no he didn't. he asked for a continuance. he wanted to buy time.
the Master in His grace did far more than he asked
i quoted the NIV earlier for 18:32, but it is inaccurate -
Then his lord called him, and said to him, wicked servant, I forgave to thee all the debt, for thou prayedest me.
(Matthew 18:32 wyc)
NIV has, because you begged me to
the text actually just says, because you begged.
no 'to' -- the man begged, for time to pay it back himself. either because he thought he could, or because he planned to flee, or because he planned to kill his lord without ever paying. to steal, kill & destroy.
Interesting point. Many translations say that the wicked servant was forgiven of his huge debt because he
begged or
pleaded with his master. Thus, his master showed mercy and forgiveness and the huge debt of the wicked servant was forgiven until his unforgiving nature was discovered. His master in this parable was a man who did not infallibly know his wicked servant's heart (unlike the Lord, Jesus Christ who infallibly knows our hearts) and did not realize that his servant was wicked until his heart was exposed by refusing to forgive one of his fellow servants a small debt and the wicked servant even choked his fellow servant and threw him into prison until he could pay back the small debt. The parable is about forgiveness and not type 2 works salvation.
Jesus warned that God cannot forgive us if we have a wicked, unmerciful, unforgiving heart and to be unwilling to forgive in such a small matter would reveal such a
wicked heart. In the parable of the unforgiving servant, the servant’s debt was forgiven until his unforgiving nature was discovered. In contrast, our sin debt was paid in full by Christ at the cross and is the means for God’s forgiveness. We cannot repay our sin debt to God or earn our salvation and God is not automatically going to forgive us our sin debt simply because we beg or plead with Him with a wicked heart that is unwilling to forgive others, especially in such a small matter, as in the parable. God forgives our sin debt by grace through faith (instrumental means) and forgiveness is the mark of a merciful heart that is saved.