This passage is the parable of the unforgiving servant. Many people know this parable. The servant owes his master 10,000 talents, and his master forgives him his debts, then the servant turns around and strangles a guy who owes him 100 denarii. The master gets pissed because the servant who had been forgiven had been so unforgiving. It's got an easy messge to understand, we have been forgiven a lot, so we shouls forgive those who owe us less.
The lesson takes on a whole new significance, however, when we focus on the amounts owed. 1 denarii was a day's wage for a laborer, and owing someone 100 denarii was about the same as 1/3 of a year's wages. The servant was owed a lot of money. If you look at a 30,000 dollar salery, that would amount to about $10,000. There are very few people who would look at forgiving a debt of $10,000 very easily, until you look at the next number. A talent was worth about 20 years wages for a laborer, and this guy owed 10,000 talents (without interest) That's 200,000 years worth of work. Comparing that number to a $30,000 salery, the amount would be roughly $6,000,000,000. You end up comparing ten thousand dollars to six billion. Imagine having to pay a six billion dollar debt when you are making thirty thousand dollars a year, and you still have to pay your normal expenses, such as house payment, phone bill, gas, electricity, and all of the other expenses. That would put you down to pay a maximum of about 10,000 dollars a year, and you could NEVER pay off six billion in a lifetime. Comparing that to the ten thousand that the servant was owed, the ten thousand hardly seems like much at all, it's about the leftovers after bills and expenses each year.
This is the extent to which we have been forgiven for our sins by God, and the comparatively small amount is how much we have to forgive others who have sinned against us. It seems like people have wronged us in significant ways, but when we compare how much we have wronged God to how much we have been wronged, we see that nothing significant has been done to us. This passage not only talks about how we should forgive because we have been forgiven, it also talks about how much more we have been forgiven than we will ever have to forgive.
Our responsibility upon understanding how much we have been forgiven is clear. We need to forgive others, even though what they have done seems large to us.
We also need to recognize God for the sacrifice that he made to forgive us for our sins. God has forgiven us through Jesus Christ's death on the cross, and all we have to do is accept that forgiveness. If you have not accepted God's gift of forgiveness, I would beg you to do so now. Simply admit to God that you cannot pay back that debt by yourself, and thank him for paying it for you. If you understand the numbers and the concept here you have to understand that there is no way we could ever earn salvation in our lifetime, our debt is just too great, and it only continues to grow the longer you don't accept God's forgiveness. No matter how large it grows though, he will always pay for you.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Hindrances to Discipleship
Lately I've been reading a book that I got for Christmas last year. I went through the book, but I never took notes are really shared my thoughts on it, so it was a complete waste of my time. I've decided to go through all of the books that I've gone through before and this time mark them up and share my thoughts on them, via blogging and sharing with friends, so that I can actually remember the things that I get out of them.
This first book that I have started is called "True Discipleship", and this post is named after chapter three. The chapter starts off with a well-known passage of scripture, Luke 9:57-62, which talks about three would be disciples.
The first one said to Jesus, "Lord, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus's reply to him was, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to rest his head."
It seems at first like Jesus's answer didn't make any sense with what the guy was saying to him, but when you actually think about it, Jesus was telling this guy, "You're really fast to say you'll follow me, but consider the cost. I have nothing, not even a place to sleep at night. If you follow me you will have to live the same life."
The man was never heard about again in the gospels, so it can be assumed that he did not end up following Jesus. He loved his Earthly comforts too much to follow Jesus and give them up. He had a desire to follow Christ, but that desire in and of itself was not strong enough to break the bonds of the other vices in his life. It is not a sin to be comfortable, but when we put that comfort above our dedication to Jesus we are saying that Jesus is not the God that we follow. Likewise, there are people today who want to follow Jesus, but they don't want to give up on the things that give them comfort or pleasure. There are several individuals who want to be pastors, but they also don't want to give up on their individual beliefs and follow what God says is right. It is not just a matter of material comfort, but also a matter of the things that make you fit in and seem to be a part of the crowd.
The second man was a man who Jesus said, "Follow me" to. The man replied, "Lord, let me first go and bury my dead." Jesus replies to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."
The request of the man is a legitimate one, but he is putting something ahead of Christ nonetheless. Jesus's response was simply that he could leave it to somebody else to do. It could be better translated (for our understanding) as him saying, "Don't spend your time on things that the unbelievers could do just as well or better."
We can easily be sidetracked by our jobs or duties, but they cannot take precedence over Jesus and seeing the gospel spread throughout the world. A job is not a bad thing, we are even called to provide for our families as Christians, so what was wrong with the guy's response! He said that his responsibility was more important than a direct command from the Lord. He was telling Jesus that he needed to wait until this man was ready to follow him.
You see a lot of this in the world today, especially from young people who think that Christianity is a thing for when you get old and retire. They are telling God that they'll follow him when they get around to it. What they don't realize is that they can die at any moment. When they tell God they will do his work on their time they are saying that their lives are more important. These people are not worthy of the kingdom of Heaven, as we see in verse 62 "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of Heaven."
If God is truly God then he deserves our respect and he deserves for us to let him be the God of our lives. If he is not the God of our lives then we are not fit for the kingdom.
