The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

1. The Parable of the Unmerciful servant is about a "servant" to a king, probably a high-ranking official. He owed the king a huge debt, and was ordered into slavery by the king. But he begged the king for time to pay off the debt, and the king, moved by pity, forgave the debt entirely. Later on, the "servant" called in a small debt of one of his underlings. His underling was unable to pay the debt; the official choked him and had him thrown in jail. The king is the main character because he is at the top of the pyramid. He controls his servants through fear; his servants rule their servants through fear, and so on. The king has been ruling this way so long that it has been imprinted into everyone in the pyramid. One instance of change in his iron-fisted ways will not radiate throughout the pyramid.

2. The king decides to forgive the debt because the sight of the begging "servant" was so pitiful, he felt sorry for him. It was so pitiful that instead of allowing the servant more time to pay the debt as requested, the king forgave the debt completely. Moved by sympathy, the king showed a glimpse of emotion.

3. The servant does not forgive the debt because the process of ruling by fear has been imprinted into him. The king has a small change of heart, but this does not affect the servant, who himself has been ruling by fear. Because the servant has been ruling this way for so long, the king's forgiveness does not rub off on him. He feels that he still has to keep his servants in line, even though it would make him a hypcrite.

4. We can relate this parable to the Kingdom of God by seeing how this parable condemns hypocrites. The king showed mercy to the servant for a large debt, but the servant does not show mercy to his own servant for a small debt. The king punishes the high-level servant for not showing mercy and making him look bad. The Kingdom of God endorses humanity, none of which was shown by the servant.