The Parable of The Unforgiving Servant
Forgiveness is a tricky thing, especially when we have to forgive others. In this episode discover how important it is to your faith to forgive others and why.
Last episode was about the Lost Son, and I chatted about how God will forgive us if we stray away from him. If we return and repent he will throw a big party!
This episode is all about how God’s forgiveness is to affect us.
God has forgiven all of our sins - every single one - and they were all, each one, so bad they were sentencing us away from heaven. But God forgave them.
So how does that fact affect us? How are we to forgive others?
What do you think?
Imagine your little brother breaks your favourite, most expensive toy or device, and he begs you to forgive him. You see that he is really sorry - devastated - and can’t pay you back and so you forgive him. You tell him that he doesn’t owe you anything.
But the next minute your sister breaks a pencil of your brothers and you see your brother is really cross about it. He carries on about it for ages, and does not forgive your sister.
How do you imagine you would feel? I know I would feel angry at my brother because it shows that he doesn’t really appreciate the forgiveness that I had shown him.
Story:
The story today is Jesus’ story - his parable.
Bible Passage - Matthew 18:23-35
“Peter came up to the Lord and asked, “How many times should I forgive someonewho does something wrong to me? Is seven times enough?”
Jesus answered:
Not just seven times, but seventy-seven times! This story will show you what the kingdom of heaven is like:
One day a king decided to call in his officials and ask them to give an account of what they owed him. As he was doing this, one official was brought in who owed him fifty million silver coins. But he didn’t have any money to pay what he owed. The king ordered him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all he owned, in order to pay the debt.
The official got down on his knees and began begging, “Have pity on me, and I will pay you every cent I owe!” The king felt sorry for him and let him go free. He even told the official that he did not have to pay back the money.
As the official was leaving, he happened to meet another official, who owed him a hundred silver coins. So he grabbed the man by the throat. He started choking him and said, “Pay me what you owe!”
The man got down on his knees and began begging, “Have pity on me, and I will pay you back.” But the first official refused to have pity. Instead, he went and had the other official put in jail until he could pay what he owed.
When some other officials found out what had happened, they felt sorry for the man who had been put in jail. Then they told the king what had happened. The king called the first official back in and said, “You’re an evil man! When you begged for mercy, I said you did not have to pay back a cent. Don’t you think you should show pity to someone else, as I did to you?” The king was so angry that he ordered the official to be tortured until he could pay back everything he owed. That is how my Father in heaven will treat you, if you don’t forgive each of my followers with all your heart.”
Treat others as you would like to be treated is a good rule of thumb for how we ought to treat people.
Remember back to the story I told earlier. How did you you feel about your brother getting all upset about your sister breaking his pencil? I said that I would feel angry because it shows that he doesn’t really appreciate the forgiveness that you had shown him. God feels angry when we don’t forgive others because it shows that we don’t fully understand just how much God has forgiven us our sins.
He actually goes so far as to say that he will forgive us in the same manner that we forgive others. So if you forgive everyone all the time, whenever they wrong you, then God will forgive you all the time, whenever you wrong God.
BUT, if you only forgive some people some of the time, then God will only forgive you sometimes. ANd if God doesn’t forgive you for all your sins, only some of them, then you will not be able to go to Heaven. You need all your sins forgiven all the time. And this means that you will need to forgive everyone who wrongs you all of the time. It is a big deal.
Question Time!
What is the hardest thing that you have ever had to forgive so far in your life?
What is something that someone might do in the future that you think might be really hard to forgive? Why?
Why does God think forgiving others is so important?
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