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Break Up Of Talk
Matthew Fletcher [Servant/ Bouncer], Jeff Renfrew [Narrartor] , Tim Holmes [The Other Servant], James Noble [The Very Bad Man] thanks to Nathan Telfer [King] Enterprises.
Mercy is when someone is not given what they deserve.
Adam and Eve deserved to be destroyed immeadiately for disobeying God, the town of Ninevah had already been marked for destruction because of its rebellion against God, the Isralites didn't deserve to even leave Egpyt they constantly grumbled against God, time and again Moses appealed to God's mercy to avert the punishment that they deserved.
Let's look at tonight's story and see what it has to say about God's mercy.
23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
Why is this important - it means that what is to follow is a story that tells us something about God and us. This is more than a morality story it is teaching fundamental truths about the way things work in God's Kingdom - when you're under God's rule.
24 As he began the settlement a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
Okay - so the scene is set - we have a king who has servants who owe him money and what's to get it back. We have one particular servant who owes ten thousand talents and he can't pay.
The king's response seems pretty extreme- the guy can't pay and so the servant, his wife and kids and everything he owes will have to be sold to repay the debt.
Well I don't know about you - but so what - what I'm lacking here is a b it of perspective - I mean is this debt a big debt or a small debt? is the response of the king fair or harsh?
I mean going bankrupt is one thing, but to have you, your wife and your kids and everything you own sold off to repay the debt sounds harsh.
Well the debt was huge. We're not talking about an overdue phone bill - although some of them may be large - this guy had spent up big time. 10,000 talents was about the equivalent of 273,000 years pay. In fact it's hard to imagine how anyone could have racked up a debt that large - but that's the point - this is a story Jesus told and the amount was huge to make it clear that the servant had no chance at all of paying it back. So in today's terms this servant owed billions of billions of dollars. An outrageous amount.
Obviously he has no chance of paying it back.
The king decides to sell the guy, his family and his stuff. Even here we already see mercy in action. The king had no chance of getting back the money - the king would have just have been likely to kill or torture the servant to make an example of him, instead he sells him to another person. The guy was already a servant. The king was just moving him away and trying to regain some of the money he was owed.
The servant had his life, his wife and family. And his debt dealt with.
But that's not were it ends.
26 The servant fell on his knees before him. "Be patient with me," he begged "and I will pay back everything."
27 The servant's master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.
This is where the mercy of the king is really shown.
The comment by the servant that he would pay back everything is almost laughable. His debt was astronomical, he had absolutely no chance of ever paying back the debt he owed the king. He pleaded for patience. Offering to put things right - even though he couldn't.
The king had every right to laugh at the man and send him away - the servant couldn't have paid off the debt equal to 273,000 years of work. It was a desperate plea to stay with the king. It was couched in terms that the king knew full well were meaningless, a bargain that the servant could never keep.
The amazing thing here is not that the king took pity on the servant and he didn't just agree to the terms - it's that he went further - he cancelled the debt. He showed just how far his mercy stretches.
And the king is God [from verse 25] and we are the servant.
You see to say that God is merciful implies many things - things which this story of Jesus draws out so well. When we talk about forgiving someone, showing them mercy, we assume that one person has done wrong to another.
To say God is merciful implies that he needs to be - that his creation, something that he has power over, authority over, has somehow wronged him and in debt to him and needs mercy.
So if God is the king in this story and we are servant - what is the debt that we owe God. A debt that would take us 273,000 years of work to pay back - a debt we obviously can never repay.
Well the fancy word is sin - but at the heart of sin is rebellion against God. We owe God a debt because we have rebelled against him, we have decided to make up our own minds without him, we want to run our own lives our own way without God,
See God made everything, and keeps it going. This whole creation is Gods and he created us too. He is the king. All of us have decided to ignore this fact and go about our lives living as if there is no God.
