In this morning’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is asked a seemingly simple and straight-forward question by Peter, “How many times should I forgive another member of the church?” Now, I know for certain that on several different occasions in the past this same kind of question has gone through my own mind. “How often must I forgive another individual?”
I’m also very impressed that Peter makes a direct reference to the limit of seven times that is mentioned in the Jewish code of ethics. But then I’m sure I’m not the only one who has trouble forgiving someone who has “sinned” against me more than once.
The answer that was given by Jesus seems at first to be both direct and challenging, but upon reconsideration it seems confussing. Did he really say to forgive 77 times? Or are the other transations of this text correct when they claim that Jesus said 70 times 7? Oh my! Am I required by the Lord to forgive someone’s trangressions 7 times, 77 times, or 490 times? And here I thought that forgiving them once might be in certain occations a challenge!
The reality is not about the number of times that we are to forgive, because it’s not about “keeping score.” It’s all about the real meaning of forgiveness.
All of us gathered here today have forgiven some individuals in the past. I know that it is often easier for me to forgive total strangers than it has been to forgive someone with whom I have been a fellow employee. After all, most likely I will never see the stranger again, but I will have to see my fellow-worker time and time again. A stranger may have brought harm to me without any malace of forethought, but it will always be a question that will fester deep within my thoughts when the offender is someone that I will be seeing day after day.
However, even this rule is not carved in stone, for if the one who has offended is a member of our family then the rules may be different. But even then there is a limit! Unless of course we are talking about my wife, or one of my children … for they have not even begone to reach the “490 count” yet. And while we are on this topic, my grandchildren are truly exempted from the issue of counting times that they are forgiven by Poppa … there is no limit for my grandchildren!
Jesus makes it clear that holding a grudge or keeping a record of the times that we have forgiven another is not our task. Do you remember in this story he shares that the King’s servant owed the King 10,000 talents? It’s interesting to me that a Talent is 44.9 lbs of refined silver. This would mean that the servant owes the King 449,000 pounds of silver. By the way, Herod the Great was only able to raise a total of 900 Talents in taxation a year while he was in power. And so, the servant owed the King a debt that could not be paid.
After the King forgave the servant, we learn that the servant had another man thrown into prison until he should repay the servant the 100 denarii that he was owed. Now if a “denarii” was a day’s wages for a common laborer, then this fellow’s debt was but 1/2,000,000th of the debit that the forgiven man had owed. And now the real point of the parable is becoming clear … when we have prayed to God for forgiveness of our sins, and received forgiveness from God … how is it possible for us to not be willing to offer forgiveness to any of our brothers or sisters?
In the parable, when the King learned of the servant’s cold hearted unwillingness to “forgive as he had been forgiven” … the servant was punished to the fullest extent of the law.
How often have we said the word’s of the Lord’s Prayer? Have we really paused to think for even a moment about the real depth and meaning of those words as we say them? “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”[1]
In his letter to the faithful community in Rome, Paul wrote, “Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.”[2] We are all children of God. We will all be held accountable for our actions and our inactions by God at the final judgement. If you’re going to keep score, then be very carefull … and be very ready to pay your own debit.
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