The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Mark S. Roberti, Director of Stewardship
Heartland
Parishes of
The question is: “How are we saved?” Catholics contend that it is by grace working through a living faith. Our separated brothers and sisters fully agree that grace saves us, but only after we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior by professing with our lips and believing in our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord. Moreover, once this proclamation is made, a true Christian can never do anything to lose his/her salvation. We are saved. We didn’t earn our salvation, Christ did. We are in Christ, we can’t lose it. Since Catholics don’t believe this Protestant doctrine some Christians reason we, too, are among the lost.
Let’s look at the “Parable of the Unforgiving Servant” in Matthew 18-21-25 to see what Jesus, through scripture, really teaches.
A servant was brought to the king who owed him ten thousand talents. In Old Testament language, that implies a debt so huge that it could never be paid back. So the king ordered that he be sold along with his wife, children, and all that he had, and that payment be made to the king.
The servant fell to his knees and implored the king to give him some time until he figured out a way to pay him back. Out of pity, the king had him released and also pardoned him from his debt.
But that same servant, when released, came upon a fellow servant who owed him one-hundred denarii. That was equivalent to one-hundred days’ wages, a very payable debt. The first servant throttled the second servant demanding payment. When the second servant begged for time to pay the debt he was shown no mercy by the unforgiving servant. He was thrown into prison until he should pay the entire debt.
When the king found out, he summoned the original servant saying he had forgiven him his debt, shouldn’t that servant also have forgiven the other servant? In anger, the king had him thrown in jail until he should pay all of his debt.
The parable concludes by Jesus saying, “So also, my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Let’s analyze this. The first servant is like the Christian who feels his salvation is assured. But his actions (his lack of forgiveness after he, himself, had been forgiven) result in his re-condemnation. His debt is reinstituted. He is thrown into prison until his debt should be fully paid.
Can you see the analogy? Jesus is our King. We owe him a debt we could never repay. When Adam [man] sinned, he offended God, an infinite being. Therefore, the sin is infinite. We finite human beings can never atone for an infinite debt. Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection covers out debt.
The second servant represents our fellow man. He owes us a much smaller debt. Yet Jesus will, likewise, throw us into prison until the debt is fully paid if we don’t forgive him from our heart. Forgiveness is a work of mercy. It is an act. It is something we do.
The unforgiving servant was given his freedom (salvation) gratuitously, as a merciful act of God. But when he does not show mercy himself, he loses that freedom, salvation. He is thrown into prison until the debt is paid in full. Now, how is he going to pay that debt when he is in prison?
The point here is that Jesus, himself, makes it pretty clear in this article that more is necessary than a simple profession of faith and believing in one’s heart. We need to do more than just talk the talk, we need to walk the walk.
In fact, in the Bible, the only place where we say the phrase “saved by faith alone” is in the Epistle of St. James 2:24 where it says, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24)
No, we can’t earn our own salvation, but we can blow it, just like the unforgiving servant did. To Catholics, faith incorporates baptism, believing in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, forgiveness, hope, endurance, perseverance, etc. It’s through grace, and in a living faith, that we are saved.
That’s why Catholic stewardship is so important!