The Servant Who was Shown Compassion

but Didn’t Pay it Forward: Matthew 18:21-35

by Rev. Norman Prenger

Statement For Same-Sex Marriage

What follows is a moral interpretation of five key parables of Christ. Not that the Nazarene’s parables boil down to Victorian morality plays or Aesop’s fables but the parables were his way of revealing key values which anchor how we are to live in light of the coming kingdom of God. They are ingenious analogies, at once hiding their truths from the smug and self-righteous yet revealing them for those humble enough to trust his path into a new gracious age.

The first of these five parables, the story of a slave who didn’t pay it forward is often labeled as a lesson about the importance of forgiveness. While it is a response to Peter’s request concerning the limits of forgiveness (how many instances of it are required), our Teacher goes beyond the legal question to reveal the essential moral force compelling forgiveness. The story tells us that forgiveness is the leaf that buds from the living stem of compassion.

In our human preoccupation with debt tallies and forensics, Christ begins his lesson with an imaginary situation of a king holding a legal lien on a slave which is due to be paid in full. The initial tension which knots this dilemma – the king/slave relationship, the enormity of the debt, a judgement day for settling all accounts, the inability of the slave and his family to pay — is a masterful way of drawing listeners into story in order to vicariously experience all the textures involved in actual forgiveness. How is the debt “settled” and a listener’s tension relieved? Ordinarily, a debt is settled through payment in kind and in full. But Christ shows us another way.

The king is owed 10 thousand talents and he expects it to be paid by his slave. It was common for slaves to be considered indentured business enterprises, with profits to be passed on to the owner. In case of insolvency, all the slave has is forfeit, including his wife and children, his possessions and his own person sold off to recoup the debt. It is not spelled out as such but the story seems to imply the slave is at fault for not meeting the deadline for payment even though that the king’s demand to settle the account is reasonable. Evidence for this is how the slave requests “patience”.

What opens a new door in this story is not forgiveness nor full payment but a deep empathy which springs up in the heart of the king. He is so deeply moved by the slave’s helpless posture and precarious situation that he steps beyond his royal rights. The Greek word used to describe what the king is feeling as Jesus told this story is σπλαγχνισθεὶς, a word which invites the listener to feel what the king was feeling — a kind of sympathy felt deep in the gut often accompanied by a facial grimace or trembling of the lips.

There is a telescoping of empathy here where the listener is drawn by empathy for a king who is drawn by empathy for the suffering of the slave. Sharing the slave’s pain, acknowledging the horror of the slave’s desperate situation, and then moving to alleviate the empathized pain is what defines compassion.

That same vivid word σπλαγχνισθεὶς, translated as “compassion”, is a word used many times in the synoptic gospels to describe Jesus as he encountered injustice and suffering. It describes him just as he is about to help people, even if they are at fault for their suffering. Compassion, exemplified in Jesus’s ministry and his parables, is the ability to show mercy, acknowledge pain, deeply moved in the heart, to come alongside the sufferer and help.

The slave pleaded for patience but the king stepped beyond his royal rights and showed so much more than granting the slave an extension of time. Patience is not the same thing as compassion and does nothing to relieve a slave from his debt burden.

Unfortunately, the slave did not pay this kindness forward. When it comes to debts owed by another, a mere pittance compared to what he once owed to the king, the slave shows no compassion whatsoever. He shows no patience, though the debtor pleads for it. He is not moved by the prone and helpless posture of his fellow slave, even though he recently found himself in the very same position. He doesn’t permit any excuses and insists he is entitled to payment. He is willing to heap torture on his fellow slave, seizing him, choking him, shackling him till every penny owed and paid back.

Once again, the Teacher invites his listener to empathize with the pain of another, this time (in the chiastic form of the parable) despite a slave’s own inability to show pity as he tortures another.

The parable concludes with another relay of telescoped feelings. The incarcerated plight of the second slave is deeply felt (ἐλυπήθησαν σφόδρα) by fellow slaves and his suffering is passed on to the king. The king is deeply offended (ὀργισθεὶς) that his pity was not paid forward (ἐλεῆσαι … ὡς … ἠλέησα) so he has the first slave incarcerated. By implication this type of immorality is passed on to our Heavenly Father for final judgement with the warning to the listener he or she will face the same unless compassion moves the listener to forgive “from the heart.”

The parable’s final words make clear that the only way forgiveness passes divine muster is the crucial gate of compassion. Superficial and hypocritical kinds of forgiveness are unacceptable, and the parable demonstrates why.

This is Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question as to how forgiveness is to be practiced. It’s not quantity that produces a righteous form of forgiveness but the quality of that forgiveness. It must be marked by genuine compassion, from the heart.

In my conversations with brothers and sisters, I have noticed a dangerous lack of compassion concerning the plight of homosexuals in our communion. We are merciless in our judgements even though most homosexuals, just like heterosexuals, did not decide on their sexual attraction.

We are without empathy for them, never learning about what their challenges are and what the obstacles to their happiness lie. We don’t come alongside the homosexual such that we step over our lines of complacency to show real interest in their situation. Most importantly, we do not demonstrate a willingness to help, which is the hallmark of compassion. At best, we hide behind pleadings for “patience” or “clarity”, the slavish counterfeits for love.

Judging by this parable, compassion is the moral choice that overrides legal considerations. What is inferred in the teaching is that Christ’s followers will always have the resources to choose it because we have experienced our own forgiven debts and because we have seen it exemplified by the crucified King.

It is the royal path in kingdom living.

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RESPONSE

The church must certainly show compassion toward those who deal with same-sex attraction. The Christian message is one of patience, mercy, caring, and long-suffering. This has long been manifested e.g., by a number of hospitals that have been founded by churches. There are accounts of parents kicking their teenage son out of the home because he is same-sex attracted. How can that be a good thing to do? The current report to the CRC Synod of 2021 has a good number of references to the compassion Christians must show. In keeping a balance, the church must also know what God’s will is with respect to acts that people commit.

The purpose of these webpages, and this paper as well, is to determine if same-sex erotic acts are in some cases pleasing to God. In striving to determine whether an act is moral or immoral, how can it be beneficial to turn to peoples’ reactions to that act? I dare say it is true that some in the church respond to those attracted to members of the same sex the wrong way. Some respond in a very wrong way. But what light does that shed on same-sex erotic acts? It is not possible for the matter of compassion to ultimately shed light on the question of whether or not the Bible prohibits all same-sex erotic acts.

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