August 13, 2025 • 27 mins
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Matthew 18:21 - 19:1 - 'How often must I forgive my brother?'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 982 (in 'The Power of the Keys') - There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. "There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest. Christ who died for all men desires that in his Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin.
- 2227 (in 'The Duties of Parents') - Each and everyone should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands it.
- 2843 (in 'as we forgive those who trespass against us') - Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. the parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Hi everyone. Welcome back to logical Bible
study where we look at the Gospel reading from today's mass
and we try to give you a good way of going about understanding
the literal sense of that text which is where we always want to
start as Catholics today. We're looking at another one of
Jesus Parables though. It's not as well known.
(00:31):
So let's get into it. It's Matthew 18:21 to 35.
Peter went up to Jesus and said,Lord, how often must I forgive
my brother? If he wrongs me as often as
seven times, Jesus answered not 7, I tell you but seventy-seven
(00:53):
times. And so the Kingdom of Heaven may
be compared to a King who decides to settle his accounts
with his servants. When the Reckoning began, they
brought him a man who owed 10,000 talents, but he had no
means of paying. So his master gave orders that
he should be sold together with his wife and children and all
(01:15):
his possessions to meet the debt.
At this the servant threw himself down at his master's
feet. Give me time, he said and I will
pay the whole son. And the servants Master felt so
sorry for him that he let him goand cancelled the debt.
(01:36):
Now as this servant went out, hehappened to meet a fellow
servant, who owed him, 100 denarii and he sees him by the
throat and began to throttle himpay what you owe me?
He said his fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him
saying, give me time and I will pay you But the other would not
(01:58):
agree on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he
should pay the debt. His fellow servants.
Were deeply distressed when theysaw what had happened and they
went to their master and reported the whole Affair to
him. Then the master sent for him.
You Wicked servant. He said I canceled all that
(02:19):
daughter dead of yours when you appealed to me where you're not
bound then to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had
pity on you. And in his anger the master
handed him over to the torturersuntil he should pay all his
death. And that is how my heavenly
father will deal with you. Unless you each forgive your
(02:43):
brother from your own heart, Jesus had now finished what he
wanted to say and he left Galilee and came into the part
of Judea which is on the far side of the Jordan.
So, what's the context here in Matthew 18?
The Jesus has just been given the apostles instructions on how
they should run the church in his absence, particularly in
(03:05):
terms of dealing with sins in the community.
So he's just given them the passage where it's, if a brother
sins against you, here's what you should do.
So in that passage earlier, in Matthew 18, Jesus had some
pretty harsh words, there about people who commit grave sins in
the Christian Community, he tells the apostles to take
fairly radical action, which canactually, if the Listen doesn't
(03:27):
repent. It can result in
excommunication. That's the instructions that he
gives his Apostles. So now, it's probably they're
probably sitting there thinking.Wow, that's that seems pretty
strong. But what's the place for
forgiveness, how does forgiveness fit into that
picture? So that's probably all sort of
bubbling around in their minds here and it's important that we
understand the difference between the two.
(03:47):
In the first case Jesus is talking about is talking to the
apostles about how they should enact church discipline in
serious matters that are affecting the church and now Now
in this passage today, it's something that applies to all of
us. Because here Jesus is going to
talk about how often should a Christian forgive a person who
(04:07):
sins against them personally. So we're dealing here with
personal forgiveness for personal sins, as we're going to
see. So Peter now comes up to Jesus
in verse 21 and he has a genuinequestion here.
And he asks Jesus, how often must I forgive my brother?
If he wrongs me? So in verse 15, Jesus has told
(04:29):
the apostles what to do. If your brother sins against you
and the answer Jesus says, in verse 15 is go and tell him his
fault. And if he listens you have
gained your brother So, Jesus isalready said that, but Peter
might be now thinking, okay, that's fine.
But how many times do we actually have to do that if the,
(04:49):
someone keeps singing against me?
So that's Peters mentality. How often do we actually have to
do that? If it just keeps happening, he's
thinking there's probably a cut-off Point, surely, as a
cut-off point, where it's not reasonable to forgive the person
anymore. So he says to Jesus is it as
often as seven times. So why does he mentioned seven
here? Well, there's a couple of
(05:10):
possible reasons. There's some evidence that many
rabbis Jewish leaders at this time.
Thought that three was the maximum number for forgiving.
Someone of the same offense you should forgive someone three
times and no more than that. There is some evidence.
That that was the prevailing thought.
So Peter, when he says, seven might be thinking that he's been
(05:31):
quite generous, I'll increase itto seven.
He says, but also the number seven for the Jews symbol.
Eyes, completion or perfection? So Peter might be thinking,
seven is the number of completion.
So therefore, if I forgiven someone seven times, I've
fulfilled the requirements of forgiveness of forgiving them,
(05:52):
the perfect number of times, theduty is complete.
He might be thinking something along those lines.
But Jesus says in verse 22 not seven but seventy-seven times
other translations have this as 7 times, sorry Seventy Times
Seven. So there's some ambiguity in how
the Greek reads with these numbers but either way the same
(06:15):
the the basic meaning is the same.
So 70 times 7 or even the 77 areboth more significant than just
seven by itself. So we're talking here about
seven times seven so it's like Section times Perfection.
