Homework: Read Parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18:21-35. Answer the following four questions in prose format (each answer should be about 100 words). 1) Who is the story about? Who is the main character? The King or the high level servant? Why? 2) Why does the King decide to forgive the debt? 3) Why does the servant not follow the example of the king and forgive the debt? 4) If the Kingdom of God is like this parable, then what do we learn about the Kingdom of God?

The story of the Unmerciful Servant was told by Jesus to teach Peter about the Kingdom of Heaven, so the story is about the Kingdom of Heaven. The main character in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant in the king. The king is a round character, changing from the beginning of the story to the end. At first, the king is harsh and terrorizes his servant who owed him money. But after the servant asked for mercy, the king had pity on him. But when the king found out about the servants terrorizing of another, he tortured him. The King went from being terrorizing, to understanding, back to terrorizing.

The King decides to forgive the debt because he became sympathetic to the servant. At first the king threatened to take the servants wife and children away. But the servant pleaded with him, promising that with patience, the king's debt would be repaid. This is when the king took pity on him. The reasons behind the king's actions was because the king wanted to set an example to the servant. Just as the king took pity on the servant, he wanted the servant to take pity on others and treat them with the same manner.

The servant does not follow the king's orders because he has promised the king he will pay him back. When he came across a lower level servant who owes him money, he treats him without sympathy because of his responsibility to pay the king back. The money he has the potential to acquire from the lowly servant could be put towards his debt to the king. The higher level servant, although having been treated with kindness from the king, has seen his wrath and does not want to face it again. Therefore he does not consider the King's kindness but his cruetly, and demands repayment.

In the Kingdom of God you get what you give. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" relates to this. This means the way you treat others is the treatment you will in turn recieve. Just as the higher level servant treated the lower level servent with cruelty and unsympathetically, he was then treated the same by the King. But, at first the higher level servant was treated with kindness when he asked for it, and without his kindness. This also tells us that the Kingdom of God gives when asked and gives without question.