The cost of unforgiveness

And his lord was wroth,
and delivered him to the tormentors,
till he should pay all that was due unto him.

By one estimate, it would have taken the servant in today’s Gospel (Matthew 18:21-35) over TWENTY-SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS to pay off the debt he owed to his lord: a debt reinstated because of the servant’s refusal to forgive another servant’s debt that could have been paid back in a hundred days.

The cost of his unforgiveness was high indeed.

But one of the most disturbing things about today’s Gospel is that the first servant’s enormous debt is insignificant in comparison to the debt we owe to God: God, whose infinite and beautiful love we trash by our sin; God, who gave us our very lives; God, whose Son died on the cross for us.

No, not in 27 times 27 thousand years could we repay God. And yet, by the unearned gift of his love and grace, we are freed from the eternal debt of sin through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But if we fail to let God’s gift of forgiveness flow through us, if we fail to be forgiving of those around us and those with whom we are estranged, then we risk the death of God’s love and grace within us.

And his lord was wroth,
and delivered him to the tormentors,
till he should pay all that was due unto him.

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you,
if ye from your hearts
forgive not every one his brother
their trespasses.

The cost of unforgiveness is too high.

You and I must let God’s forgiveness flow.

For our own sakes, you and I desperately need to be faithful conduits of the infinite love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.