So, when Jesus says this, they didn't have a word for infinity
or unlimited. So, when Jesus says, Seventy
(06:39):
Times Seven, he basically means you need to forgive someone an
infinite number of times, so it carries this idea of total
Perfection total infinite, Infinity when Jesus here,
mentioned 77 times, he could also be thinking of Genesis 4
verse 24, where lamech says, he will be Avenged Sevenfold. 87
(07:00):
fold times. And so in the Old Testament that
particular metaphor is used for unlimited Vengeance and Jesus,
he takes that and uses it in reference to unlimited
forgiveness. So, Jesus here is not saying
once you get to 77 or 78 to time, that's it.
You don't forgive them. It's just a Jewish way of
saying, unlimited, your forgiveness needs to be
(07:21):
Unlimited. Which is fairly radical.
That's something quite radical about the Christian message.
Not many other religions would emphasize it in that using
language. That's so strong.
So Jesus now goes on to give a parable called the parable of
the unforgiving, servant, and the whole point of this Parable
and Jesus makes it pretty clear,there's not a lot of mystery
(07:44):
about this Parable. The point of this Parable, is
that Christians must forgive those who sin against them.
Jesus is telling this, Parable to his Apostles and the meaning
to them is reasonably clear as it is to us.
So, Christians must forgive those who sin against them verse
23. Jesus starts the parable by
saying The Kingdom of Heaven maybe compared to.
(08:07):
So, Jesus is telling his Apostles this Parable, because
he wants them to know something about how God governs the
Affairs in his own kingdom. This Parable, Jesus explicitly.
Tells them tells you something about the kingdom of God, his
Apostles are going to be leadersof the kingdom of God.
So this is information that he wants them to know about how God
(08:27):
wants to run his kingdom. So in our analysis today, we're
going to focus mostly on the parable itself.
We don't want to read too much into all the details because I
don't think this is one of thoseParables where every detail
means something necessarily Jesus makes his point pretty
clear at the end. And so we'll talk about the
overall point towards the end. Now, before we jump into it,
(08:50):
keep in mind in this Parable theking and the master are the same
person if we don't say that you might get a bit lost.
So the king and the master are the same person.
So Jesus says a king who wishes to settle accounts with his
servants. So in that time period of king
would delegate tasks to his servants, to carry out sometimes
(09:11):
the servants would borrow money to do transactions, on behalf of
the king and every so often, theking would call his servants to
account. He'd make sure that they've made
the money back that he, that they borrowed from him, and he
just check that they're paying back their debts that they owe
to him. That's a normal thing.
A king would do. The brought him in a man who are
(09:32):
10,000 talents but he had no means of paying.
So he brings in one of the servants and we need to talk
about the numbers involved here.So 10,000 talents, the word,
therefore, 10,000 is Myriad. That's the largest possible
number in Greek. They didn't have a million
10,000 was their largest number.Now how much is a talent?
(09:56):
So it's a kind of a measurement of currency and one Talent was
worth, six thousand denarii. So one denarii is a single day's
wage. One dinar is a single day's wage
and one Talent is six thousand denarii.
So if you earned three hundred sixty five denarii a year.
(10:21):
We're basically talking about somewhere around, 20 years worth
of wages, is one Talent, something like that, or half a
lifetime's worth of wages. That will be one Talent people
in this culture, did not have a talents worth of money.
They might have a couple of Narisaved up, that's about it.
Be very rare to have anyone who had a talents worth of money,
(10:43):
which is stick six thousand denarii.
But Jesus here is talking about 10,000 talents 10,000 talents.
So we're talking here, it's basically an Infinity.
Jesus has picked a unit of measurement which is equivalent
to in the Jewish mind Infinity? No one would ever have this much
money? No one would ever make this much
(11:04):
money. No one would ever be able to pay
it back. It's Thousand times 20 years
worth of wages. So this is supposed to represent
the infinite amount, we are a God in terms of our sin, so the
guy gets Dragged In, he can't pay it back.
The debt, verse 25. He is Master gave orders that he
(11:25):
should be sold together with hiswife and children and all his
possessions to meet the debt. And that's what kings were doing
that culture. They would sell the person off,
as well of their family in orderto try and make back some of the
money that was just, you knew. You were getting yourself into
that was kind of how the cultureworked.
But in verse 26, the servant begs for more time and begs for
(11:46):
his family, not to be sold. And then the king feel sorry for
him. He feels compassion and he lets
the man go and he cancels, the man's debt.
Now, the king didn't have to do that.
The king wasn't required to cancel the man's death, but he
chooses to and this points us tothe mercy of God.
God forgives the infinite deathsthat we've accrued against him.
(12:08):
Verse 28. So the servants been forgiven.
But now, as this servant went out, he happened to meet a
fellow servant, who owed him, 100 denarii.
So this is 100 days worth of wages which is a decent amount
but it's nowhere near the ten thousand talents that the man
himself owed. So there's six hundred thousand
(12:28):
times larger is what his own debt was and now he this guy
comes along who owes him one hundred denarii.
Now, this is supposed to be a parallel here between sins.
We commit against each other andsince we've committed against
God, so there's an infinite debtthat we owe to God.
But the sins that people commit against us, much smaller in
(12:52):
terms of magnitude. So the this first serve at the
one who's been forgiven seizes the other servant by the throat
and begins to throttle him pay what you owe me.
So this first man has no patience or Mercy.
Even though the King has just forgotten him has forgiven him
and Infinities worth of debt, but he still not showing
(13:13):
patience or Mercy verse 29. So the second servant the one
who owes him. The debt says, give me time and
I will pay you. Now notice, that's exactly what
the first servant said to the king.
It's A reasonable request here. A hundred denarii is an amount
that he could pay back if he's given a little more time.
