The Servant's Unpaid Debt
08/13/10 01:01 Filed in: Forgiveness
A God-like, judgmental spirit can become a prison sentence of its own, one in which habitual fault-finders are tormented by an ever-growing list of grievances and resentments. The result is chronic anger, bitterness and tension.
“Shouldest not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow-servant, even as I had mercy on thee?” (Matthew 18: 21 - 19: 1)
When Peter asked how often we should forgive our trespassers, Jesus said “seventy times seven.” But then Christ added an important qualifier to illustrate that there are limits to God’s mercy. Jesus told a parable about a compassionate king, who forgave a servant’s debt only to learn that the servant had thrown one of his own debtors into prison. At that point, the king directed that the servant should receive the same sentence that he had meted out.
The servant’s mistake was in having a double standard – one for himself and another one for everybody else.
Psychologists tell us that we are all prone to the same kind of thinking. We judge others by their actions while judging ourselves by our intentions. The servant in the parable felt that he deserved a second chance simply because he “meant” to repay his debt. He was quick to excuse his own mistakes while judging his fellow servant harshly.
But a God-like, judgmental spirit can become a prison sentence of its own, one in which habitual fault-finders are tormented by an ever-growing list of grievances and resentments. The result is chronic anger, bitterness and tension.
The key that unlocks the jailer’s door is the realization that forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves.
Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of the Holocaust, who had been imprisoned in the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp, put it this way:
"To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and to realize that the prisoner was me.”
When Peter asked how often we should forgive our trespassers, Jesus said “seventy times seven.” But then Christ added an important qualifier to illustrate that there are limits to God’s mercy. Jesus told a parable about a compassionate king, who forgave a servant’s debt only to learn that the servant had thrown one of his own debtors into prison. At that point, the king directed that the servant should receive the same sentence that he had meted out.
The servant’s mistake was in having a double standard – one for himself and another one for everybody else.
Psychologists tell us that we are all prone to the same kind of thinking. We judge others by their actions while judging ourselves by our intentions. The servant in the parable felt that he deserved a second chance simply because he “meant” to repay his debt. He was quick to excuse his own mistakes while judging his fellow servant harshly.
But a God-like, judgmental spirit can become a prison sentence of its own, one in which habitual fault-finders are tormented by an ever-growing list of grievances and resentments. The result is chronic anger, bitterness and tension.
The key that unlocks the jailer’s door is the realization that forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves.
Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of the Holocaust, who had been imprisoned in the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp, put it this way:
"To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and to realize that the prisoner was me.”
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