Ok, so a while ago I heard a sermon on Matthew 18:21-35. The pastor that was speaking was preaching out of “The Message” paraphrase of the Bible (a rewording/paraphrase (not translation) of the Bible to “modern English”), and it got me thinking about a few things.
(Before I go on, I’d like to clarify one thing: Don’t think I’m a “easy to read” hater, or a “Message” paraphrase hater. I have absolutely nothing against “easy to read” translations or the like. In fact, I think we’ve gotten used to a lot of things in regular translations that someone new to the faith will find confusing. Simplification, in a concise and accurate to the original way, is important with a rapidly changing language like English. (most important keywords there: “accurate to the original”) So if there’s errors in translation, they should be exposed and fixed)
Ok, so this is the passage that was read:
21 At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, "Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?" 22 Jesus replied, "Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven. 23 "The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. 24 As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. 25 He couldn't pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market. 26 "The poor wretch threw himself at the king's feet and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' 27 Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt. 28 "The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, 'Pay up. Now!' 29 "The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' 30 But he wouldn't do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. 31 When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king. 32 "The king summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. 33 Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?' 34 The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. 35 And that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy."
Alright... so during the course of the sermon, the man speaking made a couple comments that I thought may have needed a little bit more explanation (based on what I already understood about the passage)...
Here’s a couple examples of what was said:
- “Oh sure, ‘100 thousand dollars’, that’s a lot... but hey, with a good job, you could make that much money in a few years.”
- “... and 10 dollars, that’s nothing! like, people give that much away to random people on the street, and this guy threw the other guy in jail for that?”
Now, assuming I had no previous knowledge about this passage, that would have made perfect sense to me.
Conclusions like the following would have been completely logical with the given information:
“Wow, don’t be stingy like that stupid guy.”
“If someone owes you a few bucks, let them have it, or at the very least, be patient!”
“Don’t throw you’re friends in jail over a few dollars”
However, there’s a problem...The man didn’t owe the king “100 thousand dollars”.
(ya, I know it’s a paraphrase. It’s not supposed to be exact. It’s just supposed to get the point across in an easy to read way. Go along with me for a bit here, though.)
Also, the “fellow servant” didn’t owe the man “10 dollars”.
Well, how much did they owe? And who cares?
Ok, well, lets go to another translation for a different perspective...Let’s go with NIV, because it’s one of the more common translations:
Matthew 18 (NIV)
24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
and
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.
Hmm, ok.. ”No big deal,” right?
“The Message says the guy owes 100 thousand, and this says he owes 10 thousand,” right?
“And, well, I guess I’d be a bit more miffed if someone wouldn’t give me 100 bucks, than if it was just 10... but still, what’s the big deal?”
I’m almost there! Just a couple more points I need to make...
Alright... don’t get scared, but we’re gunna jump into the original Greek meanings of a few of these words...
don’t worry, it’s safe :)
Here we go:
δεναριον (Denarion)- This is the word rendered “denarii” (plural) in the passage above. (it’s singular form is “denarius”). Most scholars (dudes that study the Bible, Greek, Hebrew, etc. regularly and in great detail (and often as part of their job)) agree that it’s worth about a days wage.
ηεκατον (hekaton) - This word is translated “one hundred” in the NIV passage above. It literally means “one hundred”. (YAY! that was easy...)
ταλαντον (talent) - This is a unit of measurement. It’s used quite often in the Old Testament (about 47 times), but only 8 times in the New Testament (all of which, very interestingly, are in Matthew***). It’s widely accepted that the man in the story owed the king talents of gold. The standard for the talent differs based on time and location, but when it comes down to it, it’s around the maximum weight a man can carry (ranging from 75 pounds to over 200). So, for now, lets go with the minimum weight of 75 pounds.
***Msg me if you're curious why it's interesting...
Time for some quick math:
the current price of gold is $1370.09 Canadian per (Troy) ounce (as of October 24, 2010)
there’s 12 Troy ounces in a pound
So we’ll get the price per pound:
$1370.09 x 12 = $16,441.08
Then the price per talent (of 75 pounds):
$16,441.08 x 75 = $1,233,081.00
Alright, and the NIV says he owed 10,000 talents, so:
$1,233,081.00 x 10,000= $12,330,810,000.00
WHOA!!! that’s..... Twelve billion?!?!? That’s a whee bit more than One hundred thousand I’d say. And you know what? I don't think that could be payed off in "A few years with a good job". Even top paid CEOs would have a very hard time paying off a debt like that; and this guy was just a servant. He wouldn't have gotten paid too much. Even if he worked all his life, he wouldn't even be able to put a dint in a debt like that...Well, let’s leave the talent and go on to our last Greek word:
μθριοι (murioi) - This word is used 3 times in the New Testament (here, as well as 1 Cor 4:15, and 1 Cor 14:19). According to Thayer's and Smith's Bible Dictionary, murioi means “innumerable, countless; ten thousand”. The general idea is that of a number to big to count, or so big it’s not worth counting.
