Gospel and Homily for the 11th Sunday After Pentecost
The Holy Gospel. From Matthew. Reading 77.
The Lord spake this parable. For this cause was likened the heavenly kingdom unto a man, a king, who desired to reckon concerning matters with his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, they brought unto him one debtor of ten thousand talents. But he, not having wherewith to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and his children, and all things whatsoever he had, and to render the debt. Then that servant, having fallen, did obeisance unto him, saying, ‘Lord, forbear toward me, and all things will I render unto thee.’ And the lord, having had mercy upon that servant, released him, and the debt remitted unto him. But that servant, having gone out, found one of his fellow-servants, who was indebted unto him an hundred pence. And seizing him, he choked him, saying, ‘Render unto me that which thou owest unto me.’ Then his fellow-servant, having fallen at his feet, besought him, saying, ‘Forbear toward me, and all things will I render unto thee.’ But he would not, and having led him, cast him into prison, until he should render that which is owed. And his fellow-servants, having seen the things that had happened, grieved themselves exceedingly, and having come, they told unto their lord all the things that had happened. Then his lord, having called him, said unto him, ‘O wicked servant, all that debt I remitted unto thee, because thou didst beseech me. Oughtest not thou also to have had mercy upon thy fellow-servant, even as I had mercy upon thee?’And his lord, having been wroth, delivered him unto the tormentors, until he should render all his debt. Thus also my heavenly Father will do unto you, if ye forgive not every one his brother from your hearts their trespasses. And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee. And he came into the borders of Judea, beyond the side of Jordan. And many peoples followed after him, and he healed them there.
–Translated from the Ostrog Bible, with the assigned liturgical opening from the Gospel book.
Homily by Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
The most important thing in our life is the salvation of our soul. How can a person be saved? The Gospel tells us: With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Matt. 19:26). Everything is in God’s hands, yet we must also do all that depends on us for our salvation. In today’s Gospel, we find a simple piece of advice for our salvation: forgive, and you will be forgiven. And when you are forgiven, the path to eternal life will be opened to you.
In today’s Gospel, we heard the parable spoken by our divine teacher, Jesus Christ, about a king who forgave his debtor. This parable compares the Kingdom of Heaven, or the righteous judgment of people, to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. Among them, he found one who owed ten thousand talents—an enormous, unpayable sum in those days. The king sternly demanded repayment, even threatening to sell the servant’s wife and children to cover the debt. The debtor, unable to pay, begged for mercy and leniency, saying, “Be patient with me, and I will repay everything.” Moved with compassion, the king released him and forgave his entire debt. Such generous mercy should have made the servant merciful in turn, but this deceitful man acted differently. As he left his benevolent king, he encountered a fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii—a sum a million times smaller than the debt he had just been forgiven. He harshly seized his fellow servant, began to choke him, and demanded immediate repayment. The poor debtor fell to his knees, pleading for mercy and saying, “Be patient with me, and I will repay everything.” But the creditor was unrelenting; he refused to forgive the debt and threw the debtor into prison until the debt was paid. The king’s servants witnessed this and, outraged by the actions of the recently forgiven servant, reported everything to their master. The king summoned the servant again and, with full severity, said, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And he ordered the servant to be thrown into prison until he could pay the entire debt—in essence, forever.
The Lord concludes the parable with these words: So also my Heavenly Father will not forgive your sins if you do not forgive your neighbor’s transgressions from your heart. These final words explain the parable’s meaning: it reveals God’s infinite mercy toward humanity and the cruel way people often treat their fellow human beings.
In the parable, the king who demands repayment from his servants clearly represents our Lord, the Heavenly Father, while the debtors with unpayable debts are all of us—sinners who owe God an immense debt through our countless sins and boundless iniquities. When we sin, we act contrary to God’s law, committing offenses, and thus become debtors before Him. As we sing in church: If Thou, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Ps. 130:3). Indeed, if the righteous Judge, God, did not have love and infinite mercy for us sinners, we would have long perished under His wrath. But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16) for the sins of the world.
Our deeds are often sinful, and only the blood of the Savior, shed on the Cross, saves us if we repent of our sins. As the saying goes, “Every step I take, I sin.” We sin constantly—if not in deed, then in word or desire for sin; if not in desire, then in thought of sin. Yet when we turn to the Lord in repentance, like the drowning Apostle Peter crying, “Lord, save me, I am perishing!” we believe that the merciful Lord hears our repentant prayers and turns His wrath into mercy.
But we will only be worthy of God’s mercy if we ourselves are merciful to others. In the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father,” which we are to pray daily to the Heavenly Father, we say: Forgive us our debts, even as we forgive our debtors—meaning we first commit to forgiving the sins of those who hate and offend us, and only then can we hope for forgiveness of our own sins, for our debts represent our sins and the wrongs we have done to others.