The third man was like the first, in that he said to Jesus, "Lord, I will follow you..." But he finished off the statement by saying, "but first let me go and bid them farewell who are at my house." Jesus's response was what I wrote above in verse 62, that no one is fit for the kingdom if he looks back.
This man wanted to go and say goodbye to his family, which is yet another legitimate request, but it is wrong in the exact same way as the other two were, in that he is putting other good things ahead of God. Family is good, and it is a blessing, but it is a blessing from God, and to put our family before God is to put the gift ahead of the gift-giver. There should never be any situation in which we put the gift ahead of the giver. If someone gave you the latest model of iPod, you wouldn't say "This gift is amazing, and I like it more than the person who gave it to me." You would loook at the person who gave you the gift with even more affection. So why is it that we think we can do the opposite with a creator God?
All three of these men had legitimate requests, (though the first man wanted comfort, which is the least legitimate of them, we must remember that comfort is not a bad thing, he was just looking for it in the wrong place, forgetting that we serve the God of comfort) but they put good things that God had given them ahead of God, and that is why they are not fit for the Kingdom of God.
If we truly want to be followers of Christ we will have to give up on some of the things we want in life, whether that means we will be less comfortable, we may pass up on a promotion understanding that our job is not the top priority in our life, or we may be disowned by family. Itcould even be something as simple as a mother who we don't want to upset by going overseas to do missions work in another country. No matter what our reasoning may be, we are putting something above God, and that is never ok.
This first book that I have started is called "True Discipleship", and this post is named after chapter three. The chapter starts off with a well-known passage of scripture, Luke 9:57-62, which talks about three would be disciples.
The first one said to Jesus, "Lord, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus's reply to him was, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to rest his head."
It seems at first like Jesus's answer didn't make any sense with what the guy was saying to him, but when you actually think about it, Jesus was telling this guy, "You're really fast to say you'll follow me, but consider the cost. I have nothing, not even a place to sleep at night. If you follow me you will have to live the same life."
The man was never heard about again in the gospels, so it can be assumed that he did not end up following Jesus. He loved his Earthly comforts too much to follow Jesus and give them up. He had a desire to follow Christ, but that desire in and of itself was not strong enough to break the bonds of the other vices in his life. It is not a sin to be comfortable, but when we put that comfort above our dedication to Jesus we are saying that Jesus is not the God that we follow. Likewise, there are people today who want to follow Jesus, but they don't want to give up on the things that give them comfort or pleasure. There are several individuals who want to be pastors, but they also don't want to give up on their individual beliefs and follow what God says is right. It is not just a matter of material comfort, but also a matter of the things that make you fit in and seem to be a part of the crowd.
The second man was a man who Jesus said, "Follow me" to. The man replied, "Lord, let me first go and bury my dead." Jesus replies to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."
The request of the man is a legitimate one, but he is putting something ahead of Christ nonetheless. Jesus's response was simply that he could leave it to somebody else to do. It could be better translated (for our understanding) as him saying, "Don't spend your time on things that the unbelievers could do just as well or better."
We can easily be sidetracked by our jobs or duties, but they cannot take precedence over Jesus and seeing the gospel spread throughout the world. A job is not a bad thing, we are even called to provide for our families as Christians, so what was wrong with the guy's response! He said that his responsibility was more important than a direct command from the Lord. He was telling Jesus that he needed to wait until this man was ready to follow him.
You see a lot of this in the world today, especially from young people who think that Christianity is a thing for when you get old and retire. They are telling God that they'll follow him when they get around to it. What they don't realize is that they can die at any moment. When they tell God they will do his work on their time they are saying that their lives are more important. These people are not worthy of the kingdom of Heaven, as we see in verse 62 "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of Heaven."
If God is truly God then he deserves our respect and he deserves for us to let him be the God of our lives. If he is not the God of our lives then we are not fit for the kingdom.
The third man was like the first, in that he said to Jesus, "Lord, I will follow you..." But he finished off the statement by saying, "but first let me go and bid them farewell who are at my house." Jesus's response was what I wrote above in verse 62, that no one is fit for the kingdom if he looks back.
This man wanted to go and say goodbye to his family, which is yet another legitimate request, but it is wrong in the exact same way as the other two were, in that he is putting other good things ahead of God. Family is good, and it is a blessing, but it is a blessing from God, and to put our family before God is to put the gift ahead of the gift-giver. There should never be any situation in which we put the gift ahead of the giver. If someone gave you the latest model of iPod, you wouldn't say "This gift is amazing, and I like it more than the person who gave it to me." You would loook at the person who gave you the gift with even more affection. So why is it that we think we can do the opposite with a creator God?
All three of these men had legitimate requests, (though the first man wanted comfort, which is the least legitimate of them, we must remember that comfort is not a bad thing, he was just looking for it in the wrong place, forgetting that we serve the God of comfort) but they put good things that God had given them ahead of God, and that is why they are not fit for the Kingdom of God.
If we truly want to be followers of Christ we will have to give up on some of the things we want in life, whether that means we will be less comfortable, we may pass up on a promotion understanding that our job is not the top priority in our life, or we may be disowned by family. Itcould even be something as simple as a mother who we don't want to upset by going overseas to do missions work in another country. No matter what our reasoning may be, we are putting something above God, and that is never ok.
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