\nwho then had the servant tortured until he could pay back the debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/64.media.tumblr.com\/062b56328caf95ebcda015f2ecb41771\/d5d9e63a568c090c-01\/s540x810\/06a20668f315c69951a2cae1277ee321fe016f99.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n(It
\nis worth noting that the amounts of money in this parable are
\nOBSCENE. \u00a0I’ve seen scholars guess that the first figure is as low as
\n$10 million or as high as $6 billion. \u00a0The second figure is lower,
\nbut not trivial. \u00a0It is still more money than most peasants would
\never see, perhaps in the $10,000 range. \u00a0The Jesus seminar actually
\nthinks this parable goes back to Jesus, in part, because the numbers
\nare so huge and they believe Jesus’s parables tended to exaggerate.
\nOther scholars point out that the first figure essentially equated to
\n\u201cthe largest figure one could ever name.\u201d \u00a0Our version of a
\ngazillion dollars, so, \u00a0A LOT of money.)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So,
\nwhen the parable is taken as allegory, it is simple: \u00a0God is like the
\nKing, God forgives us our debts, we are then supposed to forgive
\nothers their far smaller debts, if we don’t, we will go to hell. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
HOWEVER,
\ndespite what I learned in Sunday School as a child, parables aren’t
\nfables. \u00a0They don’t tend to be easy to understand. \u00a0Instead, they
\ntend to be things that make us think.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So,
\nwhen we come to a parable that seems easy to understand, it usually
\nindicates it has been cleaned up a little bit from what Jesus said
\ninto what the Gospel writer thought it should mean.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If
\nwe take the story just as Matthew wrote it, then God is vindictive
\nand while we’re instructed to forgive 70*7 times, God forgives once
\nand then gets unforgiving immediately. \u00a0That should also give us
\npause, since it simply doesn’t fit how we understand the Divine.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now,
\nif we take out Matthew’s final scolding at the end, we un-fable the
\nstory and get back to a parable. \u00a0To take the parable as a parable
\nfirst requires that we do NOT assume that the earthly king is a stand
\nin for God? \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If
\nwe read it as parable, the whole thing gets uncomfortable. \u00a0How could
\nanyone ever owe a king that much money? \u00a0How does even the king have
\nenough money that he can forgive a figure like that on a whim? \u00a0Where
\ndoes the money come from (hint: the laborers who are dying young of
\nstarvation so the money can flow to the top)? Why doesn’t the servant
\nrespond with generosity? \u00a0Why did the other servants tell the king?
\nWhy did the king respond with such venom? \u00a0Who or what is good in
\nthis story? \u00a0What are we supposed to do? \u00a0Does the second man get
\nreleased from prison when the first one gets sent to be tortured?
\nDoes anyone win?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That’s
\na solid parable. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However,
\nif we take out the BEGINNING line about this story being about the
\nkin(g)dom of God, things get even more interesting. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
William
\nHerzog II in \u201cParables as Subversive Speech\u201d suggests that we
\nfirst look at the story on its own merits \u2013 in the context of the
\nday. \u00a0What follows is my adaptations of Herzog’s work. \u00a0The king in
\nthis story is most likely a client king of the Roman Empire. \u00a0Someone
\nplaced by Rome, and replaceable by Rome. \u00a0He is in charge of
\nextracting wealth from the area he is king of, keeping some, and
\nsending the rest on. \u00a0The system by which he does this is pretty
\ncomplicated, including many levels of bureaucracy that does his dirty
\nwork for him \u2013 and is paid well enough to be grateful not to be the
\npeasants. \u00a0The bureaucracy is kept on its toes with fear, and as such
\nthe \u201cwork environment\u201d is deeply suspicious, prone to untruths,
\nand manipulative. \u00a0Everyone is \u201cplaying politics\u201d with everyone
\nelse because that’s how you survive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When
\nleaders exist to extract wealth, they have to use their power to
\nterrify, and when power is inherently violent, the systems that
\nsupport it won’t be healthy. \u00a0One could simply say that bad leaders
\ncreate bad systems, and that’s true, but under it all is a question
\nof what is the POINT of leadership. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nHebrew Bible suggests that the point of a leader is to care for the
\npeople and pay attention to the needs of the whole,<\/b> by
\ncreating a system of justice that is fair, a society that enables
\neven impoverished people to survive, and an economic system that
\ndistributes livable wages and sustainability as broadly as possible
\n(and prevents both generational wealth and its counter generational
\npoverty). \u00a0Because the Jewish people knew this, the way the Roman
\nEmpire worked was seen as inherently immoral. \u00a0The Roman Empire, like
\nany empire understood the king to \u201cown\u201d the whole land and the
\npeople, and to be responsible for using them to \u00a0to extract wealth
\nfrom \u00a0and to send to the top, and to do so by creating an unjust
\nsystem and threatening everyone with death and destruction. \u00a0You can
\nsee their point on this being a bad system.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
OK,
\nso we have a Roman client king, and the first Jewish hearers would
