When you choose to take a second look

What jumps out to me in the reading today is what appears to be a bit of a contradiction. I feel like I should preface this with the admission that in my lack of experience with studying the bible this may very well not be a contradiction at all but make perfect sense in the context of the whole book of Matthew. That being said, the following is what got my head spinning today:

The verse before the gospel reads:

"Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart;
for I am gracious and merciful.
Then the gospel story ends with this:
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."

The story is a lesson in the importance of forgiveness. The question is set in the context of forgiving a brother. The story used to make the point considers the context of forgiving someone who is not related to the men. Which, for me, is different. It is far easier to forgive family members or people I love like family for huge transgressions. On the other hand, people I don’t have those kinds of relationships with I can dismiss for very trivial things. 

I went into the gospel thinking, yes God is gracious and merciful. Then, after reading the story, I felt like doing the wrong thing could be met with torture. Torture does not seem like the response consistent with the idea of grace and mercy, which is where my thoughts of the contradiction come from. This is an easy perspective to take without putting much thought into the story. A real life brother and a stranger are both brothers in the eyes of God and they should be treated as such by us. If we don’t, we face “torture.” But, God is not the one administering the torture in the story, a fellow brother who refused to forgive yet was forgiven is. God has remained gracious and merciful. The use of the word torture was originally a distraction from the sentence “until he should pay back the whole debt.” Showing that is possible to hold people accountable harshly while still having grace and mercy. 

The other point of this reading seems to be that when we choose not to forgive people who have wronged us, we are actually bringing torture to ourselves. When we close off the gift of grace and mercy, we do damage to ourselves more than anyone else. 

While I still may have missed the mark with this, it is a good reminder that stories from the bible deserve more thought and reflection than our first glance. My ending attitude about this story made me feel much better than my original thought, when I had just read it similar to how I would read anything else I see during the day.

Author: Chris Hill, Athletics