Are We Unforgiving Servants?

Dear e-votees,  

This Sunday's appointed gospel text is Matthew 28:21-34. It is Jesus teaching about the unforgiving slave.  There are two amounts of money that are at play in this teaching.

The first amount is the astronomical amount that the first slave owed his master.  The amount in the Greek is 10,000 talents.  A talent is an amount of matter.  There were a variety of talents in the ancient world but 33 kg is a reasonable amount for us to use for the sake of this conversation.

10,000 talents x 33 kg/talent x 2.2 lbs/kg (assuming at the surface of the earth) x 16 oz/lb x $1,936.25/oz (from jmbullion.com) = $22,491,480,000.

100 denarii * 1 day's wage/1 denarius * 8 hours/work day (assumption) * $25.12 (average hourly wage in US in April 2020 according to tradingeconomics.com = $20,096.

In other words the first servant owed to the master 1,119,202 (rounded) times the amount that the second servant owed to him.

Peace,

Karl

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Thank you for letting me channel my former mathlete self in the calculations above.  The point of the parable is not exact numbers.  The point is that the amount the first servant owed to the master is astronomically huge in comparison to the relative trifle that was owed to him.  If you remember your PSAT/SAT/GRE type comparison questions the point is this:

[amount owed to master]:[amount owed from other servant]::[amount that God has forgiven us]:[amount that others could possibly owe us] 

We have perhaps been exceedingly forgiving towards others who have wronged us.  We may have forgiven what seems like an enormous amount.  We may not have been forgiving at all.  Probably somewhere more in the middle.  

Regardless of what we have forgiven it pales in comparison to what God has freely (free to us anyway, costly to God) forgiven us.  Until we can square up the cost of what God has forgiven us then we shouldn't worry about turning our attention towards what others owe us.  If we are tracking with this parable, however, we quickly realize that is a fool's errand.  We can never fully repay God. Therefore all we can do is strive to live in a way that blesses others in response to how much God has blessed us.  How did Paul say it last week at the end of our epistle lesson?  As yes, "Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." (Romans 13:8)

God shape us into people who are so aware and appreciative of the great measure of forgiveness and grace you have lavished on us that we spend our days learning to do that to others.  We pray this in the name of Jesus.  Amen.