Forgiving our Debtors

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

The Roman historian Josephus wrote about the occupation of Israel and reported that in one decade about fifty years before the birth of Jesus, the taxes extracted from the Jews by the Romans equaled about 10,000 denarii. A denarius was the equivalent of one day's wage. This background information helps us to understand the parable that St. Matthew uses to illustrate Jesus' answer to the question Peter poses regarding the number of times one must forgive.

The translation of this parable tells us that the servant owed his master "a huge amount." The Greek actually says 1,000 talents, which is roughly equal to 10,000 denarii. Although the servant protests and asks the master to give him time to repay the debt, it is obvious that Matthew is of the opinion that it would be impossible for anyone, let alone this servant, to repay such a debt. When the master actually forgives the debt, the news of his generosity would have stunned not only the people who worked for this man but the entire community. Such lenience in the face of such a debt would have brought the master great honor and respect within his community; and for the Middle Easterner, such honor and respect would have been worth far more than 1,000 talents. Honor and respect were the commodities that drove this society.

When the forgiven servant turns around and treats his fellow servant harshly because of a smaller debt, roughly three months wages, the news of that cruelty also stunned the community. They reacted by telling the generous master of this man's cruelty. Now the master has lost whatever honor and respect he gained by his generosity. His servant has made him a laughingstock within the community. He's been had! So he reacts. He reverses his decision and hands the servant over to the jailers and torturers. He has no choice really. Not to do so would have been cultural and social suicide. He would have looked like a fool in the eyes of his contemporaries if he sat back and allowed this to stand.

St. Matthew is the only evangelist to record this particular parable. He places it within the discourse about the Church in the center of his Gospel, the third of five such discourses. It is, as it were, the centerpiece of his Gospel. Indeed, the issues of forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy and compassion are the keystone to this Gospel. In chapter ten of the Gospel, we heard Jesus tell his disciples, Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. (Matthew 10:8b) This is especially true of the gift of forgiveness of sins. God has forgiven us our sins and paid the price of our redemption for us. It cost us nothing. If we are disciples of Jesus and the image of God, we must be people of forgiveness, and the Church must be the "locus" or place where forgiveness lives.