The Unforgiving Servant

For if you forgive others their trespasses, 

your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, 

neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

(Matt 6:14-15)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Following the judicial distinction between mercy and compassion, mercy denotes social and emotional separation while compassion connotes greater social and emotional affinity. Both speak to God’s attributes but the pride of place in the pantheon of attributes goes to mercy because before Christ’s sacrifice on the cross original sin separated us from God. Judicial mercy accordingly draws our attention to God the Father’s transcendence and giving of Mosaic law while judicial compassion draws us to Christ’s humanity that came later. As the Apostle Paul observed:

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:7-8)

For this reason, perhaps, mercy is among the Beatitudes mentioned in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, while love is not. Mercy is more primal even if motivated by love.

The Unforgiving Servant

The mercy of God is clearly displayed in the parable of the Unforgiving Servant, where we read:

Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. (Matt. 18:23-27).

Here we see a soft-hearted king who forgives an enormous debt out of pity for the debtor and his family. The opening phrase references in the kingdom of heaven, a classic circumlocution for God. The overwhelming sum of money forgiven is a second tell because of God overwhelming generosity throughout scripture, but especially seen in the Gospel of John (e.g. 2:6-10; 6:5-14; 21:4-13).

The parable, however, has an unexpected twist.

The servant, having been forgiven an enormous sum, turns on a fellow servant who owes him a tiny sum and treats him harshly (Matt 28:28-30). When the king learns what his servant had done, he became angry, summoned him, and threw him into jail (Matt 18:31-35). Thus, we learn that it is not enough to know that God is merciful, we are to model God’s mercy to others.

Echoes of Creation

The need to model God’s behavior to others is hardwired into our creation, as we read: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen 1:27) Being created in the image of God we are expected to mirror not so much God’s appearance, but his ethical teaching. After creating the heaven and the earth, God created light that he immediately declares to be good (Gen 1:3-4). The point here is that the parable is making explicit a principle that the Bible has reiterated from the beginning.

Lest we overlook an important point, note that God gets angry when we neglect to reflect his divine image. In the parable, the king gets angry at the servant who he forgave who refuses to practice forgiveness and reinstitutes the penalty for nonpayment of the servant’s debt. God’s wrath reinforces his own teaching and is neither arbitrary nor capricious. God really wants us to practice mercy.

The Law and the Prophets

The Apostle Paul, like a good Rabbi, often looked to principles taught in the Books of the Law, the first five books of the Old Testament, to be applied or explained in the Prophets, one of the other Old Testament books. God’s mercy is a theme in the Book of Jonah.

God told Jonah: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” (Jon 1:2) Jonah hated the Ninevites because Nineveh was the hometown of Sennacherib King of Assyria who had seized all of Judea, except for Jerusalem (Isa 36:1). Jonah fled by boat from God to avoid preaching to the Ninevites, was thrown overboard in a storm, and was rescued by a whale. God then asked him again to go to Nineveh. Jonah went, he preached to the Ninevites, and they repented of their sin. God forgave them and spared the city, much to Jonah’s consternation. (Jon 3:10, 4:1)

When asked why he attempted to run away from God, Jonah cited God’s mercy (Jon 4:2). Jonah wanted Nineveh destroyed, not forgiven.

God’s character is consistent across Holy Scripture. In Exodus 34:6, we learn that God is merciful, in Jonah 3:10 we see God offering mercy to Nineveh, and in Matthew 18:27 we are reminded that God practices mercy. This consistency has led theologians to describe God’s character as immutable. If God’s character somehow changed over time or that God learned through experience, then we might worry that he would also forget his promises.

The Unforgiving Servant
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com






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