Matthew 18:21-35, Forgive Your Brother

This passage appears in Mt. 18 because of a question from Jesus’ disciples, having heard Jesus teaching on dealing with an offending brother.  What might be behind Peter’s question?  Perhaps it is judgmentalism.  Or perhaps frustration and insult when others repeatedly offend.  Perhaps it is the trampling of his rights and expectations.  Or perhaps it is simply blindness to his own sin.

Jesus immediate answer is 490 times, which means “forgive every time our brother asks.”  The bottom line is in v35: forgive your brother from the heart.  Jesus follows up the immediate answer with an illustrated answer.

·        The Master’s forgiveness, v23-27.  All sin establishes a debt, whether to God or man.  Our indebtedness to God is far more than we can pay; ten thousand talents is an astronomical amount.  Yet, God’s law requires payment.  The one in debt hopes in the mercy and compassion of the Master, and thus he pleads for mercy, requesting forgiveness; in other words, he acknowledges his sin or debt.  In v27 the term release relates to forgiveness.  It was used of Pilate releasing Barabbas and of Paul being released from prison.  The term forgive has to do with letting go of the offense, emphasizing forgetting the sin as well as release from the penalty.  So we see that the debt was paid, but by the Master, not the slave.

·        The servant’s severity, v28-30.  This debt was large (100 days wages) but nowhere near as large as the first servant’s debt to the Master.  Again, it is a legitimate debt.  If the second servant is forgiven then that means the first servant pays the debt.  But unlike his Master, there is no mercy or compassion.  There is a problem we have as mere humans.  We cannot be the “judge” because we are not omniscient, we are not all-wise, we are not just.  We are not GOD!

·        The Master’s chastening, v31-34.  The first servant experiences the withdrawal mentioned in the earlier passage on discipline (v17).  He is turned over to the torturers, those who elicit truth by torture.  Again, it is being delivered over to Satan (1 Cor. 5:5).  God’s chastening can leave us socially alone (separated from the fellowship), physically sick, spiritually destitute, emotionally angry and so forth.  In the end the servant will experience the full impact of punishment for the debt which the Master had been willing to forgive.  As Jesus says, My Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses. 

A key in this matter is that we take time, significant time, to meditate on our own forgiveness (Rom. 5:8; John 3:16, etc.).  Paul commands us to forgive even as God in Christ has forgiven you (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13).  We should note that ignoring the offense is not given as an option.  We are called to restore and to forgive, but we cannot ignore the issue.