Unforgiving

James Cathcart October 29, 2026 3 1

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Matthew 18: 21–35 (NIV-UK)

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’

22 Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23 ‘Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 ‘At this the servant fell on his knees before him. “Be patient with me,” he begged, “and I will pay back everything.” 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.

28 ‘But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. “Pay back what you owe me!” he demanded.

29 ‘His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, “Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.”

30 ‘But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 ‘Then the master called the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 ‘This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’

The Bible is not a book. It’s a place. And it’s not always a comfortable place to be. 

Peter asks about forgiveness, just how much is he expected to forgive?

Jesus doesn’t get into systematic theology or morality or ethics.

He tells a story. One painted in broad colourful brushstrokes.

A story about a piece of work who despite having all his debt written off, immediately punches downwards at someone who in turn owes him a fraction of the amount.

This story underlines how circumstances, privileges and good fortune do not necessarily make us kind and compassionate people. It’s about the insidiousness of hypocrisy. It’s about accepting mercy and dishing out pain. It’s about taking out our frustrations on those we see as below us.

This story is not telling us that God is a literal despot, a capricious king who tortures people who don’t live up to his standards. There are no actual bags of gold. Or prisoners. Or torturers.

Meeting Jesus in the New Testament, God-with-us come to love us and lead us, quickly shreds the notion that the king in this story is a straight 1 for 1 stand-in for God.

This is a story fundamentally about how we treat other people — especially those who are at our mercy. Jesus wants us to know God takes hypocrisy and cruelty to the vulnerable very seriously. 

Grace is not forced upon us, it wouldn’t be grace if it was. We are free to be unforgiving. We can make life transactional. We can be petty and lord it over others. If we continually do so we will step out of the cycle of grace. We will make for ourselves a poor version of God.

God loves us. All of us. Each of us. This is the heart of the gospel. If we want to belong with God and accept his grace that means accepting his grace for humanity, for all of us. If we can’t accept that grace, if we are determined to treat other people as objects not people worthy of dignity and respect then we can’t truly belong with God. This is not a story about being morally perfect. It’s a story about living a life that comes to accept what forgiveness really is and what it means. And that how you treat ‘the least of these’ matters.

Prayer:

Dear God,

Help us daily 

to learn to forgive

and forgive

and forgive.

Amen.