21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.

24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.

29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.

32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

- KJV text, biblegateway.com

I will be using quotes from the NASB Bible from here on out in this deconstruction, which is meant to help understanding of this parable.

So the start is easy enough; Peter asks how many times he should forgive his brother, and Jesus says, in effect, to forgive as much as is necessary before diving into this parable.

In verse 24, a king decides to settle monetary accounts with his servants (or slaves, as some texts say). One is brought to the king, owing ten thousand talents. A talent was a measurement of money; think of a basket full of money weighted with 75 pounds (the weight, not the British currency) of either silver or gold. This would be worth millions, if not billions, or dollars in today's money; by contrast, after Pharaoh Neco deposed King Jehoahaz, he imposed a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold from Judea (2 Chronicles 36:3).

This servant couldn't pay, and the king was aware of this (v. 25), and commanded that he and his family be sold into slavery to repay, in addition to selling all that the family owned. The servant desperately fell before his master, begging that time be given to pay the debt (v. 26). The king felt a deep compassion for the servant, and graciously forgave all the man owed (v. 27). He was free.

The lesson, however, didn't stick in the servant's mind. Once free, he immediately went to one of his fellow servants, violently seized him, and demanded he pay him the one hundred denarii that the other man owed (v. 28). For reference, a denarii was considered a good day's pay. To make this clear, the servant was demanding a hundred day's worth of pay from the other man. According to gotquestions.org's webpage on this matter, a denarii was worth about sixteen cents today. A hundred day's denarii adds up, if they're right, to sixteen dollars.

The other servant did the same thing the first did; he begged to be given time to repay his debt (v. 29). But the servant who had been forgiven by the the king refused to listen. He threw the other man into jail until the debt could be repaid (v. 30). Let that sink in; the man who had been forgiven an unpayable debt by the king threw one of his equals in jail for owing sixteen dollars.

We don't know if the king forgave or freed this second servant; that isn't told to us. But other servants, seeing this debacle unfold, went to the king and told him everything (v. 31). The first servant was summoned to the king again (v. 32), and this time there was no escape. The king blasted the servant he had previously forgiven; "You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you (v. 32-33)?"

The king, justly enraged, threw the servant into prison, "to the torturers (v. 34, i.e. jailers assigned to torture prisoners, Matt. 18:34, note on verse), until the debt was repaid.

Jesus ends this parable, and this chapter, by saying, "My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart (v. 35).”

The meaning of the parable is clear; forgive others if you want to be forgiven.

We owe God a debt of sin that we can never repay. Righteously, we ought to be punished. But God desires mercy, and sent His Son to pay that debt, so we that believe and trust in Him may be made righteous before God. When we fail to forgive others, we are like that servant who had his fellow servant thrown in jail for a debt that is negligible. Worse still, it fails to display or share the mercy God had with us.

Gotquestions finishes off their webpage on this parable by saying, "Therefore, in the Parable of the Unforgiving / Unmerciful / Unjust Servant, Jesus is teaching His disciples, and us by extension, that forgiveness should be in like proportion to the amount forgiven. The first servant had been forgiven all, and he then should have forgiven all. In like manner, a child of God by faith through Christ has had all sins forgiven. Therefore, when someone offends or sins against us we should be willing to forgive him from a heart of gratitude for the grace to which we ourselves are debtors."

I'll finish off with a modern-day video that explains the parable within a modern context (not mine; I did not help make this, I'm just using it);

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Yes, forgiveness is a GIVE and take concept. A two way street.

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Wanna know what the servant was doing with ten thousand talents? He was buying four dozen eggs every morning to help him get large.