Oh we may bow to moral standards, a feeling about what is right, our conscience. But deep down we sense that there is more to this world than what we can see and yet choose not to seek that out, but rather to set ourselves up as god and make our own decisions without God. Or even worse to seek God in creation - to look for a creator in creation worshipping the created as God rather than the creator.
If you reject the rightful rule of law you deserve punishment - how much more then when you reject the right of the creator to rule His creation.
And God is just and will punish - Luke will be preaching on God's justice soon.
But that is not the end of the story - you see God is also merciful. He knows that we can never pay off our debt to him. No matter how hard we try there is nothing we can do, ever, to earn God's forgiveness to pay him back the debt we owe him.
Sometimes we realise this and try anyway - being good, making deals with God - just like the servant in the story we try and offer God our attempts to pay him off hoping that that will be good enough.
And it's just as foolish - just as ludicrous as the servant offering to pay off a debt worth 273,000 years of wages.
But God is merciful and when we come with right hearts to him and acknowledge our debt and plead forgiveness - God will give it to us and more He cancels the debt we owe him and sends us away without any debt at all.
And just like the king in this story - God accepts the price of the debt himself.
In the bible it says that the wages of sin is death. And that is why about 2000 years ago Jesus Christ came to earth to die and rise again. That man who was God - claimed it with his lips - died in the place of all who would believe. That was God paying off our debts - that was God's living, breathing, walking, talking price of mercy.
Mercy costs. Just like the king in our story who had to right off that money he had loaned the servant never to get any of it back. God's mercy doesn't come cheap - it cost Jesus his life for yours.
In that single great act we see the depths of God's mercy, how far he is prepared to go to forgive us - if we just confess and believe. Confess that we are rebels against God and Believe that Jesus died to pay the price of our sin.
So the servants forgiven - let's see what happens next.
28 But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. "Pay back what you owe me!" he demanded.
29 His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, "Be patient with me and I will pay you back."
30 But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.
Incredible - the first servant owed 273,000 years wages - this second servant owes the equivalent of about 3 months wages. A lot, but chicken feed compared to what the first servant owed. If the first servant owed millions the second servant owed small change.
But instead of mercy the second servant is shown the jail cell.
31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 Then the master called the servant in. "You wicked servant," he said "I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to."
33 "Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?"
34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.
In this we see that a true understanding of God's mercy changes the way we live. Knowing how much mercy we are shown by God who has cancelled our unpayable debt to himself - we should be prepared to show people the same mercy - and yet we are never called on to do so - no one can ever owe us as much as we owe God.
Not one single person will ever come to you requesting the same mercy that we can ask God for - and which he will freely give us.
In this we also see that the heart has to be involved - it is not good enough to say that you come to God seeking his mercy - you need to know in your heart that you need mercy and believe in your heart that Jesus died so you could receive that mercy.
And as Christians we are called to show the same mercy and to wear the costs for that mercy ourselves. In fact if we can not show mercy to our fellow believers than we have never really understood or accepted the mercy that God has on offer.
35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.
It's cut and dried - as Christians we are called upon to show the same mercy to one another as God showed to us - from our heart.
Well if you have never acknowledged your rebellion against God, never said you were sorry, never asked for and accepted the forgiveness that God offers you through Jesus - then remember this you do have a debt to God, and no matter how much you work to pay it off you never will. You have to come to God and trust in his mercy.
And it's not a blind faith. Jesus Christ an historical figure clearly shows how much God loves the world - it shows us how merciful he is.
And to us who have accepted Jesus' death, who have put ourselves in God's mercy. How is our mercy to others? Have our hearts become hard? Have we forgotten what God has done for us - forgotten just how much we have been forgiven - forgotten how much it cost God to forgive us?
Maybe we have someone we need to forgive to let off our hook - to show some mercy. Letting them go without extracting from them payment of hurts, or silence, or being cut off. If that is where you are then remember the mercy - remember that you have been shown more mercy than you will ever have to show. Pray about it and then act.