\nhave STARTED with distrust of this guy. \u00a0Helpful to know, right?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And,
\nwhile the king was inherently immoral, SO WAS HIS COURT, as they were
\nthe ones doing his dirty work. \u00a0 In fact, that first servant, was a
\ntop level bureaucrat, and that large \u201cloan\u201d he was supposed to
\nreplay was actually the \u201ctaxes and tributes\u201d he and his
\ndepartment were responsible for extracting from the people and the
\nland. \u00a0Calling in the \u201cloan\u201d was demanding his money, perhaps as
\na test of the servant, in order to threaten violence and keep the
\nfear up in the system. \u00a0Being arbitrary and making unreasonable
\ndemands helps create a culture of fear. \u00a0The man doesn’t have the
\nfull amount yet, possibly because it wasn’t \u201cdue\u201d yet. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now,
\nthe first hearers likely would not have had a lot of identification
\nwith this servant, because he was \u2026 basically a cabinet level
\nofficial whose own actions had done incredible damage to their
\ncountry and their lives. \u00a0The king’s anger and threats are par for
\nthe course, but, in fact, so is his forgiveness. \u00a0Because the king
\nhas now RE-ESTABLISHED his dominance, which was always the point. I
\nsuspect the \u201cForgiveness\u201d of the loan in this case is inherently
\nuntrue, this was just a show of power, forcing the otherwise powerful
\nservant to be submissive and reminded of what can happen to him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This
\nservant goes out after the \u201cforgiveness\u201d and then demands a
\nsmaller BUT STILL LARGE sum be paid back to him. \u00a0Again, it is worth
\nnoting that the people Jesus spoke to would not have identified with
\nthe man owing the smaller sum because it was still more money than
\nthey ever had. \u00a0And in this case the top level bureaucrat does not
\nforgive the debt, probably because most of the time debts are not
\nsimply forgiven. \u00a0Then other people in the court, who gained power
\nand prestige by lowering someone else’s, used this to take down the
\ntop level official. \u00a0And the king’s whims take him down this time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That
\nis, perhaps this is not
\nparable of \u201cwhat the kindom of God is like\u201d and more a
\ndescription of \u201cwhat the kingdom of Rome is like.\u201d
\n By making plain how the systems of power work in the world,
\nJesus was able to invite people to consider how they are complicit in
\nthe system as well as if they want to continue to be.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Because
\nI, for one, don’t want to be part of systems like that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Recently,
\nI’ve seen how beautifully another option can work. \u00a0The practice that
\nI went to for care during my pregnancy and birth is one that prides
\nitself on putting patients first. \u00a0And they did! \u00a0My medical care was
\nprofoundly humane, I was taken seriously all along, and my caregivers
\ntook the time to talk with me \u2013 and not just about medical issues!
\nThis seemed to penetrate the whole system. \u00a0From the person who
\ngreeted us at the desk, to the one weighing me, to the ones
\nscheduling next appointments, there was grace abundance, as well as
\npatience and kindness. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I
\nalso noticed that the practice was humane to its workers. \u00a0People at
\nvarious \u201clevels\u201d in the practice could be seen talking and
\nlaughing with each other. \u00a0It felt much more like people were doing
\nvarious tasks that all mattered than like there was a hierarchy in
\nthe office. \u00a0I also heard, at the hospital (as we were there for a
\nwhile) how incredibly well respected the group is!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Truthfully,
\nI found it mesmerizing. \u00a0I wanted to know all their secrets. \u00a0I asked
\na bit, and what I heard was that the whole group was deeply committed
\nto putting patients first
\nand people came to work there to do that. \u00a0 The nature of the
\norganization was created by its primary value being lived out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On
\na smaller scale, I love the story of a very VERY mild mannered man
\nbecoming the roads supervisor in a small town. \u00a0As you’d expect,
\npeople tended to call that office in a fury when something was wrong
\nwith their roads, and lots can go wrong with roads. \u00a0Those that loved
\nthe man worried about him being eaten alive by other people’s fury,
\nbut instead, his mild manners, calm assurances, tendency to listen
\nand commitment to doing his job well transformed those who called.
\nEven one person can make a huge difference.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Many
\nof Jesus’s stories teach us how to subvert broken systems. \u00a0I think
\nthis story teaches us how those systems work so we can make decisions
\nabout engage with them. \u00a0Funny enough, the reading from Romans goes
\nthrough this as well. \u00a0Either we can take people down for making
\ndifferent choices than we do, or we can participate with God in
\nbuilding the kindom. \u00a0Judgement, like manipulation, fear, and
\nsuspicion keep us participating in systems of oppression.
\nCompassion, equity, listening build the kindom of God. \u00a0In every word
\nthat we say, and every action we take, we get to choose where we put
\nour lives. \u00a0We can choose fear and violence or we can choose to build
\nthe kindom of God for all people. \u00a0May God help us choose well. \u00a0Amen <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a> <\/p>\n