Matthew 18:23-34
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talentsg was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.h He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt….“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
Sometimes I think of myself as a Pharisee in the way I act. By the grace of God, I was saved when I was 18 and have had a rocky walk with the Lord because I was always caught up by trying to live and not living for God. Oftentimes when difficult people came my way, I would judge them and mock them without thinking once that I’m just as difficult as them but saved by God’s grace alone. This is a reality I live with today as much as back then when Jesus related this parable 2,000 years ago. The reality that once we know we have the assurance of salvation and God’s renewed mercy every morning, we tend to slip back into our old ways and become Pharisees in our self righteousness and ways.
I hope I’m an exception and you feel like I’m weird but in reality, this is what the Lord has spoken and reminded us of. He wants us to remember that we are not special because of anything we did, because of the holy lives we lead, because of our good works and deeds, because of our charitable giving or hospitality, but that we are mere sinners saved by grace like the 1st servant in the passage above. And when we realize what we are and what God has done for us, we will change our attitude to difficult people and situations because we will then realize that these people are as special to the Lord as us. It sounds like me preaching but this reminder is loud in my head and I hope in yours too?
In His Loving Service,
Vineet
PS: Sorry for the break I took yesterday. It was my daughter’s 2nd birthday and I got busy with chores 😦
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