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Back to Church

Matthew 18:21-35

There are a few elements of the parable that we just read which would be

immediately evident to a first-century Jewish audience. Firstly, the King in the

story is a GentileKing1. We know this: because of the vast amount of money

involvedthere simply wasnt that much money in the whole of Israel; becausethe servant kneels before the King in a worshipful pose, something unthinkable

for a Jew; because Jewish law prohibited a wife and family from being sold into

slavery and; because in Jewish law a person could not be tortured for debt. So

Jesus the Rabbi, speaking to a crowd of Israelites, tells this story about a foreign

King and his servant. This was not a servant who washed the royal sheets. The

context of the story makes it clear that this is a senior members of a staffmor

like a public servant than a chambermaid. The servant hasnt borrowed money

from the King to go and have a holiday in Lebanon and buy a flash new camel.Rather, hes made a promise to the King that he can collect a huge amount of

money in taxes and rents and levies. And he hasnt delivered.

And what a promise! Ten thousand talents is an absurd amount of money. A

talent was the largest monetary unitequal to the fifteen years wages for a

manual labourer6000 drachmas. Ten thousandin greek (myrias), the

root ofmyriadwas the largest known number in the first century. You

couldnt actually count higher than ten thousand. If you do the calculation intodays money you end up with the equivalent of five billion dollars. But the

figure of ten thousand talents is simply meant to signify a massive quantity,

which clearly no individual could ever hope to repay.

The King, unexpectedly, responds to this situation with mercy. Its not such a

big deal financiallythe King hasnt lost the money, the servant simply hasnt

delivered on his promise. But in terms of the Kings standing and his position in

the hierarchy of the Kingdom, hes taking a heck of a risk. But Kings can and doshow benevolence occasionally, and it can actually strengthen their position if

people have a slim hope of receiving mercy.

1Boring, E; New Interpreters Bible Commentary Volume 8

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The servant, freshly released the certainty of going to prison, heads outside and

sees a bloke who owes him one hundred denarii. This is not a pocket-change

either. In todays money it would be about ten thousand dollars. Its not unhear

of that one might lend ten grand to a friend, but its a significant commitment.

But the servant violently grabs hold of his debtor and throws him into prison

until he can pay the debt. This, of course, is a really dumb thing to do. The

servant with the debt was presumably going to pay it offits a reasonablefigure. But you dont make money while sitting in a cell.

The King calls back the first servant and asks him Should you not have had

mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you. And so ends the parable.

But the parable as it appears in the gospel of Matthew is like a coin with two

sidesso its important to distinguish between its two different contexts.

When the story was first told by Jesus in around the year 30, it was a story

about a merciful foreign king and a clueless servant. The social commentary and

politics of the story are blatant. The Kingdom of Heaven is like this: a Gentile

King who is generous and merciful, a subordinate who is a violent and

thoughtless. Its a jab at the Roman Emperor who would have you locked up an

tortured for the slightest failing. Its a jab at Herod whos collaborated with the

Romans to great benefit, but has no qualms about exploiting his fellow

Israelites. It was about forgiveness, certainly, but also about the use of powerand the distribution of wealth.Theres no clear, simplistic moral to be had the

listener is simply invited to contrast the King with Caesar, the Servant with

Herod, and the Kingdom of Heaven with the Empire of Caesar, or indeed the

nation of Israel.

Jump forward fifty or sixty years in time to (probably) Antioch, in Turkey.

Theres an unknown scribe whos writing a masterpiece for the Christ-followers

there. Hes got the gospel of Mark in front of him (or her), and probably anotherlost set of writings that we call Q. Theres also an oral tradition stories which

have been passed down primarily from mouth to mouthand this parable

would seem to be one of them. We refer to it as special Matthew because its no

found in any of the other gospels. This context is rather different. Churches hav

been around for a while, Paul is dead, Peter is dead, James is dead and the

Temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed. Naturally, there are some tensions

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amongst the church and the author of the Gospel of Matthew needs to address

them. Thats why we have these sections about conflict and forgiveness within

the church. The author takes the popular story and adds some editorial

commentthe King who was initially merciful, transforms into a King who

changes his mind in the face of a servant who is unforgiving and sends off to be

tortured forever. And these harsh words are added: This is how my heavenly

father will treat each of you, unless you forgive your brother from the heart.

Its a polemic about the holding of grudges, and tough warning to the church

that they mustnt get caught up with bitterness about the way others had let

them down. After all, their sin has been forgiven by God, why should they not

forgive others?

I reckon that these two sides of the coin are relevant to us as well. They force us

to ask What is the Kingdom of God for? and What is the Church for? So letslook at each of those two questions.

What is the Kingdom of God for? We know its not just a shorthand for some

place called heaven, where we float around on the clouds playing a harp. Its

what the world shouldbe like now, and what the world willbe like when Christ

returns. Its the standard against which we judge our beliefs and behavior, its

the ideal for which we constantly strive. So, for example, when we remember

those terrifying events of ten years ago today, we know that violence and hatredwhich led to those attacks in the United States have no place in the Kingdom of

God. Yet we also recognise that rich, powerful, exploitative empires with vast

military capability and global dominance also are not what the Kingdom of God

is about. In the freedom of God, if we are to believe the parable, there is liberty,

there is mercy, there is justice for all.

Then what is the church for? We may like our local church because our friends

are there, or theres a nice building or a stunningly handsome priest or becausewe find comfort or we have nostalgia about a bygone era.Theyre are all nice

thingsbut theyre not what the church is for. The author of Matthews gospel

makes a big fuss about how we treat one another within the church, because th

church is supposed to be a living sign, a visible witness, a beacon of the

Kingdom of God. The church exists to point towards God and Gods

kingdom.That means we dont sit around waiting for God to fix things we get t

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work doing compassion, being generous, acting justly, forgiving wastefully. On

this Back to Church Sunday, when some of you are guests popping back in

after some time away, and many of you have invited people to gather with us

we are reminded by the scriptures that church is not merely a weekly dose of

religion. The church is that movement of people who are trying, and sometimes

failing, to proclaim good news, to work for justice, to respond to human need by

service and to invite others to share in the work.

We do this work because God forgives us. Were set free to do this work because

we can forgive others. And we have hope because we have glimpsed a future of

jubilee where the debt-burden of malice and hatred, hurtfulness and despair

have been wiped out by a victorious and infinitely loving King.

The Lord be with you

And Also With You

The Reverend Chris Bedding is an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Perth,

Western Australia. He is also an actor, director, musician and comedian. His

passions are ministry amongst people in the first third of life, dynamic liturgy

and advocacy for the oppressed.

twitter.com/frchrisbedding

facebook.com/frchrisbedding

Email: rector.darlington@live.com.a