The parable of the Unmerciful Servant is a reminder of who we are, whose we are and what is expected of us. The readings remind us that like the Hebrews we have been rescued by God, are part of His Kingdom and under divine judgement. We are servants and not ‘the boss of ourselves’. We will be judged by our love of Jesus and our neighbour. Forgiveness and mercy from the heart is a test of that love.
1. We are challenged to remember who we are
Jesus is teaching us how to reconcile conflicts in the church with love. Conflicts can pollute our soul with the sin of unforgiveness if we fail to love the other. Love requires us to respect the privacy and dignity of the person who we think is sinning. We are to make two attempts to resolve the issue privately and discreetly before “taking it to the church’ and making it public. This is the opposite of the way most people handle disputes. We can fail to love our neighbour and tell all our friends in church about the terrible thing someone has done. This is a failure to love and creates a much more dangerous conflict. It makes the issue harder to resolve as reputations are on the line. The three-step process protects reputations, determines the truth and facilitates forgiveness:
1. First go alone to the person to seekréconciliation
2. If this fails, take one or two witnesses and go again
3. Only if both attempts fail, take it to the church leadership, again in confidence, to avoid spreading the conflict beyond three or four people
Step #1: “Go and point out their fault just between the two of you”
