Wed., January 19, 2005
Mark Eugenikos, Metropolitan of Ephesos, Pillar of Orthodoxy
6th Vigil of Theophany: 2 Kings 5:9-14 Epistle: Galatians 5:11-6:8 Gospel: St. Matthew 18:23-35
St. Matthew 18:23-35, especially vs. 28: "But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!'"
We who have lived any appreciable time in this modern, enlightened age have many images that come to mind when we
consider the nature of inhumanity. Gross barbarisms have filled our media with the details of crimes and cruelties, and we
have responded by calling the worst of these violations inhumane.
How are we able to besmirch the noble and best of our race by dragging the name human into association with such
viciousness? We might think to call such acts bestiality, but even the wildest of animals do not perpetrate the kinds of acts
for which we reserve the label inhumane. Let us use our God-given wisdom to say that there is something about the nature
of sin that is unique as it works itself into the psyches of human beings - or to certain fallen spirits. Further, we recognize
that the special quality of evil that lodges in sin, for men and demons, does not touch animal nature. In our fall we are
much the worst of all creatures, far and away the most dark and sinister.
In the parable of the Lord Jesus that is today's Gospel, inhumanity comes forward to dominate our Savior's teaching in His
story of debt and forgiveness. The first point we should observe as we consider the account in this light is the One Who
tells us the tale, our God and Creator Himself Who joined His Divine nature to our maniacal nature, yes, the God-Man
Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul reminds us about Jesus Christ, both that "He knew no sin" and that He became "sin for us"
(2 Cor 5:21).
If we are appalled at what sin generates through our nature, should we not be more amazed that God would involve Himself
with creatures that so readily spawn fiends. Thus the One Who tells this parable is the most important Person of the
parable itself. For He makes it possible for us to hear this story and to say that the unforgiveness of the one servant was
inhumane; for Christ has restored humanity to the right hand of God the Father.
The debt of the unforgiving servant was immense. James Hastings points out that the debt of 10, 000 talents which was
owed to the master would have required in the coin of the day "an army of nearly 8600 carriers, each with a sack 60 lbs in
weight...[who if they] were placed in a single file a yard apart, the train would be almost five miles in length." Our debt to
God is staggering, but the debt between the two servants was pocket change. The core issue in unforgiveness is loss of
humanity, the negation of human potential which He Who tells the parable fully reveals to us. He hangs on the Cross upon
which we humans placed Him, and He says, "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Lk 23:34). This is
the potential of humanity which the God-Man reveals while He also reveals why barbarities are inhuman.
Unforgiveness on our part sells ourselves, our families, and all that we have into slavery to the devil himself, to one who
has no claim to humanity whatsoever. When we do not forgive, that fallen angel, that master of darkness, owns us body
and soul. And truly, he is a torturer who will exact every ounce of humanity out of us until we pay all to him; but God,
Whom we, as Christians, are graced to call "Our Father," also hands us over to Satan if from our hearts, we do not forgive
our "brother his trespasses" (Mt. 18:34,35). Theophylact points out that Christ did "not say 'your Father', but 'My Father'.
For such as these [who do not forgive] are unworthy to have God as their Father. He wants us to forgive from our hearts
and not only from our lips. Understand, then, what a great evil is remembrance of wrongs, since it revokes the gift of God.
A wonder to behold, how Thou, the Maker of heaven and earth, was suspended on the Cross. Wherefore, O Savior, save us
from the sin, grave, and torture of unforgiveness.
