It's a good question, Kirk. This scene happens when Kirk is selling an antique pair of glasses to an antique dealer, and is offered a hundred dollars. And not only is that an old form of currency, but those are 1980s dollars, and Kirk has zero frame of reference for it. In the same way that we have no frame of reference for it either!
Do you know what a dollar could buy in 1986? Do you remember? There's a good chance that you don't or that you never knew. In 1986, you could send a letter for 22 cents. You could buy a dozen eggs for 87 cents. Heady days. But if I was to give you a hundred dollars for 1986, you may very well ask the same question that Kirk asked.
So, knowing that we're largely ignorant about how much things cost even three decades ago, how much could we possibly know about money from two thousand years ago? For you see, the gospel reading from Sunday was the parable of the servant who owed ten thousand talents. Owing ten thousand talents sure sounds like a lot. Owing ten thousand talents seems like a lot of money, especially the way the man acts when he is asked to pay it back. But is ten thousand talents like ten thousand dollars? Could you consolidate that loan and pay it back in installments?
Well, if you were paying attention on Sunday, you'll know that the odds of that man paying back that debt is just about zero. No chance at all. A talent of gold is roughly 75 pounds. 75 pounds of gold in today's dollars will set you back $1,351, 406.61. That's one talent of gold. If you owed that much debt, it would be crippling enough to wipe you out, and your children, and probably your grandchildren too. It would take generations to get out of this debt. But think not just about this one talent. Think about the ten thousand talents, the ten grand of talents which, when added up, will cost an awful lot of money. In fact, the amount of money we're talking about is so big that you can't even really picture it. It will add up to a whopping total of $13, 513, 519, 237.50. That's actually more than it was earlier in the week. It crept up. Now, this is 13 billion dollars we're talking about, and 13 billion is not as easy to come across as cookie clicker might lead you to believe. For you see, 13 billion dollars is not too far off from the GDP of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yes, all 65 million people in the DRC working for a year would make what that man owed. For him to work by himself, it would take him 65 million years to pay it all off. Do you know what happened 65 million years ago? Sure you do. If this guy were to work every day from the time the dinosaurs died out until today, he might be able to pay this off.
You can see that this is a preposterous amount of money. It's an incredible amount of money to be contemplating. You can't even picture it, it's so big. I've done my best to make this into an amount of money in real world terms, but when you're talking 13 billion dollars, it's still too big to even contemplate. But what you need to know, for sure for sure, is that nobody's paying this debt off by themselves. You're not going to be consolidating that loan, you're not going to be figuring that out, the only thing that's going to happen is that you're going to be tossed into slavery. You, and your family, and the generations that follow you for a million generations, will be enslaved on account of that debt. That's the thing, is that the weight of what is owed is so big, it will never be payed off.
And it is into this world that the master of the servants comes. The one to whom all is owed. The one who holds the purse strings that all this story is attached to. The one who holds the balance, and holds the debt in his hands. And when it comes time for the accounts to come due, those hands have the power to free, or to enslave. And it was this edge that the servant was walking, that he would either be freed or enslaved, crippled for lifetimes. And so the servant, upon being told that he was going to be sold into slavery, threw himself at his master's feet, and begged for mercy. And surprise of surprises, that mercy was given. The debt was wiped out, eliminated. No longer was a single cent owed, no longer did the man owe his master a penny, if we still even had those. No debt, no slavery, 13 billion dollars wiped out in the blink of a eye.
And the servant left 13 billion dollars to the good. and while he was on his way out, he came across a fellow servant of his, someone who owed him money this time. And this man who had been forgiven so much, he saw his fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii. 100 denarii will clock in at about two thousand dollars in today's money. That is not that much in comparison. Compared to what had been forgiven, it's nothing. Nothing at all. But the man who had just been forgiven the ten thousand, we'll call him Simon, grabbed the other man who had owed him money, we'll call him Adrian, and choked him, saying 'pay back what you owe!' And Simon had Adrian tossed in jail until he could pay that money back.
This is one of those things that seems on paper like it should make total sense. It seems obvious that in this world, if you have been forgiven much, that you too ought to forgive. But that's the funny thing about paper, is that it doesn't always hold up too terribly well in practice. For in honesty, we see this on paper, but it doesn't make sense when applied to our lives. And there's a simple reason for this.
Have you ever wondered why stories about plucky underdogs always seem to do well? Have you ever wondered how it is that stories about bullies getting their cumuppance always seem to do okay even among bullies? Isn't it strange that everyone seems to enjoy the story of the plucky underdog, the one facing great odds, even the ones who are involved in putting the common man down? Have you ever found it to be strange that capitalists can be Christians, and not even blink when it talks about how the rich won't enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Have you ever found it slightly odd that adulterers like King David can claim to be a follower of God, even though they are breaking his laws flagrantly?
Well, David found out, through Nathan the prophet's words, that there was more to life than that. David had to have it explained to him, that the laws that he felt others should keep were the laws that he was in the midst of breaking. In that same way, this parable is before us, telling us that the way we know people should behave is not the way we behave. We have people by the throat all the time, every day, and we feel as though it's the right thing to do, that we are justifies, that no matter how much we have been forgiven, people still will owe us more. It's something that plagues us all universally. As the main characters in our own stories, nobody ought to dare ask us for much of anything. And yet, this parable, like all good stories, shows us a test case, and forces us to agree that yes, this man ought to have forgiven.
The real juice for us ends up being that we need to dwell more on the ten thousand talents. Instead of asking "is that a lot", we need to be mindful of how much it is. We are forgiven much so often that we lose track, and the confession of sins on Sunday morning becomes so much noise. But being aware of your sins, instead of despair brings great joy and peace. It's largely the same as pretending you don't have a medical problem, and evading all the symptoms instead of, you know, googling them. And then promptly seeing a doctor. Knowing your sins, turning them over to God, is the only way to get rid of them. If you forget, if you instantly move on from those sins, and forget how much Christ suffered on your behalf, then grace gets very cheap. Then you get vengeful. Then you get angry.
But knowing your sin, and knowing the grace of Christ, makes it all the more likely that you, in the depths of your despair, will find solace and grace, Christ's love poured out for you. And the guilt and shame and damnation will evaporate. And once you know that, then you will know why the scriptures say the following words - "Freely you have received. Freely give.'
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