Mathew 18:21-35
Today in the Gospel, we notice that Jesus tells us a parable about a king and one of his officials. The official owes the king a huge amount of money that he could never repay. He falls to his knees and asks for more time. But the king does something unexpected: he cancels the whole debt. The king shows him extraordinary generosity and mercy. The official walks away free, given a completely new beginning. But then he meets another servant who owes him a much smaller amount. The man also begs for more time, but the official refuses to show him mercy. He has received great mercy, but he cannot give even a little mercy to someone else.
After seeing the cruel behaviour of the official, we come to the difficult part of the parable: the king’s justice. The king deals harshly with the official at the end. We may wonder: just before this, the same king was so merciful to the official, and now he is so harsh with him. Was the mercy the king showed him not real? No. His mercy was real. He truly cancelled the official’s enormous debt. But the official did not allow that mercy to change his heart.
This is where God’s justice comes in. God is merciful, but God is also just. His justice takes seriously how we respond to the mercy we have received. We cannot sincerely say, “God, forgive me,” while at the same time saying, “I will never forgive that person.” If we receive God’s mercy but refuse to show mercy to others, we are refusing to live by the mercy we have received. In the end, God will look not only at the mercy we have received, but also at how that mercy has changed the way we treat others.
So let us ask ourselves a simple question: What am I doing with the mercy God has given me? When someone hurts me, can I stop thinking about it again and again? Can I say, “What happened was wrong, but I don’t want this anger to control my life”?
Friends, maybe we cannot forgive everything at once. Maybe we need to bring our hurt to God again and again. But we can make a start. We can choose not to keep the anger alive in our hearts. The king set the official free from a debt he could never repay. Jesus asks us to share that same mercy with others. God’s mercy is not meant to stop with us; it is meant to reach the people around us. May God’s mercy change our hearts, help us to forgive, and give us the freedom to live in peace. Amen.