This is one story where I don't mind not being one of the main characters. I would love to have someone ask me how much I owe Sallie Mae in student loans and let me cut that bill in half. That person would definitely have a place to sleep in my house if they ever came through town. I would buy them all the coffee they wanted at Starbucks. It would be a gift I could not reasonably repay, and I wouldn't necessarily be all that concerned about how that person was able to fix my debt load.

The other question this raises for me, in context, is that Jesus puts love of God and love of money at opposite poles (basically), right after telling a story about a man who was about to lose his job and his control over his master's money. But if this were God, and not a money-lender, imagine how that story would translate. Instead of monetary debts, we'd have law debts, guilt debts, sin debts. And then the one who was about to lose his job, would that person be equivalent to a priest? What would that even mean, if he was holding people's sins over their heads on behalf of his master and then, learning his job was in jeopardy, decided to simply wipe out half of those debts? Why, if he had the power, wouldn't he wipe out all of that debt? Or was he, also, too afraid of the master, holding debts of his own that he couldn't let go of?

Granted, not every parable with a master parallels the kingdom of God, but to compare and contrast the way we work with the way God, in whose Image we are created, works, I've got to wonder if we are stingy with our forgiveness the way we might be tight-fisted with our money. If this image of forgiving monetary debts, even if only partially, is easier to relate to because we know what trouble debt can get us into and what relief it is to get out of it. It's tangible, it ties stomachs up in knots, with anxieties and fears, in a way that perhaps our guilt and grief can keep buried, especially when we are distracted with money. But the forgiveness of guilt and sin, the removal of the barrier between us which isolates and suffocates, is a far deeper and more lasting forgiveness than any bill of sale can illustrate. How much do you owe? Take that bill and nail it to the cross - consider it paid in full.