The Use of Money in a Parable About Forgiving Others

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I was doing some re-study on "The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant" which is found in Matthew 28:23-35. The story was about a person who was forgiven much (10,000 talents meant 160,000 years worth of salary unpaid) but he couldn't forgive a person who owed him three months' worth of salary. I was wondering why did Jesus use debts as an example of forgiving others. While the parable doesn't tell us to allow freeloaders to leech on others' hard-earned money - there seems to be a much bigger picture there than just the money you use to spend.

I do hate to admit it but many Jews are very business-oriented. A lot of stuff I use and enjoy are made by Jewish businessmen around the world. My microprocessors are made by Jewish people. Some medical breakthroughs in the world are made by Jews. Israel is a very business progressive state. It would be a mistake to do what Adolph Hitler did with the Jews as it caused an economic crisis because many of the businessmen were, in fact, Jews.  Israel has so much wealth that her neighboring countries (which are mostly impoverished) want it. I guess that's why a lot of the descendants of Ishmael and Esau want that wealth in Israel. Israel is a very wealthy nation and many Jews around the world today are very wealthy (yet sadly unsaved) men. I do enjoy the products made by Jews while continuing to be sorrowful that many of them are still unsaved.

The very idea of an earthly king who would be willing to loan or even forgive 160,000 years' worth of salary would sound ridiculous to a money-oriented culture. But we're not talking about any mere king but God the Father Himself as the King in the story. I don't think any earthly king in the right mind would say, "Okay, you can borrow 10,000 talents but just agree to pay me!" and not ask for installment. Instead, we're talking about the seriousness of sin here and God as the King loaned every one of us an unpayable debt. You are still living when you should be dead because the wages of sin is death. How many days are you still alive when you ought to be dead when you committed your first sin? Can you pay a debt that's worth 160,000 years of your salary if you're just another servant of the king? What's interesting is that Craig S. Kenner's Book "The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary" also states that 10,000 seemed to be the highest number that the Greeks could express in their alphabet with the number M. God who pardons us a lifetime of sins loses nothing. Any earthly king who pardons 10,000 talents out of sympathy loses much. But that's how God is forgiving towards sinners who repent. Take note that the servant wasn't asking for pardon but only to be given more time. Maybe, that's why the king was moved with compassion because the servant was still willing to pay the debt to save his family from being sold. Each slave would cause one talent at the most.

What was the issue with the family to be sold into slavery? It feels like the issue of the generational curse. Your actions don't just affect you - they do affect your family and your descendants who will suffer as a result of your actions. This doesn't mean that Achan's family was innocent when they were stoned - they were most likely accomplices to the said scheme. However, in legal laws, any debt that the father or mother has will be passed down to their children. There were also the laws of debt slavery in order to pay off the debt. If we're going to think of why the unforgiving reacted the way he did. However, the Bible also has laws against the mistreatment of slaves. Even if they were sold to slavery but they had to be treated right. However, granted, this was during the Roman occupation - slaves don't get treated the way the Bible wanted them to be treated. The Romans weren't the nicest bunch either. They made lives for the Jews very hard in one way or another. Being sold into slavery during Roman times meant to be under hard taskmasters.

The idea that an earthly king would immediately pardon a person asking for more time (not absolution) of said debt must have startled the Jewish audience even more. No earthly king would easily let it slide. You may even think of the case of Bernard Madoff who's now sentenced to life imprisonment for owing the U.S. government and people that much money in his Ponzi financial scams. His sentence is worth 150 years which he can't outlive. Can you imagine how it'd feel if suddenly Madoff were broken out of jail for his financial scam? That would be big news and that would startle anyone - just like a king who forgave a servant of 160,000 years of salary. Though it didn't seem the servant was a swindler. It felt more like an illustration that we all owe God that much more than he owed the king in the parable. The servant who was forgiven of 10,000 talents was willing to unforgive another's three months' worth of salary. So how could anybody think like that? This was probably done to show the hypocrisy of the Jews too. How often have they offered blood sacrifices for their sins but they weren't willing to forgive the Romans or just anyone? The king after hearing of the incident decided to send the person to jail so the debt could be paid. So what were the torturers then? This was most likely interrogators or inquisitors to extract information or even confront the servant's questionable behavior.

So why was money even used in the parable to portray the badly needed value of forgiveness? It's probably to address how materialistic people can get. While nobody should let themselves be ripped off their hard-earned money but it doesn't mean that we should be unforgiving or take matters into our own hands. God could forgive us for a debt we clearly couldn't pay. I remembered being ripped off money dishonestly and sometimes I wonder if God allowed it to happen because I was suffering from unforgiveness issues? Was it a reminder of the fact that God forgave me much and that I couldn't forgive little? Did I forget that God forgave me 160,000 years (or even higher) worth of debt and I couldn't forgive someone who offended me three months or three years ago? It was probably to address a materialistic people that while money is indeed important but don't let it be the reason why you end up like the unforgiving servant.

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