Servant’s Debt
Jesus told a story about a king who was checking his accounting book, where all his money matters were noted down. He found that one of his servants owed him 10,000 talents. That was a huge amount of money. In today’s money it would have been millions of crowns and you could build several houses with the them.
The king had the man come into the palace and told him it was time to pay the money back.
How did the man react? If you have a Bible, look at verse 26 where we read: “The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, “Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” It was such a huge sum, that it would really have been totally impossible for the poor man to earn all that money and pay his debt. There must have been such a terrible look of despair on the face of the man that the king did a very, very kind thing. The Bible says he “was moved with compassion (took pity on him), … and forgave him the debt” (Matthew 18:27).
The man must have been very happy and grateful to the king who had shown him so much kindness. I am sure he ran out of the palace jumping for joy and started for home to tell his wife and children the wonderful news.
Your Debt
Jesus told this story so that we would understand that there is a great King before whom we have a huge debt. That King is God. He has ordered us in His Word, the Bible, to do what is good. He commands you to always tell the truth, to be kind to others, to forgive, and above all to love Him with all your heart. Have you always obeyed God by doing those things? No one has. We have all done many wrong things and disobeyed God, the great King. You too have a great debt to Him because so many times you have not shown Him obedience or done the good actions that He expected from you. You have a debt, so big that you could never pay it back.
God is not only perfect and holy, He is also loving and kind. That is why He wants to forgive you. Maybe, as you have read the stories in the previous lessons you have already asked God to forgive you and make you His child. If you did, then God has certainly done that: He has already forgiven you and brought you into His family. Isn’t that wonderful? You deserved to be punished for not being able to pay back the huge debt. But the Lord Jesus, God’s only Son, offered to take the punishment that you deserve. He came down from Heaven and never did one single wrong thing. In spite of that He went to the cross and there God, His loving Father, allowed Him to be put to death because of all the sins that you and I have committed. He did not stay dead, He was brought back to life and went back to His home in Heaven.
If you have not ask God for forgiveness yet, you can do it right now. Tell Him that you have done wrong. Tell Him that you are really sorry for the way that you have behaved. Thank the Lord Jesus for taking the punishment for your sins on the cross. Ask Him to come into your life, to forgive you and to change you. God promises that if you do, your debt will be “rubbed out”. If you have already turned to Him and asked Him to forgive you, you will be like that man in the story that Jesus told whose debt had been wiped out. But the story does not end there.
