DAILY DEVOTIONAL – January 19, 2021
“Priceless Pity”
Prayer: Jesus, You alone are worthy of all honor and praise. You are our righteousness, our worth, and our worthiness to stand before the throne of God Almighty. Thank you for Your blood shed for us. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 18:23-27
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
Devotional – “Priceless Pity”
A ‘talent’ in Biblical times was a very significant amount of money. To put it in perspective using the value of a dollar in today’s economy, even the most conservative scholars estimate the worth of a single talent being upwards of $30,000. The servant in the parable Jesus told in Matthew 18 would have owed his king 10,000 talents, and using the conservative estimate of $30,000 US dollars, that means the servant owed his king $300,000,000.
Notice in the parable that when the king summoned the servant to settle accounts, the servant was under no delusion about how much he owed. He did not respond with some excuse or explanation about how it wasn’t really that much money. Neither did the servant say, “well you’re the king, you can afford it!” And, neither did the servant try and make any excuses for himself or for the debt. Instead, the servant fell on his knees and begged the king saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” Well! The servant may not have been delusional about how much he owed, but he was delusional about his ability to pay “everything” back.
Jesus used such absurd amounts of money in His parable to communicate three important things about the Kingdom of Heaven; three important things about God, the King of Heaven. First, Jesus is teaching that all we have is given to us by God, who has been exceedingly generous with what He has given us. We own nothing of our own. Our very life is not our own, it is a life given to us and much like the servant was called into account for what was given to him, so to every life given to every man and woman will be called into account by the King of Heaven. The second truth Jesus is teaching through using 10,000 talents in the parable, is the unfathomably large debt we owe to God because of our sin. To think that we could ever live a good enough life to make up for the immeasurable sins we have committed in our thoughts, words, and deeds, is no less delusional than the servant thinking he could somehow pay back $300,000,000 dollars if he was just afforded ‘a little more time.’ The third truth Jesus is teaching, is the unfathomably large and immeasurable love, patience, and mercy of God. As the king had pity on the servant who fell to his knees, and acknowledged his debt and desire to pay it back, so to, God has pity on every sinner who falls to their knees and repents of their debt of sin and pleads for mercy.
There was a farmer who went to his banker and said, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”
The banker replied, “Well let’s get the bad news over with first.”
The farmer said, “Ok, I’ve had a bad year and I can’t pay the mortgage I owe you on my house.”
The banker replied and said, “That is pretty bad.”
“Well, let me finish,” the farmer said. “I’ve had such a bad year that I can’t repay any of the money I borrowed for my new machinery either.”
The banker was becoming increasingly and more visibly agitated.
“And,” the farmer said, “the money I borrowed to buy seeds and fertilizer, I have had such a bad year, that I can’t pay you for any of that either.”
The banker said, “Well, I sure could use some of that good news now. So, what’s the good news?”
The farmer said, “The good news is that I still intend to do business with you!”
The Good News of the Gospel is not found in our good intentions. Neither is the Good News that Jesus revealed to us found in the fact that God has pity on us. Pity doesn’t make wrongs right, and pity doesn’t pay back $300,000,000. God is just and righteous and the debt of the sins of humanity must be accounted for. The Good News is that the same Lord who told us about the Kingdom of Heaven has opened it’s doors to us through His own broken and crucified body on the cross where He paid our debts in full. God continues to ‘do business’ with us and mercifully deal with us and extend His love and mercy to us only because Christ has satisfied the debt of our sin, past, present, and future, with the priceless worth of His own blood. Our confidence of being forgiven and received into the Kingdom of Heaven is found only in Christ’s worth and merit, freely given to all who trust and put their faith and hope in what He has done for us in dying our death and rising again for our salvation.
Thanks for spending time with me in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
