The Parable of the Two Debtors … as recorded in Luke 7:41-43 … reads as follows:
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41 There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
42 And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
43 Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.
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This is a most interesting parable … and I suppose there are two distinct ways of looking at it.
(1) Through experience … it seems as if this parable is most often examined from the point of view of he who has the most sins as being the most grateful (or the one with the largest burden being lifted!)
I suppose that is a fair way of looking at it.
Certainly … an individual who has been carrying a heavy burden for far too long will be most grateful when another comes along and lightens it … as compared to someone who has been trudging along with nothing upon his or her back.
(2) However … we must remember … we are all mortal … we have all sinned … and we have all fallen short in the eyes of God.
From a certain perspective … we are all about equal when it comes to the sin department … or the Being in need of a Savior department.
From Heaven’s perspective … we are all carrying relatively equal debts.
When everyone owes the bank around one million dollars … it really doesn’t matter if one person owes $100 more or less than the next guy!
Everyone is pretty much equally “in need of a bailout!”
What really matters is to what extent an individual has eyes to see how far in debt one really is … and hence … how desperately one actually needs a rescue!
Said differently … in the parable of the Two Debtors … perhaps each debtor was equally in debt!
Perhaps they both owed the creditor 500 pence!
However … only the first debtor had eyes to see how desperate his situation really was … while the second debtor was blinded by pride … or sin … or some other shortcoming that prevented him from seeing the full extent of his critical situation.
In other words … perhaps this parable is less about comparison … or comparing yourself to someone else who is more sinful than you … so that you can feel good about yourself in the pretended knowledge that your sins only total 50 pence worth … while the other person’s sins exceed 500 pence worth … and instead … this parable is more about an individual opening up one’s own eyes to the full extent of his or her desperate situation … so that one can call upon and make full use of the Savior in transforming one’s own life?
Only as you come to see your life through Heaven’s point of view … can you come to see your complete dependence upon another who is mightier than yourself to save!!
Scripture Journal 