So it is reasonable to request. Mercy here.
(13:36):
Verse 30, but the other servant would not agree on the contrary.
He had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt.
So the first servant, he does actually have a legal right to
do this. If in the Jewish Society of
someone owed, you money, and they hadn't paid you back by the
due date. You did have the legal right to
go to the Jewish law courts and the person could be thrown into
(13:57):
prison for not paying the money back so he's exercising a legal
right here. But really he should have shown
Mercy because the king showed Mercy to him verse 31.
The other servants, see what he's done and they report it to
the king. The king calls him in and says
you Wicked servant. I canceled all that debt of
yours when you appeal to me, were you not bound then to have
(14:20):
pity on your fellow servant justas I had pity on you.
So the logic here makes sense, the king had showed him Mercy
for a much larger amount of the ten thousand talents.
So he should have shown his fellow servants, Mercy as well
for the much smaller debt, that makes sense, but he didn't, he
didn't do what he should have done, you know, he didn't follow
(14:43):
what the moral law, basically said that he should have done.
And in his anger, the master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back all hisdebt.
So the king reinstates, the dip that he'd originally canceled
from this first servant and he throws him into prison until he
can pay back the debt and basically that's never he would
(15:05):
never be able to pay back. Ten thousand talents.
He's going to be in prison forever and it mentions here.
Torture is imprison. Roman took Roman prisons.
Did have torturers whose job it was to Water, the people in
prison, this is a very familiar scene to the Jews at the time.
So Jesus finishes the parable bytelling his Apostles, the point,
(15:27):
he's trying to make he says, andthat is how my heavenly father
will deal with you, unless you forgive each forgive.
Sorry, unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.
So sounds like harsh language but it makes sense.
This is the message of the parable, God will forgive us
(15:47):
those in the Kingdom. Only, if we forgive our brothers
from our heart, notice that God's not going to figure this
automatically. We have to forgive other people.
Otherwise God won't forgive us, and that's actually pretty clear
in the Our Father. Remember, in the Our Father, it
says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us and then straight after the Our father.
(16:10):
Jesus says, if you do not forgive others, your heavenly I
will not forgive you. So this is actually a fairly
common theme of Jesus. Something we don't talk about in
church much and some Christian groups would not like this
teaching at all because some Christians teach that we have
automatic forgiveness of our sins.
But here, Jesus makes it clear that the Forgiveness God gives
(16:31):
us is conditional on us. Forgiving others, particularly
our own Brothers Now, in context, this is an answer to
Peters question about how many times we should forgive our
brother by Jesus telling this Parable, he's saying, well God,
forgives us, infinitely, and constantly.
And so, Jesus point is basically, we should do the same
(16:54):
in the kingdom of God. We should forgive our brothers
infinitely and constantly, even if they keep committing the same
sin against us over and over again.
So, we're talking here about sins against each other, when we
do wrong to each other, God saysIf a person asks for
forgiveness, if it's possible tomake it right with them, we
should forgive them every singletime without limit.
(17:19):
And obviously there's a lot to be said about the psychology of
forgiveness and what that involves, we're not going to go
into that here, but the catechism does spend a lot of
time talking about what it meansto actually forgive someone.
Now, what do we make of the lastpart of the parable, which is
the most confronting part, wherethe unforgiving servant is
thrown into prison. So clearly it tells us something
(17:41):
about God, because Jesus says, that's what God's going to do to
us, if we don't forgive others. So it does tell us something
about God. What does it mean for God to
throw a person into prison? Well, it could just be a basic
metaphor, meaning God will punish us and maybe we shouldn't
take the prison to literally Butmost people in the Catholic
(18:02):
tradition, most Church fathers and most Scholars, today would
say it does represent something a bit more than that.
It tells us something about the afterlife.
So the prison represents an actual State of Affairs.
The will come about in the afterlife.
If people, if we do not forgive others, Now, there's two main
(18:22):
options in terms of what it represents in the afterlife.
The first option and this is themost commonly accepted
explanation, is that the prison here?
Jesus, intends that to mean, he'll and this is the most
likely option, because think about it for us to get into
heaven, after we die. God has to have forgiven our
sins. But in this case, we're clearly
(18:44):
talking about people whose sins God has not forgiven because
they did not forgive others, their sins.
So, This is someone whose sins have not been forgiven by God.
They get thrown into prison so it's quite likely.
This prison is supposed to represent hell and it's a person
is being tortured. In Hell, the word torture is
actually used there. And in that case when it says
(19:07):
he's in, he's in prison until heshould pay all his death, it has
to be metaphorical. It can't be literally true
because the man cannot pay this debt.
It's an infinite depth. 10,000 talents is not something that
can be paid back. So it's a metaphor for for
basically saying this person whodoes not forgive others will be
(19:28):
in Eternal punishment for ever for an infinite amount of time.
So that will be the hell explanation and that's the most
common. But there is another explanation
which has been proposed in recent years which is worth
thinking about and that's the the person in prison is a
servant of the Kingdom so they're still in the Kingdom but
they're in purgatory, they're inpurgatory after they died
(19:50):
because they did not show enoughlove and forgiveness during
their lifetime. And the key evidence for this
explanation would be the phrase till he should pay sorry, till
he should pay back. All the debt that he owes.
Because it that seems to imply that it's possible to pay back
the debt, which would imply thatit's possible to get out of
(20:12):
this. Place are out of this jail,
after a certain period of suffering, which is the Catholic
teaching that eventually everyone in purgatory will get
out of purgatory and go into heaven.
