This week’s Jesus story still isn’t over – there is another turn to it. (You know, Jesus’ story is never really over!) The injustice wrought by the newly forgiven slave is not the last word. After he refuses to release his fellow-slave from his debt, the other servants turn the mean guy in:
“When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.”
Okay, we could do without the torture part; God is not in the torture business – though we endure a kind of spiritual pain when we withhold forgiveness. But here Jesus explicitly links forgiveness in and forgiveness out, as he does in other teachings on prayer. We can’t get away from it – and we can’t fully experience God’s love if we can’t forgive ourselves and others.
What I like in this story is the way the community watches the situation, and calls out the injustice. Having witnessed the great mercy shown this slave, they were not about to let him get away with holding someone else to harsh terms.
Injustice can be perpetrated and perpetuated in communities, and misdeeds swept under the carpet. But in healthy communities, a light is always on and members are accountable to each other. When someone acts in a destructive or prideful way, a healthy community has people of integrity who can remind her of the mercy she has received, and invite her to align her values with those of the community. In Christian communities, that means the values Jesus taught and lived. Think how much better our police departments and military units and financial institutions function when they are communities of accountability and justice. Many news stories would have been non-events.
Have you ever been called on your behavior or treatment of another? Was the message delivered in a way that you could receive it? How did you respond?
Have you ever spoken to another about the way they are acting or speaking? Perhaps a notorious gossip or someone who routinely sows discord? Those are hard conversations to have. But when we put the health of the community and of each person in it – including the one who’s being destructive – above our social discomfort, we can move forward. And when we pray it through beforehand, and during, those conversations often go much better than we anticipate.
If there is someone you think you need to talk to about behavior that damages the community, pray for that person awhile before having the conversation – it brings peace and gives the Spirit a chance to prepare the ground. And as you speak, talk about times you may have been less than wonderful, and speak with humility; it might help keep the walls from going up. And if you can pray with the person you’re having the conversation with, so much the better.
God set us into communities, starting with families, classrooms, workplaces, memberships… Community can be one of the hardest aspects of human life, and one of the richest. This story Jesus tells invites us to be active in keeping our communities as healthy and life-giving as we can. That includes speaking the truth in love.
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