The Unforgiving Servant
lives in a meritocracy. He’s in debt to the tune of ten thousand talents, an astronomical sum that would take the average worker of that era 150,000 years to repay. Following the custom of the day, the king decides to sell him into slavery, along with his whole family, to try to recoup at least a bit of the debt. Whereupon the servant falls to knees and begs for more time to pay up. Note that. He doesn’t kneel and beg for mercy, he just pleads for an extension on his loan and a new payment plan spread out over 150,000 years. He’s going to pay this back.
In a stunning move, the king waves off the crazy request and simply forgives him everything. We might expect this to be a conversion moment, but the servant gets off his knees unchanged. He hasn’t joined the king in the new world of grace and mercy. In fact, on his way out the door he meets a fellow servant who owes him a hundred denarii—a pittance. Yet he throttles the man saying, “Pay what you owe!” (Matt. 18:21-35).
As awful as it seems, we are all like that crazy servant. We’re going to pay our way. We’re going to earn it. We’re not going to be a charity case. We’re going to get what we deserve. And, by God, so is everyone else.
Somehow we have to accept our inner poverty, otherwise we can’t receive or give grace and love. The blessing of our lives is so vast, being created “a little lower than the angels” (Ps. 8)—it’s a gift we could never have “afforded” if we’d have had to pay for it, and we sure didn’t earn it by dint of good behavior. We know that. That is our deep and beautiful poverty, the only qualification necessary for grace. If we can touch that in our lives, we have a shot at God’s extravagant grace and mercy—to receive and to give away.
COMPANIONS ON THE WAY
Introduction
Stories of Turning
Week One
Stories of Wild Places
Week Two
Stories of Dogged Faith
Week Three
Stories of Mercy & Forgiveness
Week Four
Stories of Simplicity & Joy
Week Five
Stories of Prayer & Surrender
Week Six
Stories of Transforming Love
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