After they've experienced some suffering as a result of the
consequences of their bad choices in their life.
So, that's the Purgatory explanation.
I personally think how is the best explanation of this?
(20:35):
Because the point of Jesus talking about 10,000 talents is
that to the Jewish mind, that's an infinite amount that can
never be paid back. So it's not like the person can
literally get out of prison, butit's possible that it represents
Purgatory. There's room for disagreement
there. So we move on now to verse 1 of
(20:55):
chapter 19, which is the last verse in our reading today.
So verse 1 says, Jesus had now, finished what he wanted to say,
what? It says they're more literally,
if you look at other translations is, when Jesus had
finished these sayings. So this is a marker that Matthew
has put in to indicate the end of a sermon section whenever
(21:17):
Jesus finishes one of his major sermons in Matthew Matthew, put
in a comment like this, like, Jesus had finished what he
wanted to say. So that ends the chapter 18
sermon, which is about life in the church or life in the
Ecclesia. Your community.
So Matthew is now going to resume the narrative.
So Matthew says Jesus left Galilee.
(21:37):
So Jesus has been ministering inGalilee, which is places like,
Capernaum and Nazareth, which isin the northern part of Israel
around the Sea of Galilee. So that's where he has been.
But Matthew now tells us that heleft there and came into the
part of Judea. So it helps if you have a map of
the region. So he's moving from the northern
Galilee region to the southern region of Judea the southern
(22:00):
part of Israel. And that's where Jerusalem is
Jerusalem is in Judea. So Jesus is moving towards
Jerusalem, who's moving towards the end of his mission and
they're getting very close actually to the final week of
his life now but then Matthews more specific.
He says he came into the part ofJudea which is on the far side
(22:21):
of the Jordan. So he's actually going to a
different region which is just near Judea but it's on the other
side of the Jordan and that region to the east of Judea is
called perea. If you look at a map, he's going
to per area. This is the area that John, the
Baptist minister at. It's Where the River, Jordan is
(22:41):
so his in Peoria. And why would he go there?
Well, most Jews took this. Route.
If they want us to go from Galilee to Judea, it was
actually quicker to just go straight down from Galilee to
Judea. But to do that, you would have
to go through the region of Samaria.
And there was not friendly relationships between the Jews
and the Samaritans. So if someone wanted to go from
(23:02):
Galilee to Judea, they would usually go around the long way
which is via perea, which is what Jesus is doing here.
Now, we shouldn't see this is necessarily saying Jesus wanted
to avoid the Samaritans because there is another occasion.
Asian where he deliberately goesthrough Samaria to, to interact
with some Sumerians Samaritans there.
(23:23):
But in this case, it's getting close to Passover.
So there's probably large crowdsof people who are going up there
for the pilgrimage. So there's probably large crowds
going From Galilee to Judea via perea.
So, he's sort of following the crowds here at this point.
And then we have verse 2. Now, verse 2 is not in today's
election area but it's not in any reading and it's just a
(23:45):
short little one. So we'll include it here to
round it out today. Verse 2 of chapter 19 says, and
large crowds followed him and hehealed them there.
So Jesus is in Korea now and he does some healings in perea.
So, that's our exegesis of the parable of the unforgiving
servant. So this shows up in a couple of
(24:05):
interesting places in the catechism, which is the summary
of Catholic teaching in paragraph 9, 82 of the
catechism, which is in the section about the power of the
keys. So the church's ability to
forgive sins. It says, there is no offence,
however, serious that the churchcannot forgive there is no one,
(24:27):
however, Wicked and guilty, who may not confidently, hope for
forgiveness. This provided his repentance is
honest Christ, who died for all men, desires that in his church,
the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who
turns away from sin. And that paragraph ref
references. Matthew chapter 18, as an
(24:47):
example of how repentance and forgiveness is always available
to people and that applies even to this sin.
So if someone has lived a life where they haven't been for
giving to others, but then they repent of that.
Well then God can forgive them. Paragraph 22. 27 is in the
section about marriage and the duties of parents.
(25:08):
And there's an interesting link here to forgiveness.
It says each and every one should be generous and tireless
in forgiving one another, for offences quarrels, in justices
and neglect. Mutual affections suggest, is
this the charity of Christ demands it?
And again, it references, Matthew 18, so the church sees
in Matthew 18 a command for all.Friends to forgive their
(25:33):
children and also for children to forgive their parents.
So that's an interesting connection forgiveness in the
family. No matter how many times it's
required. And then in paragraph, 28 43,
which is in the section about the Lord's Prayer.
There's a commentary on the lineas we forgive those who trespass
against us, which obviously has a clear link to Jesus teaching
(25:56):
here in Matthew 18. So that paragraph says, thus the
Lord's words on forgiveness, thelove that loves to the end
becomes a living reality. The parable of the merciless
servant, which crowns the Lord'steaching on ackley's, your
communion ends with These words.So also my heavenly father will
(26:17):
do to every one of you. If you do not forgive your
brother from your heart, it is there, in fact, in the depths of
my heart that everything is bound and loosed, it is not in
our power, not to feel or to forget an offense.
But the hearts that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns,
injury into compassion and purifies the memory in,
(26:38):
transforming the hurt into intercession.
So that line in Matthew 18 of inthe parable, where Jesus says,
if you do not forgive your brother from your heart, this
paragraph talks about what it means, In terms of hearts and
feelings and forgiveness and it's quite a nice link there.
So, all those paragraphs will goin the show notes.
