EU•AN•GE•LION (YOO-AN-GEL-EE-ON) · εὐαγγέλιον — Good News
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EU•AN•GE•LION (YOO-AN-GEL-EE-ON) · εὐαγγέλιον — Good News
Five days, one parable and one prayer: a count, a debt, a hand at a throat, five things forgiveness is not, and two open hands. Day 6 gathers them, hands back one word and one practice from each, and says plainly what the week did not claim.
Matthew 18:32-33; Deuteronomy 15:1-2; Matthew 6:12; Colossians 2:14; Genesis 50:20
Opening
Then the master summoned him and declared, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’
Matthew 18:32-33 (BSB)
The king calls the servant back and asks him one question. It is the question the whole week has been walking toward.
The week took five days to walk through its passages. Today it can be said in one verse. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?
There are two halves. The first is a fact: you have had mercy. The second is a question: what will you do with it? Between them are two debts and two servants.
If you remember nothing else, remember the order. We were forgiven first, and then we are asked to forgive. The mercy comes before the command.
The rest is practice. We learn it by doing it daily, with open hands, and we are allowed to be slow. If you are in danger, safety comes first. In the United States, call 911, or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1 800 799 7233 (text START to 88788), or 988 in a crisis.
REFLECT
Do this today: write Matthew 18:33 on a card and put it where you will see it this week. Underneath, write two lists. On the left, one debt God forgave you. On the right, one debt you are releasing or learning to release.
A Short Prayer
Lord, thank You for the debt You forgave, and for what it cost You. Teach me to let go of what I am owed, without pretending it was nothing. Keep me safe where I need to be safe. Amen.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS
The Five Days
Day one: Seven Times? Peter asked how often to forgive and offered seven. Jesus answered with a number that cannot be kept, and the Greek of it matches Lamech’s number in Genesis. We named what the word forgive means in this week and what it does not. Corrie ten Boom burned a drawer of old letters. Last week a goat carried a nation’s guilt out into the wilderness, and this week asked what we do with what others owe us.
Day two: Ten Thousand Talents. The first man in the story owes a sum that could not be paid in a thousand lifetimes. The king, moved with compassion, released him and forgave the loan, and took the loss himself. The law of the seventh year and Psalm 103 said the same of God. A charity that mails strangers a letter saying a debt is gone gave us a picture, with its limits.
Day three: The Hundred Denarii. The forgiven servant found a man who owed him a hundred days of wages, and would not let him go. The king asked his question. Paul wrote that God wiped out the note that stood against us and nailed it to the cross, and Isaiah said the Lord laid on the Servant the iniquity of us all. The cost fell on Jesus so that mercy could reach us. A man who hated for fifty years wrote a letter.
Day four: What Forgiveness Is Not. It is not approval. It is not pretending the hurt was small. It is not forgetting, and it does not remove consequences. It does not hand back trust at once. Joseph named the harm, tested his brothers, and left the judging to God. A father waited five years before he walked into a prison visiting room. The first step for anyone in danger is safety.
Day five: Open Hands. The Lord’s Prayer puts bread and debts in one sentence, and asks for both every day. Churches read the little word “as” in different ways, and agree that God’s mercy is the source of ours. Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation, and forgiving others begins with taking that in. A mother in Pennsylvania visited a girl her son harmed.
Where the Week Sits in the Story
We spent the week in the MINISTRY of Jesus, in a parable about the kingdom of heaven and in the prayer he taught on the mountain. The center of the week reached ahead to the PASSION, to the cross where the debt note was fixed.
Two stories from earlier in the Bible ran under it. Genesis showed a man whose answer to harm was a boast of revenge, and a later brother, Joseph, who was sold and who spared his brothers. The law of the seventh year showed a nation told to release debts because it had once been released.
The same verb ran through all of it. Peter used it, the king used it, and the prayer uses it. To forgive, in that word, is to let go.
One Word for Each Day
The week used a lot of Greek and some Hebrew. You do not need to keep all of it. Keep one word for each day.
Day one is aphiemi, to let go. Day two is opheilema, a debt. Day three is cheirographon, the note in a debtor’s own hand. Day four is ekdikesis, vengeance, and chashav, the Hebrew verb Joseph used twice, you planned and God planned. Day five is charizomai, to give freely, built on grace. And today’s is aphesis, a release.
The other words are in the notes on each day’s page.
What Each Day Left You
Each day also left you something to do. None of it expires when the week does.
On the first day it was a breath prayer: You forgave me first, I will stop counting. On the second you wrote what you were released from. On the third you held a small object in a closed hand and then opened it. On the fourth you learned Romans 12:18, if it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone. On the fifth you traced your own hand and wrote a name inside it.
Keep whichever one you will still be doing in a month. The prayer in Matthew 6 will do.
What This Week Did Not Claim
This week left several claims out on purpose.
The Greek of Matthew 18:22 can be read as seventy-seven or as seventy times seven. Careful readers have chosen each. The echo of Lamech is one that many readers hear, and nobody can prove it was intended.