Alright... done with the Greek for now...Let’s put all the pieces together:
The servant owed the king, at the very least, twelve billion dollars.
(The original text implies a debt so huge, it’s literally un-payable.)
The man’s fellow servant owed him one hundred “days wages”.
Some quick math again to find out what the fellow servant owed:
lets say the dude gets paid $15 an hour.
that means
dude’s wage = $15 hour
work day = 8 hours
$15 x 8 = $120
$120 x 100 = $12,000
Ok, that’s slightly more than $10... The fellow servant owed the first servant A LOT!!
So what’s the point of this?
Well, let’s apply it to the parable:
First, who’s the king?
Well, since the parable is about the “kingdom of heaven”, we can assume the king would be a reference to God/Jesus.
So who’s the man?
Well, for now let’s just assume it’s you and me.
Well, then what’s the debt?
Romans 6:23 says that, “The wages of sin is death.” Our sin requires payment, in the form of death (namely, our own).
Therefore, we owe a debt; on that we are incapable of paying.
Ok, so we have this:
The King = God
The man/servant = you and me
The debt = our sin
So in the parable the King cancels the debt, by taking on Himself the debt that the servant owed. The UNPAYABLE debt. In the same way, Jesus canceled our debt by taking on Himself the FULL punishment for our sin. The debt that we were completely unable to pay.
Shortly after this, the man finds his fellow servant, who owes him a great deal of money (although minuscule when compared to the debt he’s just been forgiven).
What’s this mean?
Well, if the debt earlier was a reference to sin (our sin debt), we can safely assume that the debt the fellow servant owes is a reference to something wrong done against the man. Judging by the large amount of money used in the parable, we can assume the misdeed done against the first servant is quite significant.
So, what should the servant say?
Probably something along the lines of this:
“DUDE! I’ve just been forgiven over 12 billion dollars in debt! Who cares about the 12 thousand you owe me?!?
It’s nothing! Let’s go get some pizza! I’m buying! :)”
But no. What does he say?
“Give me back my money now, or I’ll get you sent to jail!”
in other words:
“I still hate you for what you did to me! Get out of my life! I’ll never forgive you!”
What happens to the man/servant now that he called his fellow servant on the debt?
Verses 32-34 record the king’s responce:
"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. (NIV)
Jesus concludes His parable with these words:
"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
So what does this mean for you and me?
I’ll let that be between you and the Holy Spirit. (John 16:13)
There's a few key things it means to me personally that I'll share, but go pray about it yourself, and let God speak to you about it directly.
Here's some of the things I get from this passage:
- What Jesus has done for us is no small matter. We've been given something HUGE, beyond our wildest dreams, just in the fact that we've been forgiven our sin debt. And that's not even taking into account anything He does for us after we've been saved (which is HUGE HUGE HUGE as well).
- There's going to come times when people come against us, hurt us, and do us great harm. It's pretty much a fact. And you know what? Often they're gunna be big things, that under normal circumstances, would be WAY to big for us to forgive. (What would you do if someone stole $12,000 from you, and you had a right to take them to court, or even jail because of it?) But you know what? No matter what someone does against you, it's NOTHING AT ALL in comparison to what we've been forgiven of. Think, even if the fellow servant in the story had done double or triple the harm against the first servant, would have it been any different? (Maybe $36,000 dollars would be a lot worse than $12,000, but it's still NOTHING compared to $12,000,000,000)
- Because of what we've been forgiven such a huge sin debt against God, we have no reason not to forgive others, even when we've received what we see as a great deal of harm. God has forgiven us SO MUCH MORE! We should be able to forgive others gladly, even for the most painful things done to us, because we've already been forgiven so much more! In addition, the consequences for not doing so are quite severe.
- We need to be careful what we teach, and where we get our info from. Sure, the concept of the Message paraphrase is a nice thought (making the Bible easier to understand), but when we overlay God's thoughts with man's opinions and ideas, errors are sure to arise; and in many cases, we can miss very important details that are somewhat obvious otherwise.If you're teaching, be sure what you're teaching is accurate to what the word of God says and means, and in context. If you're learning (at any stage from "new in the faith" to studying for the sake of being able to teach, or anywhere in between.), go for the raw word of God, and don't let man's opinions (other’s opinions, or your own) on any matter get in the way. Let the Holy Spirit teach you. He's fully capable.
Wanna talk about any of this, or have any questions?
I’m in! Ask em! Message me if you want, or what ever you feel like.
Go live like Jesus!
Until the whole world hears