(27:01):
So hopefully you learned something new about this.
Parable. That's not as commonly talked
about the parable of the unforgiving, servant.
Please share this with others and we'll see you again
tomorrow.
Hi everyone. Welcome back to logical Bible
study where we look at the Gospel reading from today's mass
and we try to give you a good way of going about understanding
the literal sense of that text which is where we always want to
start as Catholics today. We're looking at another one of
Jesus Parables though. It's not as well known.
(00:31):
So let's get into it. It's Matthew 18:21 to 35.
Peter went up to Jesus and said,Lord, how often must I forgive
my brother? If he wrongs me as often as
seven times, Jesus answered not 7, I tell you but seventy-seven
(00:53):
times. And so the Kingdom of Heaven may
be compared to a King who decides to settle his accounts
with his servants. When the Reckoning began, they
brought him a man who owed 10,000 talents, but he had no
means of paying. So his master gave orders that
he should be sold together with his wife and children and all
(01:15):
his possessions to meet the debt.
At this the servant threw himself down at his master's
feet. Give me time, he said and I will
pay the whole son. And the servants Master felt so
sorry for him that he let him goand cancelled the debt.
(01:36):
Now as this servant went out, hehappened to meet a fellow
servant, who owed him, 100 denarii and he sees him by the
throat and began to throttle himpay what you owe me?
He said his fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him
saying, give me time and I will pay you But the other would not
(01:58):
agree on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he
should pay the debt. His fellow servants.
Were deeply distressed when theysaw what had happened and they
went to their master and reported the whole Affair to
him. Then the master sent for him.
You Wicked servant. He said I canceled all that
(02:19):
daughter dead of yours when you appealed to me where you're not
bound then to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had
pity on you. And in his anger the master
handed him over to the torturersuntil he should pay all his
death. And that is how my heavenly
father will deal with you. Unless you each forgive your
(02:43):
brother from your own heart, Jesus had now finished what he
wanted to say and he left Galilee and came into the part
of Judea which is on the far side of the Jordan.
So, what's the context here in Matthew 18?
The Jesus has just been given the apostles instructions on how
they should run the church in his absence, particularly in
(03:05):
terms of dealing with sins in the community.
So he's just given them the passage where it's, if a brother
sins against you, here's what you should do.
So in that passage earlier, in Matthew 18, Jesus had some
pretty harsh words, there about people who commit grave sins in
the Christian Community, he tells the apostles to take
fairly radical action, which canactually, if the Listen doesn't
(03:27):
repent. It can result in
excommunication. That's the instructions that he
gives his Apostles. So now, it's probably they're
probably sitting there thinking.Wow, that's that seems pretty
strong. But what's the place for
forgiveness, how does forgiveness fit into that
picture? So that's probably all sort of
bubbling around in their minds here and it's important that we
understand the difference between the two.
(03:47):
In the first case Jesus is talking about is talking to the
apostles about how they should enact church discipline in
serious matters that are affecting the church and now Now
in this passage today, it's something that applies to all of
us. Because here Jesus is going to
talk about how often should a Christian forgive a person who
(04:07):
sins against them personally. So we're dealing here with
personal forgiveness for personal sins, as we're going to
see. So Peter now comes up to Jesus
in verse 21 and he has a genuinequestion here.
And he asks Jesus, how often must I forgive my brother?
If he wrongs me? So in verse 15, Jesus has told
(04:29):
the apostles what to do. If your brother sins against you
and the answer Jesus says, in verse 15 is go and tell him his
fault. And if he listens you have
gained your brother So, Jesus isalready said that, but Peter
might be now thinking, okay, that's fine.
But how many times do we actually have to do that if the,
(04:49):
someone keeps singing against me?
So that's Peters mentality. How often do we actually have to
do that? If it just keeps happening, he's
thinking there's probably a cut-off Point, surely, as a
cut-off point, where it's not reasonable to forgive the person
anymore. So he says to Jesus is it as
often as seven times. So why does he mentioned seven
here? Well, there's a couple of
(05:10):
possible reasons. There's some evidence that many
rabbis Jewish leaders at this time.
Thought that three was the maximum number for forgiving.
Someone of the same offense you should forgive someone three
times and no more than that. There is some evidence.
That that was the prevailing thought.
So Peter, when he says, seven might be thinking that he's been
(05:31):
quite generous, I'll increase itto seven.
He says, but also the number seven for the Jews symbol.
Eyes, completion or perfection? So Peter might be thinking,
seven is the number of completion.
So therefore, if I forgiven someone seven times, I've
fulfilled the requirements of forgiveness of forgiving them,
(05:52):
the perfect number of times, theduty is complete.
He might be thinking something along those lines.
But Jesus says in verse 22 not seven but seventy-seven times
other translations have this as 7 times, sorry Seventy Times
Seven. So there's some ambiguity in how
the Greek reads with these numbers but either way the same
(06:15):
the the basic meaning is the same.
So 70 times 7 or even the 77 areboth more significant than just
seven by itself. So we're talking here about
seven times seven so it's like Section times Perfection.
So, when Jesus says this, they didn't have a word for infinity
or unlimited. So, when Jesus says, Seventy
(06:39):
Times Seven, he basically means you need to forgive someone an
infinite number of times, so it carries this idea of total
Perfection total infinite, Infinity when Jesus here,
mentioned 77 times, he could also be thinking of Genesis 4
verse 24, where lamech says, he will be Avenged Sevenfold. 87
(07:00):
fold times. And so in the Old Testament that
particular metaphor is used for unlimited Vengeance and Jesus,
he takes that and uses it in reference to unlimited
forgiveness. So, Jesus here is not saying
once you get to 77 or 78 to time, that's it.
