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There’s a wonderful passage in The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer where the hero of the story wakes up the morning after he and Huckleberry Finn have first caught a glimpse of the fantastic treasure that will eventually change their lives forever.

The morning after, Tom can’t quite decide whether the thousands of dollars in silver and gold was real or just a dream. Finally, as his mind clears, he concludes that it must have been only a dream. Mark Twain explains it this way:

There was one very strong argument in favor of this idea—namely, that the quantity of coin he had seen was too vast to be real. He had never seen as much as fifty dollars in one mass before, and . . . he imagined that all references to “hundreds” and “thousands” were mere fanciful forms of speech, and that no such sums really existed in the world. He never had supposed for a moment that so large a sum as a hundred dollars was to be found in actual money in anyone's possession. If his notions of hidden treasure had been analyzed, they would have been found to consist of a handful of real dimes and a bushel of vague, splendid, ungraspable dollars.

So you see, poor Tom Sawyer can’t even imagine that so much money exists anywhere in the world, let alone someplace where he might be able to lay hands on it.

I wonder if the people who first heard Jesus tell the parable of the unjust steward weren’t in about the same boat. The story begins this way: “ ‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him;’ ” (Matthew 18:23, 24, NRSV).

Ten thousand talents! How could anyone in Jesus’ audience imagine so much money? Each talent weighed nearly a hundred pounds. So, Jesus was talking about more silver than anyone could imagine. In today’s market it would bring about 6 billion dollars!

Talking about such a huge sum got people’s attention.

The slave’s circumstances were not unfamiliar to Jesus’ listeners. They had no doubt seen people from their own village hauled away to court and sold into slavery for their debts.

But what was a fellow who was already a slave supposed to do about his debts? Here’s where the story takes a humorous turn. I can picture Jesus’ audience starting to chuckle, and then bursting out into laughter when they heard how the slave responded to his master’s charges: “So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything’ ” (Matthew 18:26 NRSV).

Picture the crowd around Jesus. Can you see them nudging each other, smiling, laughing, commenting—“What’s this fellow think he’s going to do to pay off that kind of debt!”

But then, as things quiet down, Jesus has an even bigger surprise for them. Here it is in verse 27: “And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.”
Whoa! How is that possible? Who could possibly ever afford to forgive a debt like that?

It’s more money than any of the people can even imagine—and now Jesus is saying that the master just out and out forgave it.
Instantly the lesson must have dawned on anyone who had followed Jesus and listened to His stories before. Jesus is talking about God, and God’s willingness to forgive people. End of story.

But no, not end of story.

Now the slave who has been forgiven a debt that he could never repay bumps into a fellow-slave who owes him a sizable debt. A hundred days’ wages. Now, admittedly, that’s pretty small potatoes compared to what he’s just been forgiven. But it’s still a hefty chunk of change. And of course you’d expect that this fellow who’s just been forgiven so much would have learned something from the experience—would have absorbed some of the goodness that had just come his way—and would want to share his good fortune with others.

But not this guy! He demands instant payment, and when he can’t get it, he throws the poor fellow into prison.

By this time Jesus’ listeners must have been appalled. Is the unforgiving slave going to get away with such brazen misbehavior?

Of course not. Jesus brings the story to a satisfying conclusion this way: “ ‘When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt’ ” (verses 31-34).

Wow! That’s severe.

In fact it’s a life sentence. There’s absolutely no way this poor fellow is ever going to get out of jail—and notice—it doesn’t say he was merely sent to jail. It says he was handed over to be tortured until he could pay it all!

Now, before we go too far in applying the meaning of this parable, let’s remember that in the biblical system given by God, ongoing torture was not part of the criminal justice system. In fact there was a strict limit put on the number of blows that could be inflicted for punishment. In Deuteronomy 25 God set the limit at 40 blows.

So I don’t think we should use this parable to imply that God wants to torture people interminably. But the story does have some very important lessons for us.
For starters, consider how the king first responded when the servant asked for a little time to repay his debt. He forgave him the whole thing! Who in the world could afford to forgive a $6 billion debt? King Herod couldn’t. Even Caesar probably couldn’t. And so we sense intuitively that Jesus must be talking about God here…. And that he’s talking about God’s grace, not God’s justice.

There’s something more we’re supposed to learn here as well of course. Because by the end of the story we discover that even God’s grace has its limits.

Remember that in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Forgiveness is a very important part of Jesus’ gospel message. Both being forgiven and forgiving others. The two must go hand in hand. Why is God so stubborn about this? Is forgiving others a work we must do in order to earn forgiveness?

Well, for one thing, consider the effect of not forgiving. A recent study conducted by that Kaiser Permanente medical group found that people who score high on a scale measuring anger and hostility suffered far more hardening of the arteries than people who had low levels of anger and hostility. And another study found that those who are prone to anger have three times the probability of having a heart attack as those who are less angry.

But don’t misunderstand. Jesus didn’t speak this parable in order to threaten people with the consequences of not forgiving, but merely to reinforce in their minds the importance of forgiveness. Just before He told the story, Peter had come to Him and asked how to handle the situation when a brother sinned more than once and came and asked for forgiveness. And Jesus gave His famous reply that we should forgive our brother up to seventy times seven times.

Forgiveness is the reason Jesus came to earth in the first place…. To provide forgiveness for all of us.

On the cross, with the excruciating pain of nails driven through His hands and feet, He could still cry out to God, “Father, forgive them!”

Jesus came to earth not only to provide forgiveness, but to provide an example and teach us how to be like our Father in heaven. And that is why that parable of the unjust slave who fails to pass on the forgiveness is so important. It’s at the very core of what Jesus came to earth to teach us.

Friend, I’m not sure how it his with you. I don’t know whether you are one of those people who find it natural and easy to forgive, but I know that I am sometimes tempted to hold hard feelings in my heart. To seek ways to get revenge. Jesus appeals to my heart, and to yours: “Don’t do it!” “Don’t hang on to those hard feelings. They won’t do you any good. And if you let your heart be hardened by hostility, it will eventually make a separation between you and your God. A separation that will ultimately become permanent.”

I don’t want that for my life, and I'm sure you don’t want it for yours, either.

Just think of how many things God is willing to forgive us for, and how much it cost Him to be able to do that—more than 10,000 talents!

Dare we then hold any misdeed or injustice against another man or woman? Dare we be like that unjust slave?

If we do dare, then Jesus’ warning at the end of the parable is for us. Referring to the harsh treatment given to the unjust slave, Jesus warned: ‘ “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart’ ” (Matthew 18:35, NRSV). He’s saying—if you want to hang onto your sins and pay the penalty for them, you’re welcome to them. I won’t force you to be either forgiving OR forgiven! But remember, the two go hand in hand.

And that’s why I pray for God to help me forgive—as He forgives.

Because I don’t want to keep my sins—do you?