Matthew 18:34 – “Deliver Him to the Torturers”

Have you ever noticed how some of the parables of Jesus have strange, uncomfortable endings?

Take the parable of the Unforgiving Slave (Matt. 18:23–35). It’s a story about a king who forgives the astronomical debt of one of his slaves. It’s a parable that illustrates the unconditional grace of God and everybody loves it.

That is, until they get to the end.

A quick recap: A king learns that one of his slaves owes him a whopping 10,000 talents. 💰 Since the man cannot repay the debt, the king orders that the slave and his family be sold into slavery. The slave prostrates himself, begs for a little more time, and promises to repay the unpayable debt.

Moved with compassion, the king decides to forgive the debt. Which is to say he bears the loss. He takes the man’s debt and makes it his own. It’s a stunning act of grace.

Who is the forgiving king?

Of course, no earthly king would act this way, but this is what our compassionate King Jesus has done for us. We owed a debt we could not pay, but on the cross the Forgiving King bore all our sin and cleared all the charges against us (Col. 2:14). He did this because he loves us and because he wants us to be free.

Back to the story. You would think that the forgiven man would be radically changed by the king’s grace. But no. The rotten fink goes out and throttles a colleague who owes him a piddling amount. When the colleague is unable to repay him, he has the man thrown in prison.

The man’s harsh behaviour is reported and he is summoned to the king a second time. The king marvels that the man was not able to show others the same mercy that was shown to him. Then this happens:

And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. (Matthew 18:34)

Suddenly, this is not such a nice story anymore. “Hand him over to the torturers?!” (Some Bibles say tormentors or jailers.) It’s a real head-scratcher. 😵

Is Jesus saying that God’s forgiveness is unconditional until it’s not?

Or grace is free, but you have to prove you were worth it?!

Some read the parable as a law of conditional forgiveness. “God has forgiven all your sins, but if you don’t forgive others, he will hold your sins against you.” In other words, if you harbor unforgiveness in your heart, God will harbor unforgiveness against you. Which would make God guilty of the very sin for which he was judging you.

This is not what Jesus is saying in the parable.

God is not fickle. He does not change like shifting shadows. He does not forgive you one day only to torture you the next. On the cross, he dealt with our sins once and for all, and nothing we do can ever change that.

Who are the torturers?

There are no torturers or tormentors in the kingdom of God, but there are torments outside it. The torment of the unforgiving slave is self-inflicted for sin and pride are their own punishment. He will bear the weight of his impossible debt for as long as he refuses grace.

What can the king say to such a man? There is only one thing: “You reject grace? Very well, you shall have law. In the way you have judged, you will be judged. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Off to jail with you!”

The tragedy of the unforgiving slave is that his condemnation is wholly self-inflicted. He would rather hold onto his debt than receive the gift of the king’s mercy. He prefers law to grace and this is why he suffers.

Such is the fate of all who reject grace. The self-righteous are not tormented by God but by their own stupid pride and the burdensome demands of the law.

The torments of self-righteousness

God wants us to be free so he wipes the slate, forgives the debt, and invites us to his banqueting table. But the self-righteous refuse to come. They foolishly cling to their burdens and then wonder why they are suffering.

The wrong way to read the Parable of the Unforgiving Slave is to imagine that God will punish you if you fail to forgive, or that Jesus delivers underperforming Christians to the tormentors.

The truth is far better. The Forgiving King has forgiven all your sins, including your many failures to forgive.

If you are tormented by a past hurt you can’t let go of, come boldly to the throne of grace to receive help in your hour of need (Heb. 4:16). There you will find the strength to forgive and the freedom to move on.

In the new covenant, we do not forgive to be forgiven. We are already forgiven and God holds nothing against us. And as we receive the grace of God, we find ourselves able to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us. 🙏

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Extracted and adapted from Paul’s new book The Parables of Jesus.