You don't forgive them. It's just a Jewish way of
saying, unlimited, your forgiveness needs to be
(07:21):
Unlimited. Which is fairly radical.
That's something quite radical about the Christian message.
Not many other religions would emphasize it in that using
language. That's so strong.
So Jesus now goes on to give a parable called the parable of
the unforgiving, servant, and the whole point of this Parable
and Jesus makes it pretty clear,there's not a lot of mystery
(07:44):
about this Parable. The point of this Parable, is
that Christians must forgive those who sin against them.
Jesus is telling this, Parable to his Apostles and the meaning
to them is reasonably clear as it is to us.
So, Christians must forgive those who sin against them verse
23. Jesus starts the parable by
saying The Kingdom of Heaven maybe compared to.
(08:07):
So, Jesus is telling his Apostles this Parable, because
he wants them to know something about how God governs the
Affairs in his own kingdom. This Parable, Jesus explicitly.
Tells them tells you something about the kingdom of God, his
Apostles are going to be leadersof the kingdom of God.
So this is information that he wants them to know about how God
(08:27):
wants to run his kingdom. So in our analysis today, we're
going to focus mostly on the parable itself.
We don't want to read too much into all the details because I
don't think this is one of thoseParables where every detail
means something necessarily Jesus makes his point pretty
clear at the end. And so we'll talk about the
overall point towards the end. Now, before we jump into it,
(08:50):
keep in mind in this Parable theking and the master are the same
person if we don't say that you might get a bit lost.
So the king and the master are the same person.
So Jesus says a king who wishes to settle accounts with his
servants. So in that time period of king
would delegate tasks to his servants, to carry out sometimes
(09:11):
the servants would borrow money to do transactions, on behalf of
the king and every so often, theking would call his servants to
account. He'd make sure that they've made
the money back that he, that they borrowed from him, and he
just check that they're paying back their debts that they owe
to him. That's a normal thing.
A king would do. The brought him in a man who are
(09:32):
10,000 talents but he had no means of paying.
So he brings in one of the servants and we need to talk
about the numbers involved here.So 10,000 talents, the word,
therefore, 10,000 is Myriad. That's the largest possible
number in Greek. They didn't have a million
10,000 was their largest number.Now how much is a talent?
(09:56):
So it's a kind of a measurement of currency and one Talent was
worth, six thousand denarii. So one denarii is a single day's
wage. One dinar is a single day's wage
and one Talent is six thousand denarii.
So if you earned three hundred sixty five denarii a year.
(10:21):
We're basically talking about somewhere around, 20 years worth
of wages, is one Talent, something like that, or half a
lifetime's worth of wages. That will be one Talent people
in this culture, did not have a talents worth of money.
They might have a couple of Narisaved up, that's about it.
Be very rare to have anyone who had a talents worth of money,
(10:43):
which is stick six thousand denarii.
But Jesus here is talking about 10,000 talents 10,000 talents.
So we're talking here, it's basically an Infinity.
Jesus has picked a unit of measurement which is equivalent
to in the Jewish mind Infinity? No one would ever have this much
money? No one would ever make this much
(11:04):
money. No one would ever be able to pay
it back. It's Thousand times 20 years
worth of wages. So this is supposed to represent
the infinite amount, we are a God in terms of our sin, so the
guy gets Dragged In, he can't pay it back.
The debt, verse 25. He is Master gave orders that he
(11:25):
should be sold together with hiswife and children and all his
possessions to meet the debt. And that's what kings were doing
that culture. They would sell the person off,
as well of their family in orderto try and make back some of the
money that was just, you knew. You were getting yourself into
that was kind of how the cultureworked.
But in verse 26, the servant begs for more time and begs for
(11:46):
his family, not to be sold. And then the king feel sorry for
him. He feels compassion and he lets
the man go and he cancels, the man's debt.
Now, the king didn't have to do that.
The king wasn't required to cancel the man's death, but he
chooses to and this points us tothe mercy of God.
God forgives the infinite deathsthat we've accrued against him.
(12:08):
Verse 28. So the servants been forgiven.
But now, as this servant went out, he happened to meet a
fellow servant, who owed him, 100 denarii.
So this is 100 days worth of wages which is a decent amount
but it's nowhere near the ten thousand talents that the man
himself owed. So there's six hundred thousand
(12:28):
times larger is what his own debt was and now he this guy
comes along who owes him one hundred denarii.
Now, this is supposed to be a parallel here between sins.
We commit against each other andsince we've committed against
God, so there's an infinite debtthat we owe to God.
But the sins that people commit against us, much smaller in
(12:52):
terms of magnitude. So the this first serve at the
one who's been forgiven seizes the other servant by the throat
and begins to throttle him pay what you owe me.
So this first man has no patience or Mercy.
Even though the King has just forgotten him has forgiven him
and Infinities worth of debt, but he still not showing
(13:13):
patience or Mercy verse 29. So the second servant the one
who owes him. The debt says, give me time and
I will pay you. Now notice, that's exactly what
the first servant said to the king.
It's A reasonable request here. A hundred denarii is an amount
that he could pay back if he's given a little more time.
So it is reasonable to request. Mercy here.
(13:36):
Verse 30, but the other servant would not agree on the contrary.
He had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt.
