Who has wronged you? What is owed to you? How badly have you been mistreated? These are questions on which we can focus. However, the outcome of human bitterness is never beneficial. In fact, the results of refusing to forgive are absolutely damning when viewed in the light of divine perspective. As we ponder the teaching of Jesus Christ in Matthew 18:23-31, the choice is, “Chokehold or mercy?”
In the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. This seems reasonable to us, as the human heart cries out for justice. The king confronted a servant who owed him $6 billion in today’s terms (obviously, a debt beyond imagination in New Testament times). Since the servant could not rightfully pay his debt, the king ordered him and his family to be sold as payment for what was owed. Surely feeling devastated by the impending slavery, the servant humbly fell to his knees and begged the king to have patience with him so he could feebly work on paying the debt, thereby insuring freedom for his family in the interim. There could be no rational way for this servant to pay his debt by laboring even his entire lifetime. Knowing both the hopeless nature of the servant’s proposed plan and the servant’s humble request, the king graciously forgave the debt – no strings attached. Jesus tells us the king did so out of compassion.
We gloriously observe the analogy so far. We are the servant faced with the miserable reality of incalculable debt to our King! We have sinned against Him continually in thought, word, and deed. Our hearts are bent against Him from the start. We owe holy God everything, for we have wronged our Creator in every way. Though we were made to magnify Him, we have instead stolen from God by detracting from His glory. He calls for payment from us, but when He sees us fall to our knees and ask for His mercy, everlasting compassion flows from His heart. Aware it is impossible for us to pay this divine debt, He handles the matter Himself . . . and sets us free! (Know that He handled the matter by sending His own, holy Son to die on the cross for our sin so that justice is satisfied.)
So far, the parable is wonderfully assuring. As we continue, a terrible reality comes to the forefront. The very servant who was forgiven by the gracious king is presented with a debt owed to him – a meager $12,000 (compared to the $6 billion he had owed). When the forgiven servant was confronted with the fellow owing him, the forgiven servant grabbed hold of his debtor and began to choke him! Unreal! How could one who had been forgiven so much be so quick to condemn his fellow servants? Though the king had great reason to angry at the large debt owed to him, he dealt in a dignified way with his debtor. Here, we see the forgiven servant deal in raw, vindictive emotion. A chokehold accompanied his demanding words.
Keeping up with the parable, may we ask ourselves, “Have we ever been there?” Have we felt justified in nastiness and brutality of the physical or verbal kind because of what a fellow human has done to us? Perhaps $12,000 was much to the forgiven servant . . . but it was not nearly as much as the very life and freedom that was given back to him! Perhaps the wrong we have suffered seems intolerable to us, but it is not. It is nothing compared to the sinfulness that has been forgiven us – and the very life from God with which it has been replaced!
The debtor in the chokehold begged the forgiven servant to have mercy, but none was granted. As the second servant lay in prison, the forgiven servant was called to give account to the king. Upon the servant’s arrival, the king pronounced him wicked, saying, “I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (Matthew 18:32b-33, ESV) Consequently, the unmerciful servant was thrown to jailers to pay all his debt. This certainly appears as a metaphor to eternal punishment for those who owe God and are not abiding by His way of forgiveness.
Jesus is quick to inform us that we, too, will be thrown to eternal punishment if we do not forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ . . . from the heart (Matthew 18:35). The phrase “from the heart” is critical, because when we have actually accepted and rightfully recognize the miracle of our king’s forgiveness, we will certainly forgive others from the depths of our being. We will not reach out to choke them, for the magnanimous grace of God now abides in us. When we are saved, Christ comes to live in us. With God in us, we have available all the mercy necessary to forgive as we have been forgiven. If we cannot have mercy, we cannot have the God of all mercy living in us. If we can forgive, it is because the Spirit of forgiveness is really in us.
Now we go back to the original question, “Chokehold or mercy?” The answer reveals our eternal destiny.