Forgive not once, but repeatedly.

Forgive not once, but repeatedly.

The parable of the ruthless servant in the Gospel of Matthew is one of the most difficult, not in terms of understanding, but in terms of implementation in life practice (see Mt 18: 21-35). Peter asks about the right attitude towards someone guilty of him.

Forgiving each other is one of the most challenging tasks in our lives. Moreover, Jesus urges us that our readiness to forgive has no limits. Apixaban image

Peter’s question is relatively generous when he can think that he can forgive the same person up to seven times. So, it’s not just about forgiving once, but repeatedly. Forgiving seven times in itself means forgiving fully. However, Jesus puts the crown on his generous offer when he sweeps it off the table like a soulmate and tells him that it is necessary to forgive without restriction, that is, seventy-seven times.

It must have been an incredible amount.

To prove what he means, Jesus tells a parable. This occurs on at least two levels: material (debts) and relational (transgressions, sin). The first striking thing about this parable is that it concerns the question of God’s kingdom. Peter asks Jesus to deal with earthly reality, and Jesus proves his answer with a parable about the kingdom of heaven and how to approach it. In this way, it re-establishes the mutual relationship between earthly reality and the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is a state of fullness of life, of abiding with God, from which all that restricts life is excluded.

In the parable, the king accounts with his servants, probably debtors. One of them owed him an incredible sum, nowadays comparable to, for example, the state debt (even in antiquity, something like this existed). We don’t know much about the servant; it’s just obvious that he must have been a high-ranking personality (a vassal ruler) if he could owe such a huge amount of money.

But the point lies elsewhere.

It is evident that this is an unpaid amount, and both know it well. The king threatens to bankrupt the entire family (that is, the community as a whole for which he is responsible) in state bankruptcy. Still, at the servant’s request, he not only grants him a deferral of payments, as he requested but generously forgives him all debt. It gives him – and thus his whole community – life, a restart.

But then this high-ranking servant stumbles upon someone who owes him a negligible sum, a few hundred crowns, and behaves quite the opposite – he does not allow him to postpone the payment and ruins him, forced him to live. When the king learns that his generosity did not inspire the servant, he imposes on him the punishment he threatened, that is, expulsion from the fullness of life. Finally, Jesus comments on Peter’s question by saying that, like that ruthless servant, anyone who is unwilling to forgive will end up without conditions.

But is it possible and educational in real life to do this? Should we forgive and forgive everyone’s debts without restriction? Will this not collapse the understanding of justice and will not only benefit all dishonest and criminals? By his words, Jesus certainly did not want to destroy the foundations on which human society stands, that is, responsibility, justice, and honesty. He certainly did not want to say that his disciples should not strive for social justice and behave rudely and foolishly. The point lies elsewhere.

It is about the lives of others.

In the Matthew version of our Father prayer, in the request for forgiveness, words of the same basis as in this parable are used, which means “debt” and also “transgression/sin.” The parable speaks of economic matters and debts, which are also a symbol of guilt. Debt and wrongdoing can become so burdensome that they prevent life, sometimes literally. The debtor or the offender may find themselves in a completely hopeless situation without forgiveness or forgiveness of the debt. The parable’s purpose is not the threat that if one does not forgive debts or transgressions headlong, one is denied access to the kingdom of God. The goal of Jesus ‘words is to appeal to man, Jesus’ disciple, to consider others and his life situation.

In the first place, God desires the life of man, a full life, and the removal of all that prevents this full life — including an open relationship with God —. These can be material debts as well as debts in relationships caused by sin. And it is the responsibility of the disciple of Jesus, or of the whole community of disciples or society in general, how much they care about others’ lives. God is leading by example – his mercy is limitless, which does not mean that transgressions and debts are trivial matters in his eyes. For him, however, a person’s full life is a priority. And for us?