So the first servant, he does actually have a legal right to
do this. If in the Jewish Society of
someone owed, you money, and they hadn't paid you back by the
due date. You did have the legal right to
go to the Jewish law courts and the person could be thrown into
(13:57):
prison for not paying the money back so he's exercising a legal
right here. But really he should have shown
Mercy because the king showed Mercy to him verse 31.
The other servants, see what he's done and they report it to
the king. The king calls him in and says
you Wicked servant. I canceled all that debt of
yours when you appeal to me, were you not bound then to have
(14:20):
pity on your fellow servant justas I had pity on you.
So the logic here makes sense, the king had showed him Mercy
for a much larger amount of the ten thousand talents.
So he should have shown his fellow servants, Mercy as well
for the much smaller debt, that makes sense, but he didn't, he
didn't do what he should have done, you know, he didn't follow
(14:43):
what the moral law, basically said that he should have done.
And in his anger, the master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back all hisdebt.
So the king reinstates, the dip that he'd originally canceled
from this first servant and he throws him into prison until he
can pay back the debt and basically that's never he would
(15:05):
never be able to pay back. Ten thousand talents.
He's going to be in prison forever and it mentions here.
Torture is imprison. Roman took Roman prisons.
Did have torturers whose job it was to Water, the people in
prison, this is a very familiar scene to the Jews at the time.
So Jesus finishes the parable bytelling his Apostles, the point,
(15:27):
he's trying to make he says, andthat is how my heavenly father
will deal with you, unless you forgive each forgive.
Sorry, unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.
So sounds like harsh language but it makes sense.
This is the message of the parable, God will forgive us
(15:47):
those in the Kingdom. Only, if we forgive our brothers
from our heart, notice that God's not going to figure this
automatically. We have to forgive other people.
Otherwise God won't forgive us, and that's actually pretty clear
in the Our Father. Remember, in the Our Father, it
says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us and then straight after the Our father.
(16:10):
Jesus says, if you do not forgive others, your heavenly I
will not forgive you. So this is actually a fairly
common theme of Jesus. Something we don't talk about in
church much and some Christian groups would not like this
teaching at all because some Christians teach that we have
automatic forgiveness of our sins.
But here, Jesus makes it clear that the Forgiveness God gives
(16:31):
us is conditional on us. Forgiving others, particularly
our own Brothers Now, in context, this is an answer to
Peters question about how many times we should forgive our
brother by Jesus telling this Parable, he's saying, well God,
forgives us, infinitely, and constantly.
And so, Jesus point is basically, we should do the same
(16:54):
in the kingdom of God. We should forgive our brothers
infinitely and constantly, even if they keep committing the same
sin against us over and over again.
So, we're talking here about sins against each other, when we
do wrong to each other, God saysIf a person asks for
forgiveness, if it's possible tomake it right with them, we
should forgive them every singletime without limit.
(17:19):
And obviously there's a lot to be said about the psychology of
forgiveness and what that involves, we're not going to go
into that here, but the catechism does spend a lot of
time talking about what it meansto actually forgive someone.
Now, what do we make of the lastpart of the parable, which is
the most confronting part, wherethe unforgiving servant is
thrown into prison. So clearly it tells us something
(17:41):
about God, because Jesus says, that's what God's going to do to
us, if we don't forgive others. So it does tell us something
about God. What does it mean for God to
throw a person into prison? Well, it could just be a basic
metaphor, meaning God will punish us and maybe we shouldn't
take the prison to literally Butmost people in the Catholic
(18:02):
tradition, most Church fathers and most Scholars, today would
say it does represent something a bit more than that.
It tells us something about the afterlife.
So the prison represents an actual State of Affairs.
The will come about in the afterlife.
If people, if we do not forgive others, Now, there's two main
(18:22):
options in terms of what it represents in the afterlife.
The first option and this is themost commonly accepted
explanation, is that the prison here?
Jesus, intends that to mean, he'll and this is the most
likely option, because think about it for us to get into
heaven, after we die. God has to have forgiven our
sins. But in this case, we're clearly
(18:44):
talking about people whose sins God has not forgiven because
they did not forgive others, their sins.
So, This is someone whose sins have not been forgiven by God.
They get thrown into prison so it's quite likely.
This prison is supposed to represent hell and it's a person
is being tortured. In Hell, the word torture is
actually used there. And in that case when it says
(19:07):
he's in, he's in prison until heshould pay all his death, it has
to be metaphorical. It can't be literally true
because the man cannot pay this debt.
It's an infinite depth. 10,000 talents is not something that
can be paid back. So it's a metaphor for for
basically saying this person whodoes not forgive others will be
(19:28):
in Eternal punishment for ever for an infinite amount of time.
So that will be the hell explanation and that's the most
common. But there is another explanation
which has been proposed in recent years which is worth
thinking about and that's the the person in prison is a
servant of the Kingdom so they're still in the Kingdom but
they're in purgatory, they're inpurgatory after they died
(19:50):
because they did not show enoughlove and forgiveness during
their lifetime. And the key evidence for this
explanation would be the phrase till he should pay sorry, till
he should pay back. All the debt that he owes.
Because it that seems to imply that it's possible to pay back
the debt, which would imply thatit's possible to get out of
(20:12):
this. Place are out of this jail,
after a certain period of suffering, which is the Catholic
teaching that eventually everyone in purgatory will get
out of purgatory and go into heaven.
After they've experienced some suffering as a result of the
consequences of their bad choices in their life.
So, that's the Purgatory explanation.
I personally think how is the best explanation of this?
