Last week we reflected on sin as an interpersonal offense, something that divides members of the Christian community. When the sinner refuses to admit the sin, he or she is thrown out of community. When the sinner admits the sin, the community’s forgiveness reinstates him or her to membership. Reconciliation presumes and is based upon forgiveness from the heart.
Today’s reading proposes two ideas. Central to each is how “members of the church” (see the NRSV translation) are to behave toward each other. The first idea in Jesus’ reply to Peter’s question is that disciples of Jesus must forgive one another always (“seventy times seven”), without limit. The second idea, found in the parable, is the communal dimension of forgiveness.
Let us take a closer look at the parable (Matt 18:23-35).
Debts
First-century Mediterranean peasants understood sin, that is, interpersonal transgressions, after the fashion of debts. That is what Jesus taught his followers to ask of God: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt 6:12). For Westerners accustomed to a money-driven economy, debts almost always translate into “money owed.”
Since economics is our culture’s predominant institution, everything is viewed from an economic perspective. In drug arrests we hear not of people saved from potential addiction, but rather the dollar value of the drugs confiscated. In natural disasters we hear not so much of people’s misfortunes but rather the economic loss in terms of dollars.
Not so our peasant ancestors, for theirs was not a money-based
economy. Their lives were based on interpersonal relationships even in
what we, in our day, would recognize as “economic”
transactions. In such a culture, the purpose of haggling is not
economic but interpersonal. That the potential buyer will make a
purchase is a foregone conclusion. The buyer haggles and the seller
willingly goes along because both are building an interpersonal
relationship called friendship (see
Genesis 18:22-33;
James 2:23). Friends will be faithful: the seller will always sell and the
buyer will always get a good price.
The Parable
But the king is sensitive to his honorable reputation. If he deals
harshly with a servant of his own household, his subjects will judge
him to be shameless, a man without honor. So the king decides to act
in “mercy” and forgive the debt. He gains more honor by
this decision than he would by insisting on receiving full payment of
the debt.
In behavior that is both shocking and sad, the forgiven slave turns
toward a fellow slave in the same household and refuses to forgive a
much smaller debt. He refuses to imitate the merciful behavior of the
king-patron. If he gets away with this strategy the king will become a
laughing stock. To protect his honor, the king-patron has no choice
but to put this brazen slave in his proper place: jail!
The moral of Jesus’ story is that members of the community must
treat one another as God has treated each of them. They must choose
the more honorable path and forgive one another “from the
heart.” Jesus’ instruction echoes
Leviticus 19:17: “You shall not hate your brother in your heart … you
shall love your neighbor [understood here as a fellow-Israelite, a
member of your in-group] as yourself.” How well do Americans
fare in forgiving or loving each other from the heart?