The teaching that counts to three is recorded in the Talmud long after Peter, and we cannot say he knew it. The arithmetic of the talents is ours. We do not know what the friends in Corrie ten Boom’s story had done, or that they ever took her forgiveness.
Scholars differ on whether the seventh-year release cancelled a debt or suspended collecting. Paul’s words in Romans 12:19 do not match the Hebrew or the Greek Old Testament word for word. The coals of fire have been read three ways. The Bible does not say why Joseph tested his brothers.
Churches differ on how our forgiving relates to God’s, and the week gave the range and did not choose. Some of the oldest manuscripts leave out Father, forgive them in Luke 23:34, and most have it.
We told the stories as far as the sources go. We did not say that anyone forgives instantly and without struggle. Forgiveness does not require that a person stay near someone who is hurting them.
Today’s Commitment
I will remember what I was forgiven before I ask what I am owed, and I will pray for forgiveness daily, for myself and for the person I am holding.
LEAVING AT THE CROSS
RECEIVING FROM THE CROSS
REFLECT
What is one thing this week changed, or left as it was?
Sources & Further Study
RELATED SCRIPTURES
Matthew 18:21-35
Peter’s question and the parable of the unforgiving servant.
Matthew 6:9-15
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Genesis 4:23-24
Lamech seventy-sevenfold.
Deuteronomy 15:1-15
The seventh-year release.
Psalm 103:8-12
As far as the east is from the west.
Colossians 2:13-15
He took it away, nailing it to the cross.
Isaiah 53:4-6
The LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
Genesis 50:15-21
Am I in the place of God?
Romans 12:17-21
Do not be overcome by evil.
Ephesians 4:31-32
Forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
Romans 8:1
There is now no condemnation.
FOR DEEPER STUDY
Further Your Learning. A passage trail to read in order: Genesis 4; Genesis 42 to 45; Genesis 50:15 to 21; Deuteronomy 15; Nehemiah 5; Psalm 32; Psalm 103; Psalm 130; Isaiah 53; Micah 7:18 to 20; Matthew 5:21 to 26; Matthew 6:5 to 15; Matthew 18:15 to 35; Luke 7:36 to 50; Luke 17:1 to 4; Luke 23:32 to 34; Acts 7:54 to 60; Romans 8:1 to 4; Romans 12:9 to 21; Ephesians 4:25 to 32; Colossians 2:13 to 15; Colossians 3:12 to 17. A guided read: read Matthew 18:21 to 35 three times on three days. The first time, follow the king only: what he asks and what he does. The second time, follow the servant: what he asks for, what he gets, what he does next. The third time, follow the fellow servant and the other servants, and notice who sees. Videos, all from official channels: BibleProject, “Jesus Said 2,000 Words That Changed Human History”; BibleProject, “SABBATH: Learn Why the Number 7 Is Used So Much in the Bible”; Gospel in Life, “Forgiving and Forgiven” (Timothy Keller); Gospel in Life, “Reconciliation” (Timothy Keller); BibleProject, “We Break Down the Lord’s Prayer Verse By Verse”; BibleProject, “Why The Sabbath Is One Of The Most Important Practices In Human History”; BibleProject Podcast, “What Forgiveness Means to Jesus.” Free books to read online. At the Christian Classics Ethereal Library: Augustine, Sermon 33 on Matthew 18:21 (in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, volume 6); Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, Homily 61 (series 1, volume 10); Cyprian, On the Lord’s Prayer (Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 5); Tertullian, On Prayer; Calvin’s Commentaries on Romans and on Genesis, and his Institutes, 3.20.45. At bookofconcord.org: Luther’s Large Catechism, the Fifth Petition. At sefaria.org: Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 86b and 87a. The words of the week, each with its plain meaning. From the Greek of the New Testament: aphiemi, to send away, let go, forgive. Aphesis, a release. Apoluo, to release. Opheilema and opheiletes, a debt and a debtor. Daneion, a loan. Splagchnizomai, to be moved with compassion. Cheirographon, a note in a debtor’s hand. Exaleipho, to wipe out. Basanistes, a jailer who tortured prisoners. Ekdikesis, vengeance. Charizomai, to give freely. Katakrima, a sentence of condemnation. From the Hebrew of the Old Testament: shemittah, a release. Nasa, to lift, carry, forgive. Salach, to forgive, of God only. Chashav, to plan or reckon. Naqam, vengeance. Avar al, to pass over. More notes on care. The Josephus figures for the revenues of the lands of Herod’s sons differ between two of his books, and the week used only the one for Galilee and Perea. The statistics in the stories are as the sources give them, and the sources are named at the foot of the day on which each appears. If you are in danger, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1 800 799 7233, or text START to 88788. For a crisis, call or text 988. In immediate danger, call 911. These are United States numbers. The full source notes for each quotation and story are at the foot of the day on which it appears.
Finished reading? Mark this day read.
BEFORE YOU GO
Anything you want to keep from today?
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