Christian Superiority Complexes and the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

A king forgives the debt of his servant–a huge debt. David Lose writes, “a talent was about 130 lbs. of silver and was the equivalent to about fifteen years of a laborer’s wages. Which means that the servant owed his master about 150,000 years of labor. In other words, he would never, ever, not in a million years, be able to pay his master back. A denarius, by comparison, was worth about a day’s wage, which meant that the second servant owed the forgiven one about a hundred days of labor.”

When we examine our hearts and lives with humility, we see our own desperate need for huge mercy. We see how far short we fall from a righteous life. We see how even our good acts include self-serving motives. We see how easily we give in to our animal desires, even when they are far from altruistic. We see how we fail the people we love most. We see how we fail in that most important commands–to love God and to love our neighbor. We need mercy desperately.

And God is willing and able to offer it. The Psalmist writes,

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve  or repay us according to our iniquities.

–Psalm 103:9-10 NIV

Last week we talked about God’s great longing to forgive. We saw him pleading with the people of Israel to heed his warnings and repent. We saw that God does not delight in judgment, but in mercy.

We also learned that God is particularly hard on religious people, all through the Bible. And in this parable, we religious people, pictured in the servant forgiven a huge debt, are called out big time. When the servant is unable to pay it forward and forgive a much smaller debt owed him by a fellow servant, his prideful heart is revealed. He still thinks of himself as much better than this other servant. He still doesn’t get it. The king has had enough. He hands the prideful servant over to debtor’s prison.

Craig Keener writes,

Jewish law did not permit torture, but Jewish people knew that Gentile kings (as well as Herod) practiced it. Because this servant had fallen from political favor, he would have no allies who would dare come to his aid; and even if he had, given the sum he owed, his situation would have remained hopeless. He would never be released.

–Craig Keener, The Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 96

Verse 34 says (and it’s important to be mindful here that this is a parable, not a literal story) that the king handed the man over “to the jailers to be tortured.” And in verse 35, Jesus gives a stern warning: “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Like in the old debtor’s prisons–and the modern practice of imprisoning the poor when they cannot afford to pay fines for minor offenses–the prisoner must now remain locked up until the debt is paid.