And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.
All Commentaries on Matthew 18:29 Go To Matthew 18
John Chrysostom
AD 407
And so our sins become greater, and not only from this but also from the benefits and honor which we enjoy from them. If you want to learn how our sins against God are like ten thousand talents, or more in fact, and even much more, I will try to show you briefly. But I fear, lest to those who are inclined to wickedness and love continually to sin, I should appear to provide them with still greater security; or that I might drive the meeker sort to despair, and that they should repeat the despairing question of the disciples: “Who then can be saved?” But nevertheless I will continue on in the hope that I may make those who pay attention more secure and more amenable. For those who suffer an incurable disease and feel no pain are untouched by these words and do not change from their natural wickedness and inertia. And even if in the future they derive from my words greater occasion for contempt, that should be attributed not to this kind of argument but to their own insensibility. What I will say ought to be able to arouse them if only they attend to it and let it prick their hearts. But the meeker sort, when they see the profusion of their sins and learn the power of repentance, will of themselves pay more attention, I hope. And so it is necessary that I speak. In speaking of our sins, I will distinguish between those we commit against God and against other persons. I will set forth not each person’s own but what are common. But then I will ask individuals to add their own sins according to an examination of their conscience. I will do this, having first set forth the good deeds of God to us. What then are God’s good deeds? He created us from nothing; he made the whole visible world for us, the heaven, the sea, the earth, animals, plants and seeds. I must be brief because of the infinite number of his works. Into us alone of all that are on earth he breathed a living soul. He planted a garden for us. He gave us a helpmate and set us over all the brute species, and he crowned us with glory and honor. And yet after all this, when humanity turned out ungrateful toward its benefactor, he thought us worthy of an even greater gift—forgiveness. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
