Ungrateful Brat - Part One

Forgiving people is hard work

This writing is based on Matt 18:23-35. I encourage you to read it. Bible reading is good.

Jesus starts his story by saying the "Kingdom of Heaven is like...". These good Jewish boys (the disciples) would have clearly understood the kingdom of heaven to mean something like - The way God operates - or - The way things ARE in a God-controlled world. I believe they would have understood that, essentially, Jesus starts his story by saying "Boys... This is how I want YOU to live life here on earth because this is how God is and how we brings God's Kingdom to earth. Now. Today."

We know that the Kingdom of Heaven was inaugurated/started by Jesus, but won't be fully realized until heaven. We're between the now and the not yet. In other words Jesus wants us to bring a bit of heaven to earth. Bringing God's ways of living to this world is both possible and expected if we are followers of Jesus.

Part of bringing a bit of heaven to earth is forgiving. arrrg. Why couldn't he be saying parables about breathing or something equally as easy? The Kingdom of Heaven is like a good cup of coffee.

Let's name the 'servant' in the story Joe. Notice that Joe owes a ton of money... Ten thousand talents. We can't tell exactly how much money ten thousand talents would equal today, but we can responsibly describe it as an insurmountable amount... A million dollars? A billion dollars?

Narrators voice: The King has decided that it's time to collect what's owed to him and begins the process of settling accounts with his servants.

I find this part of the story to be a fascinating picture of human nature. Joe didn't go to the King, the King came to Joe. I can see my own humanity in the fact that Joe wasn't pro-active in approaching the King, instead he was reactive. How often I see myself or others waiting until someone else brings our offenses into the light before mercy or forgiveness is requested. The most obvious parallel is when we wait for the credit card company (_____ insert a company you owe) to call us instead of calling them first. This is true in our other relationships as well. We put off asking our spouse, best friend or significant other for forgiveness (probably hoping they'll just drop the subject) for something that we know we shouldn't have said or done... And then the inevitable happens - they bring it up again! Does anybody relate to Joe? We live life knowing that we've screwed something up, but we don't like to talk about it, do we? We'd rather ignore it hoping that the other person will ignore it too. Oh, but the KING has too much goodness in him to ignore it! The King can see the bigger picture. Joe doesn't know it yet, but having the King approach him is going to be one of the most freeing things ever to happen to him!

Let me park the car here and idle on this thought. God's goal for us is always freedom. If you and I are anything alike then sometimes we get scared when it's time for God to shine his light into the dark places of our lives. We don't like the shame or the embarrassment, but God's end-goal is never, never, shame or embarrassment. Maybe it's not fear that resists God's flashlight shining into your heart... Maybe for you it's something else. Whatever it is you MUST remember that God is FOR YOU! Besides freedom, his goal for us is always mercy, goodness, wholeness, health, and restoration... And that's only the beginning!

Narrators voice: The servant fell on his knees and begged for a chance to pay the money back. The King took pity on his servant and erased the entire debt owed to him and let the servant go.

One of the most understated verses in the Bible is when the parable tells us that the King "...Cancelled the debt and let him go...". This is like concentrated orange juice. A little bit goes along way. The depth of God's character is revealed in such few words. Here, we see the kindness of God. Because we can slow things down and read these stories at our leisure we can easily connect this story with another bit of scripture that says "It's his kindness that leads to repentance". Do you see God's kindness operating in your life?

Do you see his passionate desire to do good to you? His mercies?

Can you see the parallels here? We have Joe who is absolutely NOT in any position to pay the debt he owes the King. Can you see how that is suspiciously similar to our real life predicament? We have NO ability to pay the price of our sin-debt and God (through Jesus) paid it for us! WOW, what an amazing God!

Stay tuned for more! In Part 2 the story takes a twist. In the mean time, I encourage you to genuinely consider any areas of your life where you need God's forgiveness. I encourage you to be pro-active rather than wait for Him to point out where you've screwed up.