(20:35):
Because the point of Jesus talking about 10,000 talents is
that to the Jewish mind, that's an infinite amount that can
never be paid back. So it's not like the person can
literally get out of prison, butit's possible that it represents
Purgatory. There's room for disagreement
there. So we move on now to verse 1 of
(20:55):
chapter 19, which is the last verse in our reading today.
So verse 1 says, Jesus had now, finished what he wanted to say,
what? It says they're more literally,
if you look at other translations is, when Jesus had
finished these sayings. So this is a marker that Matthew
has put in to indicate the end of a sermon section whenever
(21:17):
Jesus finishes one of his major sermons in Matthew Matthew, put
in a comment like this, like, Jesus had finished what he
wanted to say. So that ends the chapter 18
sermon, which is about life in the church or life in the
Ecclesia. Your community.
So Matthew is now going to resume the narrative.
So Matthew says Jesus left Galilee.
(21:37):
So Jesus has been ministering inGalilee, which is places like,
Capernaum and Nazareth, which isin the northern part of Israel
around the Sea of Galilee. So that's where he has been.
But Matthew now tells us that heleft there and came into the
part of Judea. So it helps if you have a map of
the region. So he's moving from the northern
Galilee region to the southern region of Judea the southern
(22:00):
part of Israel. And that's where Jerusalem is
Jerusalem is in Judea. So Jesus is moving towards
Jerusalem, who's moving towards the end of his mission and
they're getting very close actually to the final week of
his life now but then Matthews more specific.
He says he came into the part ofJudea which is on the far side
(22:21):
of the Jordan. So he's actually going to a
different region which is just near Judea but it's on the other
side of the Jordan and that region to the east of Judea is
called perea. If you look at a map, he's going
to per area. This is the area that John, the
Baptist minister at. It's Where the River, Jordan is
(22:41):
so his in Peoria. And why would he go there?
Well, most Jews took this. Route.
If they want us to go from Galilee to Judea, it was
actually quicker to just go straight down from Galilee to
Judea. But to do that, you would have
to go through the region of Samaria.
And there was not friendly relationships between the Jews
and the Samaritans. So if someone wanted to go from
(23:02):
Galilee to Judea, they would usually go around the long way
which is via perea, which is what Jesus is doing here.
Now, we shouldn't see this is necessarily saying Jesus wanted
to avoid the Samaritans because there is another occasion.
Asian where he deliberately goesthrough Samaria to, to interact
with some Sumerians Samaritans there.
(23:23):
But in this case, it's getting close to Passover.
So there's probably large crowdsof people who are going up there
for the pilgrimage. So there's probably large crowds
going From Galilee to Judea via perea.
So, he's sort of following the crowds here at this point.
And then we have verse 2. Now, verse 2 is not in today's
election area but it's not in any reading and it's just a
(23:45):
short little one. So we'll include it here to
round it out today. Verse 2 of chapter 19 says, and
large crowds followed him and hehealed them there.
So Jesus is in Korea now and he does some healings in perea.
So, that's our exegesis of the parable of the unforgiving
servant. So this shows up in a couple of
(24:05):
interesting places in the catechism, which is the summary
of Catholic teaching in paragraph 9, 82 of the
catechism, which is in the section about the power of the
keys. So the church's ability to
forgive sins. It says, there is no offence,
however, serious that the churchcannot forgive there is no one,
(24:27):
however, Wicked and guilty, who may not confidently, hope for
forgiveness. This provided his repentance is
honest Christ, who died for all men, desires that in his church,
the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who
turns away from sin. And that paragraph ref
references. Matthew chapter 18, as an
(24:47):
example of how repentance and forgiveness is always available
to people and that applies even to this sin.
So if someone has lived a life where they haven't been for
giving to others, but then they repent of that.
Well then God can forgive them. Paragraph 22. 27 is in the
section about marriage and the duties of parents.
(25:08):
And there's an interesting link here to forgiveness.
It says each and every one should be generous and tireless
in forgiving one another, for offences quarrels, in justices
and neglect. Mutual affections suggest, is
this the charity of Christ demands it?
And again, it references, Matthew 18, so the church sees
in Matthew 18 a command for all.Friends to forgive their
(25:33):
children and also for children to forgive their parents.
So that's an interesting connection forgiveness in the
family. No matter how many times it's
required. And then in paragraph, 28 43,
which is in the section about the Lord's Prayer.
There's a commentary on the lineas we forgive those who trespass
against us, which obviously has a clear link to Jesus teaching
(25:56):
here in Matthew 18. So that paragraph says, thus the
Lord's words on forgiveness, thelove that loves to the end
becomes a living reality. The parable of the merciless
servant, which crowns the Lord'steaching on ackley's, your
communion ends with These words.So also my heavenly father will
(26:17):
do to every one of you. If you do not forgive your
brother from your heart, it is there, in fact, in the depths of
my heart that everything is bound and loosed, it is not in
our power, not to feel or to forget an offense.
But the hearts that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns,
injury into compassion and purifies the memory in,
(26:38):
transforming the hurt into intercession.
So that line in Matthew 18 of inthe parable, where Jesus says,
if you do not forgive your brother from your heart, this
paragraph talks about what it means, In terms of hearts and
feelings and forgiveness and it's quite a nice link there.
So, all those paragraphs will goin the show notes.
(27:01):
So hopefully you learned something new about this.
Parable. That's not as commonly talked
about the parable of the unforgiving, servant.
Please share this with others and we'll see you again
tomorrow.
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