whatnot.

Forgive And You Will Be Forgiven

So turnover with me to Matthew chapter six, verse 14. Matthew chapter six, verse 14. And let’s listen to the words. It’s very short and sweet here. It says for, if you forgive men, their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. Right? So that’s it. If we forgive others, God’s going to forgive us verse 15.

But if you forgive not men, their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you. Your trespasses. Again. So if you’re not willing to forgive other people, God’s not going to forgive you. So don’t even bother asking. Right? So it’s a beautiful message is put to us in a parable to kind of help us understand it a little bit more, a little bit more completely.

All right. Hey, that’s going to do it for this one. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for joining us.