His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?
Today's Gospel comes to us during a weekend when we have remembered a terrible tragedy that was inflicted upon the United States 25 years ago. We have observed this weekend with great sadness and continuing grief over those who were killed; the spouses who were widowed and the children orphaned. The gospel speaks to us at a very difficult moment.
Because this parable's wicked servant is so familiar to us, we should ask what he was thinking. Despite its flagrant obscenity, we can recognize his attitude perhaps in some people we have met; perhaps in our own attitudes.
First, we have to notice his ridiculous reply to his master’s decision. The Evangelist has told us “...he had no way of paying it back.” The king knew that and so did everyone else; so he only following standard operating procedure. He would cut his losses by selling the slave, his wife and children, and everything they owned.
In a last ditch effort to save himself, the slave begged, “‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’” But everyone knows that this manager lost control of his management a long time ago. There is no reasonable hope that he might pay it back. Someone else might; but he lacks the talent, the discipline, and the wisdom to regain his losses. He is completely over his head but still denying the obvious to himself and everyone else.
To everyone’s astonishment, and despite the pathetic display, the king is moved by another impulse. He is apparently a decent human being and not inclined to follow SOP even when he must lose a fortune.
“Moved with compassion, the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.”
Perhaps his noble clemency saved him the trouble of seeking redress, which was hopeless in any case.
But what did the slave think about his unexpected reprieve? We can speculate on that. I think he walked out saying, “What a fool the king is! And I conned him with my helpless act.”
Like the king and everyone else in the room, he was disgusted by his grovelling but told himself, “It was a stroke of genius! I faked my pathetic helplessness and pulled it off! ” He could not think of his loss of dignity; he would never be like the psalmist who called himself, “a worm and no man.” Nor would he “rely on the Lord.”
So when he happened to meet another servant who owed him far less and was perfectly capable of repaying the minor debt, he refused to play the fool as the king apparently had. Noble clemency was far beyond his ken; even the suggestion of mercy was ludicrous to his wicked mind.
However, his stupidity shocked everyone, both his fellow servants and the king. They had supposed he certainly do to others as had been done to him.
But the world in his evil mind, with no resemblance to reality, nothing had been given to him, nothing was forgiven; and nothing had changed. In this liar’s mind, reality is plastic and malleable; it conforms to his opinions, desires, and needs. If the king had forgiven the enormous debt, the slave saw neither compassion nor mercy; it was only a calculation for unknown reasons.
He thought he had conned the king, but he would certainly not be conned by this other fellow. He was wise to their tricks!
But we have read in the Bible how we must never ignore God’s mercy, or suppose that we deserve his blessings. God will not be taken for granted. When the wicked servant in the Lord’s parable failed to recognize the mercy he had been shown, and failed to show mercy to another, he was treated with justice.
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
God prefers mercy. He wants to use mercy on every occasion. But he has other ways of leading us to virtue, and sometimes punishment may do the trick. We call it "tough love." The wicked servant, under torture, might discover that a change of heart changes his fortune. The Bible doesn’t say he was killed; the until shows there is still a way out even for fools. Don’t bet on it! But it could happen.
The Lord’s parable in Matthew 18 is an obvious paraphrase and commentary on his teaching in chapter 6:
If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
And those two verses were explications of Matthew 6:12, which we all recite daily: “...and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”
If you take God’s blessings for granted; if you hold onto resentments and demand repayment for real and imaginary debts, be warned. Anyone, be they pope, president, senator, or humble worker, may be turned over to the torturers until they pay the last penny.
As we recall 9/11, we must also remember the persistent words of scripture, “We have sinned, we and our fathers have sinned.” In the worst of times, when disaster had fallen upon Israel and Jerusalem had been destroyed, the prophet Daniel asked for God's mercy with a fervent prayer that began with, “We have sinned, we and our fathers have sinned.
We know we are forgiven because we forgive us as God forgive us.