The parable of the king forgiving his debtor clearly and distinctly shows the kind of relationship we should have with one another and with God. From Him, we always expect forgiveness, mercy, love, earthly blessings, and spiritual gifts. But when people turn to us with the same hope and longing for love, compassion, leniency, and patience for their sins and shortcomings, we often become harsh, unyielding, and merciless judges. Today’s parable teaches us that if we want God to treat us, in all circumstances of life, as the merciful king treated his debtor, we must learn to treat those around us—whom we consider our debtors—in the same way. We often feel that others are guilty before us, but in reality, their faults are so small: they paid us too little attention, spoke a harsh word, or passed by our sorrow without offering a kind or warm word. Yet we sin far more gravely against God, often being indifferent to His commandments or even considering Him our debtor, grumbling against Him in our hearts. We expect God, in His mercy, to open the gates of the Heavenly Kingdom and eternal life to us, yet we close those same gates in the face of others by judging their sins.
The Gospel says: With the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matt. 7:2), and in the Beatitudes, it is written: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy (Matt. 5:7). This seems so simple, yet how difficult it proves to be. How often our hearts remain cold and silent. When someone close to us acts wrongly, we think they are bad, failing to understand that they want to be better, that they wish their every word and deed to be pure, but they lack the strength. Old sinful habits, the pressures of the world, false shame, and many other things hinder them from doing good. But we can help them by looking at them as God does—with pity and compassion, as one looks at a gravely ill person. We should pity them, turn to them with our whole soul, understanding that their soul is defiled and scarred by sin and the devil’s schemes, while remembering that their soul is also a fragment of God’s grace and must be loved as a brother. If we treat them this way, we will surely see them change for the better because someone believed in them. True, this sometimes causes pain in our heart and soul, but what joy it brings when we see even one sinner saved through our compassion and love, to whom the Lord, in His mercy and forgiveness, opens the gates of eternal life.
So, brothers and sisters, let us forgive the offenses of our enemies, just as God forgives our countless sins. The Word of God and Jesus Christ Himself, who gave Himself up to death to redeem our sins, call us to this: If you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:14-15). Thus, brothers, here is the condition and measure for receiving God’s forgiveness of our sins, prescribed by the Redeemer Himself: forgive your guilty neighbor, and you will be forgiven; do not forgive, and you will not be forgiven; forgive little, and little will be forgiven you; forgive much, and even more will be forgiven you; forgive everything, and everything will be forgiven you. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matt. 7:2).
The holy fathers of the Church also urge us to this. “If someone has greatly offended you, the more you forgive, the more forgiveness you will receive,” assures St. John Chrysostom. Examples from the lives of the saints confirm this. Once, a beggar spoke rude and abusive words to St. John the Merciful, feeling that the alms given to him were too small. Those around wanted to punish the rude man, but the gentle John stopped them, saying, “Leave him be. How can I not bear a single insult from my brother when, for sixty years, I have continually offended the Lord Jesus Christ with my sinful deeds?”
The Lord says to us: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. He, the most merciful, desires mercy and patience from us toward our neighbors. We Christians, who receive grace and heavenly help from God, must cultivate a spirit of meekness and humility, a spirit of patience and mercy. To have such a disposition, we must constantly remember our great weaknesses and sins, as well as God’s infinite mercy toward us, which forgives our many and grave sins through our repentance. A sense of gratitude to God for His countless mercies obligates us to be lenient and merciful to others, who share the same weaknesses and passions as we do. Only the sacrifice of love and mercy, offered after reconciliation with those with whom we were at odds, is pleasing to God. To those who hate and offend us, we must repay with good from our whole heart: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink (Rom. 12:20).
Love for our neighbors and forgiveness can bring us closer to God. True, it is difficult to see a brother in an enemy, but this requires strength of will and asking God’s help in this, one of the greatest virtues, for no virtue comes easily.
Notably, God calls us to forgive our neighbors’ offenses from your hearts—that is, sincerely, for many forgive only with their lips while harboring malice in their hearts. Blessed Augustine says: “Do not say with your tongue that you forgive while your heart feels otherwise, for God knows how you speak. Man hears your voice, but God sees your conscience. If you say you forgive—forgive. It is better not to proclaim forgiveness with your lips while harboring malice in your heart than to flatter with words while nurturing resentment.” The Last Judgment will be a judgment of our lack of mercy: Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful (James 2:13).
It is crucial for us Christians to strive to cast out anger toward our neighbors and to reconcile with those who have offended us. For even prayer, almsgiving, and fasting cannot save us on the Day of Judgment if we hold and nurture malice toward our neighbor in our soul. Let us use all the strength of our soul to reconcile with our enemies, knowing that by doing so, we reconcile with God, who loves peace and assures us: If you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you (Matt. 6:14). St. John Chrysostom writes: “If it is unbearable and difficult to love the one who has grieved you, it is far more unbearable to suffer eternal torment in hell. What is easier—to forgive your neighbor’s offenses or to suffer in hell?”
So, beloved brothers and sisters, let us strive to reconcile with all, thereby restoring peace with God. Let us not take revenge on those who offend us, so that God may not take revenge on us. Let us forget the evil done to us by our neighbors, so that our Heavenly Father may forgive our sins. Let us do what Christ commanded—forgive our neighbors—and He will fulfill His promise to forgive us our debts.