24th Week in Ord. Time, Sunday – 13th September 2020 — Gospel: Mt 18,15-20
Top-down phenomena of forgiveness
The parable of the unforgiving servant has three scenes: King and slave officials (18,23-27); slave official and his subordinate (18,28-30); and other slave officials and the king (18,31-34). The first scene exposes the weakness of the king. The king doesn’t assert his authority to get back ten thousand talents from his slave-official. But the slave-official knowing the system, works out his tricks, through falling and begging, to accomplish his task. The king relents, shows mercy, releases him, and cancels the debt. The act is more self-serving than altruistic. The king retains the slave-official that will render him more “indebted” and submissive. The second scene focuses on the reversal of roles. Given the opportunity, the slave official instead of forgiving his subordinate imprisons him. The third scene highlights the protest of other slave officials demanding justice. The king acts swiftly, withdraws his forgiveness, and reinstates his obligation to repay the debt.
The question that comes to our mind is: what happened to the limitless forgiveness proposed in Mt 18,22? The king is not behaving like God in dispensing never-ending forgiveness. Here forgiveness is calculated, self-benefiting, and limited. The king forgives initially (18,27), but refuses to forgive a second time after just one failing (18,32-33). He withdraws his forgiveness and replaces it with punishment (18,34). But the ending (18,35) seems to be surprising because the God who indiscriminately loves (5,45) has disappeared now. Jesus declares that God does imitate the behaviour of the tyrant king. God will treat disciples in the same way that the king treated his slave if they do not forgive. God will not forgive if a person does not forgive others. The basic point seems to be clear: God, who forgives, expects Jesus-followers to forgive one another; if they don’t, there will be terrible eschatological consequences (18,35; similar to Mt 6,12.14-15). The parable frames forgiveness only as a top-down phenomenon from the more powerful to the less powerful (from the king to the slave-official and from the slave-official to the subordinate slave). It emphasizes that people must forgive other people to know God’s forgiveness. They must pass on what they have received. Forgiveness has come to be seen as beneficial for victims and perpetrators. However, the parable does not present a scenario of a lower-status person injured by a higher-status or more powerful offender.
