Back to Church Matthew 18:21-35 There are a few elements of the parable that we just read which would

be immediately evident to a first-century Jewish audience. Firstly, the King in the story is a Gentile King1. We know this: because of the vast amount of money involved there simply wasnt that much money in the whole of Israel; because the servant kneels before the King in a worshipful pose, something unthinkable for a Jew; because Jewish law prohibited a wife and family from being sold into slavery and; because in Jewish law a person could not be tortured for debt. So Jesus the Rabbi, speaking to a crowd of Israelites, tells this story about a foreign King and his servant. This was not a servant who washed the royal sheets. The context of the story makes it clear that this is a senior members of a staff more like a public servant than a chambermaid. The servant hasnt borrowed money from the King to go and have a holiday in Lebanon and buy a flash new camel. Rather, hes made a promise to the King that he can collect a huge amount of money in taxes and rents and levies. And he hasnt delivered. And what a promise! Ten thousand talents is an absurd amount of money. A talent was the largest monetary unit equal to the fifteen years wages for a manual labourer 6000 drachmas. Ten thousand in greek (myrias), the root of myriad was the largest known number in the first century. You couldnt actually count higher than ten thousand. If you do the calculation in todays money you end up with the equivalent of five billion dollars. But the figure of ten thousand talents is simply meant to signify a massive quantity, which clearly no individual could ever hope to repay. The King, unexpectedly, responds to this situation with mercy. Its not such a big deal financially the King hasnt lost the money, the servant simply hasnt delivered on his promise. But in terms of the Kings standing and his position in the hierarchy of the Kingdom, hes taking a heck of a risk. But Kings can and do show benevolence occasionally, and it can actually strengthen their position if people have a slim hope of receiving mercy.

Boring, E; New Interpreters Bible Commentary Volume 8

The servant, freshly released the certainty of going to prison, heads outside and sees a bloke who owes him one hundred denarii. This is not a pocket-change either. In todays money it would be about ten thousand dollars. Its not unheard of that one might lend ten grand to a friend, but its a significant commitment. But the servant violently grabs hold of his debtor and throws him into prison until he can pay the debt. This, of course, is a really dumb thing to do. The servant with the debt was presumably going to pay it off its a reasonable figure. But you dont make money while sitting in a cell. The King calls back the first servant and asks him Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you. And so ends the parable. But the parable as it appears in the gospel of Matthew is like a coin with two sides so its important to distinguish between its two different contexts. When the story was first told by Jesus in around the year 30, it was a story about a merciful foreign king and a clueless servant. The social commentary and politics of the story are blatant. The Kingdom of Heaven is like this: a Gentile King who is generous and merciful, a subordinate who is a violent and thoughtless. Its a jab at the Roman Emperor who would have you locked up and tortured for the slightest failing. Its a jab at Herod whos collaborated with the Romans to great benefit, but has no qualms about exploiting his fellow Israelites. It was about forgiveness, certainly, but also about the use of power and the distribution of wealth. Theres no clear, simplistic moral to be had the listener is simply invited to contrast the King with Caesar, the Servant with Herod, and the Kingdom of Heaven with the Empire of Caesar, or indeed the nation of Israel. Jump forward fifty or sixty years in time to (probably) Antioch, in Turkey. Theres an unknown scribe whos writing a masterpiece for the Christ-followers there. Hes got the gospel of Mark in front of him (or her), and probably another lost set of writings that we call Q. Theres also an oral tradition stories which have been passed down primarily from mouth to mouth and this parable would seem to be one of them. We refer to it as special Matthew because its not found in any of the other gospels. This context is rather different. Churches have been around for a while, Paul is dead, Peter is dead, James is dead and the Temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed. Naturally, there are some tensions
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amongst the church and the author of the Gospel of Matthew needs to address them. Thats why we have these sections about conflict and forgiveness within the church. The author takes the popular story and adds some editorial comment the King who was initially merciful, transforms into a King who changes his mind in the face of a servant who is unforgiving and sends off to be tortured forever. And these harsh words are added: This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you, unless you forgive your brother from the heart. Its a polemic about the holding of grudges, and tough warning to the church that they mustnt get caught up with bitterness about the way others had let them down. After all, their sin has been forgiven by God, why should they not forgive others? I reckon that these two sides of the coin are relevant to us as well. They force us to ask What is the Kingdom of God for? and What is the Church for? So lets look at each of those two questions. What is the Kingdom of God for? We know its not just a shorthand for some place called heaven, where we float around on the clouds playing a harp. Its what the world should be like now, and what the world will be like when Christ returns. Its the standard against which we judge our beliefs and behavior, its the ideal for which we constantly strive. So, for example, when we remember those terrifying events of ten years ago today, we know that violence and hatred which led to those attacks in the United States have no place in the Kingdom of God. Yet we also recognise that rich, powerful, exploitative empires with vast military capability and global dominance also are not what the Kingdom of God is about. In the freedom of God, if we are to believe the parable, there is liberty, there is mercy, there is justice for all. Then what is the church for? We may like our local church because our friends are there, or theres a nice building or a stunningly handsome priest or because we find comfort or we have nostalgia about a bygone era. Theyre are all nice things but theyre not what the church is for. The author of Matthews gospel makes a big fuss about how we treat one another within the church, because the church is supposed to be a living sign, a visible witness, a beacon of the Kingdom of God. The church exists to point towards God and Gods kingdom.That means we dont sit around waiting for God to fix things we get to
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work doing compassion, being generous, acting justly, forgiving wastefully. On this Back to Church Sunday, when some of you are guests popping back in after some time away, and many of you have invited people to gather with us we are reminded by the scriptures that church is not merely a weekly dose of religion. The church is that movement of people who are trying, and sometimes failing, to proclaim good news, to work for justice, to respond to human need by service and to invite others to share in the work. We do this work because God forgives us. Were set free to do this work because we can forgive others. And we have hope because we have glimpsed a future of jubilee where the debt-burden of malice and hatred, hurtfulness and despair have been wiped out by a victorious and infinitely loving King. The Lord be with you And Also With You

The Reverend Chris Bedding is an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Perth, Western Australia. He is also an actor, director, musician and comedian. His passions are ministry amongst people in the first third of life, dynamic liturgy and advocacy for the oppressed. twitter.com/frchrisbedding facebook.com/frchrisbedding Email: rector.darlington@live.com.au