From a discussion of discipline Jesus proceeded to stress the importance of forgiveness. Sometimes zealous disciples spend too much time studying church discipline and too little time studying the importance of forgiveness.
18:21-22 Jesus had been talking about excluding rather than forgiving (v. 17). This led Peter to ask how often he as a disciple should forgive an erring brother before he stopped forgiving. The rabbis taught that a brother should forgive a repeated sin three times, but after that there need be no more forgiveness (Amos 1:3; 2:6).700Peter suggested seven times and probably felt very magnanimous doing so. Seven was a round number obviously exceeding what the scribes taught (cf. Lev. 26:21; Deut. 28:25; Ps. 79:12; Prov. 24:16; Luke 17:4).
Jesus' response alluded to Genesis 4:24 where the ungodly Lamech said, "If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."Lamech claimed to have taken even more revenge on the man who struck him than God had taken on Cain for killing his brother Abel. Jesus turned Lamech's bad example around and urged his disciples to practice generous forgiveness when their brothers hurt them.
The NASB has Jesus saying "seventy times seven"whereas the NIV translators wrote "seventy-seven times."Probably the NIV is correct since Jesus quoted the Septuagint of Genesis 4:24 exactly here, and it has "seventy-seven times."Even though the difference between these two translations is great numerically, it is not a very important difference. Jesus was not specifying a maximum number of times His disciples should forgive their brothers. Neither was He wiping out what He had just taught about confronting an erring brother (vv. 15-20). His point was that disciples who are humble should not limit the number of times they forgive one another nor the frequency with which they forgive each other. The following parable of the unmerciful servant clarified this point.
18:23 Since Jesus required His disciples to forgive this way, the kingdom had become similar to what He proceeded to describe, not the king in the parable but the whole parable scene. The whole parable taught a certain type of interpersonal relationship based on forgiveness. This parable illustrates kingdom conditions, conditions that will prevail when Jesus establishes His kingdom. Jesus was not saying the kingdom was in existence then any more than He was saying that the conditions He described were already in existence. He argued that kingdom conditions should be those that the King's disciples should seek to follow in their lives now since they already live under the King's authority (cf. chs. 5-7).
The whole parable deals with repeated personal forgiveness and the reason for it. The King has already forgiven them much more than they can ever forgive their fellow disciples.
Immediately Jesus put the disciples in the position of servants (Gr. douloi) of a great king who is God. This is one of the relationships that disciples have to God that we must never forget. We are His servants as well as His sons.
18:24-27 This servant had great authority under an even greater king (cf. v. 1). However, he had amassed a debt of such huge proportions that he could not possibly repay it. A talent was a measure of weight equivalent to 75 pounds. The exact or even the relative buying power of 10,000 talents of silver is really secondary to the point Jesus was making, namely that the debt was impossible to repay. Depending on the current price of silver, the slave owed the equivalent of many millions of dollars. There was no way he could begin to pay off such a debt.
The king commanded that the servant sell everything he had to compensate him even though what he could pay amounted to a mere fraction of what he owed. The servant pleaded for time promising to repay everything, an obvious impossibility in view of the amount of the debt. Moved by compassion for the hopeless servant the lord graciously cancelled the entire debt.
The Greek word for "debt"in verse 27 is daneionand really means "loan."Evidently the king decided to write off the indebtedness as a bad loan rather than view it as an embezzlement, another indication of his grace.
18:28-31 The reaction of the forgiven servant was appalling. He proceeded to try to collect a debt from a fellow slave and even resorted to physical violence to obtain it. A denarius was a day's wage for a common laborer or a foot soldier.701Therefore the debt owed was substantial, but compared with the debt the king had forgiven the creditor servant it was trivial.
Both debtors appealed to their respective creditors similarly (vv. 26, 29). Yet the servant creditor remained unmoved, hardhearted. He threw his fellow servant into the debtor's prison until he could extract the full amount of his debt from him. Other servants of the king who were aware of the situation and deeply distressed about it reported everything to their lord "in detail"(Gr. diesaphesan).
18:32-34 The king called the wicked servant into his presence and reminded him of the merciful treatment that he had received. It is interesting that the word he used for "debt"here is the usual word for debt, not "loan"as in verse 27. He took a different view of the servant's debt now. Instead of forgiving him the king turned the unforgiving servant over to the "torturers"(Gr. basanistais, cf. vv. 6, 8-9). The servant would experience torture until he repaid his total debt, which he could never do. In other words his torment would be endless.
18:35 Jesus drew the crucial comparisons in applying the parable to His disciples. He pictured God as forgiving graciously yet punishing ruthlessly. God cannot forgive those who are devoid of compassion and mercy because He is so full of these qualities Himself. Jesus did not mean that people can earn God's forgiveness by forgiving one another (cf. 6:12, 14-15). Those whom God has forgiven must forgive as God has forgiven them. This demonstrates true humility.
The idea of God delivering His servants, the disciples, over to endless torment has disturbed many readers of this parable. Some have concluded that Jesus meant a disciple can lose his salvation if he does not forgive. This makes salvation dependent on good works rather than belief in Jesus. Another possibility is that Jesus was using an impossible situation to warn His disciples. If the disciples knew it was an impossible situation, the warning would lose much of its force. Perhaps He meant that a disciple who does not genuinely forgive gives evidence that he or she has never really received God's forgiveness.702That person may be a disciple, but he or she is not a believer (cf. Judas Iscariot). However many genuine believers do not forgive their brethren as they should. Probably the punishment takes place in this life, not after death, and amounts to divine discipline (v. 14).703
Jesus concluded this discourse on humility, as He had begun it, with a reference to entering the kingdom (v. 3). Humility is necessary to enter the kingdom because it involves humbly receiving a gift of pardon from God (v. 27). However humility must continue to characterize the disciple. Not only must a disciple live before God as a humble child (v. 4). He or she must also be careful to avoid putting a stumbling block in the path of another disciple (vv. 5-14). He or she must also humbly seek to restore a wayward fellow disciple (vv. 15-20). Forgiving fellow disciples wholeheartedly and completely is likewise important for humble disciples (vv. 21-35).
"His [Jesus'] message to the disciples is that loving concern for the neighbor and the spirit of forgiveness are to be the hallmarks of the community of believers in whose midst he, the Son of God, will ever be present."704
