PAID IN FULL

"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' ²⁷The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.  Matthew 18:26-27

This verse is probably more applicable in today’s times than ever before.  Just about everyone knows what it feels like to carry a debt.  We probably have a car loan, building loan, or house loan.  We all know the weight of what it feels like to owe someone something. 

Jesus tells the story about a debt so enormous that there was no way the man could pay it all in his entire lifetime.  The man pleaded for a little mercy and the king wiped the debt away!  No more debt!  Paid in full! 

It’s like the debt never even existed.  How amazing would it be if all of our debts were gone!  It would be so freeing.  We would feel more alive than we’ve felt in a long time.  Jesus really isn’t in the mortgage and loan business though.  He’s using this story to get at a whole different kind of debt.  It’s a debt that all of us were born with.  It’s the debt of sin. 

The bible says that the wages of sin is death.  That means that the cost of our debt is our life.  Someone had to lose their life to pay for our debt.  The ultimate picture of mercy is Jesus picking up the tab for our debt.  He took our place.  He died our death.  He paid our debt in full.  There’s no more price tag on our head.  There’s no more ransom for our lives.  No one is out to hunt us down.  Jesus took care of it.   He wiped the slate clean, and then he broke the slate. 

No longer are our sins counted against us.  We’ve been shown mercy so that we can show that same mercy to others.  He cancelled our debt so that we can live a life of cancelling the debts others have against us.  God was merciful to us, now we show that same mercy to our spouse and children, our neighbors and co-workers, our friends and enemies.  

 
Heavenly Father we don’t deserve your mercy, but it’s ours anyway.  Give us the strength to pay that mercy forward.  We want to live that mercy in all we do.  Amen.