Only God can pardon sin, (Luke 5:21) and we are told in Colossians 3:13 to, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” But what if the biggest culprit is yourself? What if guilt, shame, invalidation, and fear has piled the offenses up against yourself so high you can’t see anyway of forgiving yourself? In Matthew 18:21-35 we read the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, where the king wanted to settle his accounts. He called in a servant who owed him 10,000 talents (millions of dollars in today’s market) and asked for payment. The servant begged for time and instead the king took pity on him and forgave the entire debt. That servant then went out and found a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii (a few dollars by today’s standards) and demanded payment. This servant also begged for time, but the man refused to listen and had him thrown into prison. When the king heard what had happened, he called the servant in and asked him, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” (Matthew 18:33) We are that servant who received the gracious and merciful gift of a cancelled debt from our King. In turn, we must then implement the same clemency and compassion to others…and that includes ourselves.
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