Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost; Octoechos Tone 2; The Holy Hieromartyr Eutyches.
1 Corinthians 9:2-12; Matthew 18:23-35.
Read Matthew 18:23-35
Who do we want to be like? We may look up to a parent, mentor, or public figure and be inspired to imitate them. But we don’t completely copy them; we usually find something we wish were different, something we wish we could change about the person we admire.
Jesus says that “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king,” and then tells us what this king is like. He is a person who doesn’t let things slide – he reckons accounts to settle them – but he is not implacable; he is capable of pity and forgiveness.
The key feature of this parable is how visceral everyone’s experience is. The servant “implores” the king. The king has “pity” for him. The servant encounters his fellow servant, “seizing him by the throat” and the fellow servant “besought” him. Their fellow servants are “greatly distressed.” The king is “in anger.” Jesus’s summary of the parable says to “forgive your brother from the heart.”
Our salvation relationship with God is not transactional. It is not a trade. This parable does not present our forgiveness of others as our part in a transaction for which God then forgives us. God’s forgiveness of us comes first and is based on his heart, here represented by “pity”. Our forgiveness of others is to come from our hearts also. That is not a transaction, that is a relationship of imitation.
So, the question left for us who aspire to the kingdom of heaven is, is it a place we would like? Do we want to be like this king or not? Will we imitate him from our hearts? And if not, why not? If we find ourselves reluctant to forgive another, is it because we are wishing, and then imagining, that God is not like this?