In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus teaches the disciples about forgiveness with the parable of the unforgiving servant.  He tells of a man who owes ten thousand talents to his King. A debt he cannot pay. The footnote in the Passion Translation says:

“ …an unbelievable amount of money. A talent could be compared to the wages earned over decades.” 

This man, this servant, owed the equivalent of millions or even billions of dollars.  The King calls the man into his court to collect the debt and his servant pleads for mercy.  Amazingly, the King forgives this incredible debt. The man is free! He has been blessed by the mercy of his King.

But he does not receive this blessing with humility.  The servant’s next move shows us his unforgiving heart:

“No sooner had the servant left when he met one of his fellow servants, who owed him twenty thousand dollars He seized him by the throat and began to choke him, saying, ‘You’d better pay me right now everything you owe me!’ – Matt 18:28

Why does he act this way?  Perhaps this servant thinks he deserves his forgiveness.  He has been keeping account of his own life and by his records, he is worthy.   Of course the King forgave him; he’s the wisest advisor, the most clever scribe.  Jesus begins the parable telling us of the astounding debt this man finds himself in so we know that the servant cannot be an accurate or careful book keeper.  But the servant is confident in his faulty records. When the King forgave his debt, the servant assumed that was because he deserved it. His heart did not receive forgiveness as a precious gift.

The servant did not earn this forgiveness.  In fact, everything we know about him shows that he is absolutely unworthy of it.  He is foolish, cruel and selfish. Jesus tells us why the King granted this freedom from debt.  The King was moved by compassion. It was the abounding grace of a loving and good King!

Like the King in this parable, God has forgiven each of us through Christ Jesus, as an amazing act of grace.  Jesus ends this parable with these sobering words:  

“ Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’  And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,[a] until he should pay all his debt.  So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”


We have to forgive from the heart.  To truly mean it from the core of our being.  We can’t simply say the words or even act the part convincingly.  It has to be genuine.

Like the unforgiving servant we did not earn the forgiveness of our King.  Like the unforgiving servant, apart from God we are vengeful and selfish. How can we possibly forgive from our disfigured and broken hearts?  We can’t. But if we give our lives to Jesus all things once impossible become possible.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us.” 

Practically, this is how we must begin to forgive.  With honesty before God. Giving him our hearts and our lives as we actually are.  Honestly laying our wounds and grudges before him.
Honestly confessing our hatred of those who have wronged us and our desire to hurt those who have broken us.
“God, I haven’t forgiven this person.  I’m angry. I’m furious! I wish they were dead.”   

We must then repent of this desire for revenge.  We must repent, we must agree with God, say with Him, that we are wrong.  Because God has commanded us to forgive. The Bible tells us that vengeance belongs to God alone.  We can forgive because Jesus forgave. We can forgive because He has forgiven you, He has forgiven me, and that person you hate.

Struggling to breathe, nailed to a cross with a spear wound in his side, Jesus spoke aloud forgiveness over those who were murdering him.  The powerful, generous, beautiful heart of Christ was beating and bleeding forgiveness into the world for all people and for all eternity.
That same heart of Christ is being made within us by the miracle power of the Holy Spirit.  The heart of Christ is what makes true forgiveness a reality we can experience. In Jesus, the perfect Servant and Son of God, we are being made new.  

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17