The Servant Who Wouldn't Forgive
Matthew 18:23-35
Introduction
Thank you for reading the Lectionary in Solentiname. If this is your first time here, welcome! Here’s some background on this newsletter. Ernesto Cardenal was a Nicaraguan priest, poet, politician, and liberation theologian. One of his projects was to collaboratively read the gospels with the campesinos of Nicaragua. If the Jesus ministered, taught, healed, and living among the poor people of first century Judea, then perhaps the least of these today can help us better understand Jesus’s message. We participate in this by reading The Gospel in Solentiname, Cardenal’s collection of their discussions. If you would like to learn more about the context of these conversations, there’s nothing better than reading Cardenal’s introduction to the book here.
Last week, we read about Jesus announcing his death. You can read that here. This week, following the Revised Common Lectionary, we are reading about Peter declaring Jesus the Christ.
Lectionary Reading
Matthew 18:23-35
“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, and, as he could not pay, the lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 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. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Solentiname Reading
This is the parable of the servant who owed ten talents (many millions) to a king, and the king was going to sell him with all his family, but later he took pity on him and forgave him the debt. The man later throttled another servant because he owed him a small amount, and he put him in jail until he paid the whole debt.
Then the Lord sent for him and said to him: “Evil servant! I forgave you all that debt of yours, because you begged me to. You too should have taken pity on your companion as I took pity on you.” And the Lord was so angered that he ordered him punished until he paid the whole debt. And Jesus ended by saying: “So also my heavenly Father will do with you if each one does not forgive his brother in his heart.”
“We will be evil too if we ask God's pardon without pardoning our neighbor.”
“Then we don't even have the right to ask for pardon.”
“But if you forgive your neighbor, then you do have a right to be forgiven.”
“But I believe one thing: any who ask forgiveness of their neighbor, it's like asking God's forgiveness. It's really not God that forgives directly; it's our neighbor who forgives us some evil that we've done. That's why we must seek our comrade's forgiveness instead of saying to God: ‘God forgive me.’”
I: “It seems too that this parable is telling us that the love that people have for each other is the very love of God for us.”
MANUEL: “I believe that only when there is love can you forgive. If there's bitterness and there's no love, then there's no forgiveness. The forgiveness has to be real: you have to forget what they've done to you.”
NATALIA: “Yes, because if you're not going to forgive from the heart, you shouldn't say you forgave somebody because then you'd be lying. If you really forgave, you forgot it. But if you just say, ‘I forgave,’ that's nothing.”
“Notice that Jesus specifies that detail: that the forgiveness has to come ‘from the heart.’”
LAUREANO: “This Gospel is silly!”
Several people: “Why is it silly?”
LAUREANO: “Several people have talked, but nobody has said anything good. And I haven't found anything good to say either. All you've talked about is forgiveness and forgiveness. I don't see anything in this Gospel against injustice.”
ARMANDO: “This Gospel isn't like you say. It also talks against injustice. Because the person that wouldn't forgive, the one that owed the millions, he was really committing an injustice: he wanted to strangle another person for a few pesos that he owed him.”
JULIO: “I think this Gospel is revolutionary, because it deals with the poor and the rich. And I see here a lesson for the rich, because the first to be pardoned was rich, and the second, who couldn't pay such a tiny amount, was poor. The Lord puts rich and poor on an equal plane. He says that just as the rich guy was forgiven, the poor guy must be forgiven too. But it happens that in this society the rich are forgiven for the evil things they do but the poor are shoved into jail because they are poor. In this example Jesus is showing us the poor and the rich as equals. The millionaire was forgiven through charity, through love, and just as he was forgiven he should also forgive the other weaker person and have for him also charity, love. And we can give an example using the words of today: at present we see that the rich have no compassion for the poor. If the rich had love for the poor, and the poor for the rich, that would mean there wouldn't be rich or poor any more: that's love! So let everybody live equal. And then we wouldn't have that stuff about selling the poor man with all his family to pay what he owes. And God can't forgive their sins, then, until they stop exploiting.”
DOÑA JUSTA: “The one who had many millions was loaded down with sins.”
ARMANDO: “And who has said that forgiveness isn't revolutionary? Because the first thing you have to forgive are the economic debts. If not, you don't have that forgiveness from the heart that Christ talks about. Because if somebody is economically strangling his neighbor, how can he say that in his heart he has nothing against him? And so God is going to treat him like he treats his laborers, the ones who depend on him, the ones he exploits.”
MARCELINO: “The poor aren't the ones who must have compassion for the rich, who are strangling them; they ought to be struggling against the injustices of the rich. It's the rich who ought to take pity on the poor and stop strangling them. But when the poor are in power it will be up to the poor to have pity on the rich, because otherwise we fall into the same thing as they do; we'll become like them.”
JULIO: “It's not that those who are poor now are going to be in the place of the rich, and then we'll say: ‘Now they are the poor ones, we'll get them because now we can.’ I believe that's not the question; it's about being equal.”
CESAR: “Of course this Gospel talks about forgiveness, but I believe too that forgiveness is revolutionary. It's not necessary for the Gospel to be talking only against the rich for it to be revolutionary. Because the revolution is inside you too. As long as you haven't revolutionized yourself, you can't be a real revolutionary. If you're a revolutionary that doesn't forgive, you're not a just revolutionary, and then you're not going to be able to make a good revolution. And this Gospel today teaches us to be revolutionaries before we begin to make a revolution. You're going to make the revolution when you've been revolutionary enough, that is, when you've revolutionized yourself.”
FELIPE: “The one who owed those millions was rich, because a nobody doesn't owe that much money. It seems to me that Jesus gives the example of a rich person because he wants to give the example of an exploiter. Everything the rich have got they've stolen from us, because all their riches have been got with our labor; and now all their injustices are forgiven them, but they don't forgive us; they throw us into jail when we owe them a bit. Someday, it seems to me, God will settle accounts with them through the people and he'll collect the whole debt. But at the end Jesus says we all must also forgive our neighbors in our hearts. Who knows if we have that capacity to forgive each other, or if we're like that rich person, like that exploiter.”
BOSCO: “At the beginning he said that the kingdom of heaven is like a king who forgives a debt. And he tells the whole story. He means that in that society of perfect communism, we're all going to forgive everything, and anyone who doesn't forgive is going to be treated like an exploiter, like a reactionary.”
ELVIS: “Yes, because we already know that the kingdom of heaven on earth will be a kingdom of love, without hatred, without bitterness, without the divisions that humanity now has.”
JULIO: “I believe this too will come when there's equality and nobody owes nobody.”
ALEJANDRO: “But let's move to the practical and not stick just on theory. Because here among us I see defects. Let's not concentrate just on seeing evil in exploiters. We need to practice these things a lot. Hatred, bitterness, injustice can happen and do happen in our community, among neighbors, among people in the same family, among couples, among friends. And so we too must learn in our community this practical lesson for forgiveness. We the poor must forgive each other, too. If we don't, we're not good comrades, good revolutionaries.”
Next Week
Join us again next week to learn about the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.
What was the most interesting part of this week’s discussion? Let me know your opinions in the comments. Thanks for subscribing and sharing. I’ll see you next week.