Putting it into Perspective

This morning I read Matthew 18 and when I came to the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant the numbers in the text must have appealed to my geek side and I instinctively wanted to convert them into understandable units.

But first of all, a brief summary of the parable – Master collects debts; Servant owes 10,000 talents, but cannot pay; Master shows pity and relieves him of his debt; Servant, now free, see his own debtor and demands repayment of 100 denarii; Master gets wind of this and destroys Servant.

The footnotes in my ESV Battlezone Bible say that a talent is approximately 20 years’ salary and a denarius is approximately a day’s wages for a laborer.

So, in terms of yearly wages.. the servant owed 200,000 years worth of his salary. His buddy owed him 0.247 years.

But lets put a dollar value to that... a union laborer earns roughly $25/hr:

A day’s wages = $25/hr × 8 hrs/day (OT = 0) = $200/day

Annual Salary = $200/day × 5 days/week × 52 weeks/year = $52,000

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10,000 talents = 10,000 × (20 years salary/talent) × ($52,000/year) = $10,400,000,000

100 denarii = 100 × ($200/day) = $20,000

So back to the parable:

(We’re talking about forgiveness by the way.) Jesus says that this master (aka God) has forgiven us of this incredible debt; 200,000 years of work is impossible, even in Noah-years. Which makes sense because even the “smallest” sin, committed once, creates an infinite chasm between us and an infinitely perfect God. Also, I couldn’t help but laugh when my TI-30X displayed 1.04 × 10¹⁰. That’s $10.4 billion and roughly half of what it cost the US Government to bail out the auto industry in 2008.

So while the servant was relieved of this enormous debt, he still couldn’t drop the IOU that he had against his friend. In comparison, 100 denarii is 0.00019% of 10,000 talents. A little ridiculous. And so, it is also ridiculous for us, who have received this infinitely amazing gift of Grace, to not forgive the people who have wronged us. There is no debt on this earth that can amount to the scale of the debt that we owed. Perhaps if we would realize this, we would be able to let go of the petty (by comparison) grudges that we sometimes hold. Grace is truly Amazing.

(I’ve attached the ESV text so you don’t have to search it. Also, everyone likes Legos, so I’ll include the Lego version too - taken from www.thebricktestament.com)

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

(Matthew 18:21-34)

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. 23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”