Compounded Debt    (May 1, 2016)

 

23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 At this the servant fell on his knees before him. “Be patient with me,” he begged, “and I will pay back everything.” 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.  (Matthew 18:23-27  NIV)

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          Have you ever asked yourself how the servant of this king got so far in debt? How did he get so far behind and run up such a huge bill? Didn’t the King see this coming? I mean, consider the size of this debt! How many installment payments would it take, and at what level would the payments have to be, for someone to pay back a debt like this? The New International Version [cited above] says the debt was “ten thousand bags of gold.” This is a change from earlier translations, who generally stuck with the King James’ “ten thousand talents.” Still, the point is not to name an exact amount but to startle us with the enormity of the debt! The point Jesus is trying to make is that our debt, the debt we owe the Lord, is far beyond our ability to satisfy or repay.

          Do you really think it would have been possible, given a little more time, for this servant to have made his debt right? Do you really believe, given a lot more time, it would have been possible for him to “pay back everything” as he promised? Unfortunately, we understand all too well how, once someone is in the hole, it is nearly impossible to escape that situation, to fill in the hole—because while we are trying to fill in the hole, we continue to dig it deeper. Once we have the money to pay the debt we owe from yesterday, we need that same money to live on today. And, yes, we might be able to go a few days without the money we need to live daily, but “ten thousand talents?!”

          No, our trouble is, as we work to pay yesterday’s debts with today’s money, we are piling up tomorrow’s debts at the same time. At that rate, we will never get ahead, only further and further behind. The only way for us to “square things up” with God, our king, the one to whom we owe this insurmountable debt, is for him to dismiss the debt and allow us to start all over again—and again, and again, and again...on a daily basis. The good news is: God does not count our sins against us, as long as we also forgive our debtors. "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15)