Math and Mercy

“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?’

- Matthew 18:32-33

There are two different economies at work here: the Master’s Economy and the Servant’s Economy.

The master does the math and the debt is recognized: this man owes him a lot of money. Payment is called for. But, ultimately, mercy trumps math. The debt is not excused, ignored, or brushed off. It is calculated and then it is forgiven. As CS Lewis said: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

The servant, however, stops with the math when it comes to what is owed him. He pleads for a relationship of mercy with the king (and receives it) but he demands a relationship of math with the man who owes him money.

If the servant hadn’t been forgiven this extravagant debt prior to the conversation with his fellow servant, there would be nothing extraordinary about this parable. He just collects on a debt. This happens all the time.

But the back-story is what makes that interaction so appalling. We’ve seen how the unmerciful servant received mercy, not math, from the king. And so his strictly mathematical behavior toward the servant who owes him a much smaller debt strikes us as remarkably ungenerous.

The servant pleads for mercy for his debts while he stops with the math towards his debtors. And, of course, most of us see that behavior and shake our heads. But if we look at our own hearts, we can find this same impulse at work in us.

We want mercy for ourselves and math for others.

Where are you demanding math from someone to whom Jesus is calling you to extend mercy?

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