Thought for the Week

Forgiveness is a very much needed virtue, not only in the world at large or in the past but today. Jesus had been giving a teaching on how to go about forgiveness and reconciliation. Peter asked a question about forgiving a brother who had sinned against him. It may have been a genuine question or a hypothetical one. As part of the question, Peter proposes an answer. Rabbinical teaching of the day, proposed a person should forgive up to three times but not four. Peter, knowing the heart of Jesus to a degree, doubles that response and adds one. Perhaps Peter expected Jesus would commend him for such a generous response. Rather, I think Jesus amazed Peter by telling him, “Not seven times but seventy times seven.” There is some debate in interpretation of that number as some suppose is should be seventy-seven times. But the truth remains, whichever number you use, it basically says forgiveness should be limitless. For if you are keeping track of your forgiveness and your brother’s sins against you, you have not truly forgiven. True forgiveness keeps no record of the wrongs. True forgiveness wipes the record clean, not even leaving an erasure mark. We can understand that granting forgiveness is costly. It means the one sinned against must be ready to suffer pain or loss. It can be very expensive in many ways. To illustrate Jesus gave a parable of a king who had a servant that owed him 10,000 talents. A talent is a weight of money. If we figure money as earned wages, it would amount to almost 200 years’ worth of wages. Certainly an unpayable amount. The servant begged time to make the payment. But, with a compassionate heart, the king forgave the debt, himself absorbing that tremendous loss, and thus forgave the servant. This should have resulted in overwhelming gratitude. Perhaps it did. But it did not result in all we would hope for. For a reversal happens in the parable. That forgiven servant left the king’s presence and found a fellow servant who had a tiny debt to him. He mistreated his fellow servant, and ultimately had him imprisoned until the debt was to be paid even though that fellow servant begged for time and more than likely would have made the payment. Jesus then moves the parable to teaching mode. He suggests that other servants observed this whole action. They likely thought it wrong. They approached the king and told him about it. The king too thought it wrong and summoned the servant he had forgiven and confronted him about the attitude he had and the attitude he should have had which were radically different. The end result of this teaching should give us great cause for concern. Jesus says that if we do not forgive others as God has forgiven us, God will withdraw His forgiveness and hold us accountable for our un-forgiveness. There is no doubt we can never repay God for His forgiveness of our debt-load of sin. That could never be repaid. But God then does expect us to forgive anyone, for anything they have done to wrong or harm us. God’s forgiveness is complete so ours must be. We should also consider our fellow servants are watching us to see what we do. Do we have a good testimony with regard to gratitude for the forgiveness God has granted to us? It should be a matter for sincere prayer to do as God has done

Scriptures to Read

St. Matthew 18:21-22

St. Matthew 18:23-27

St. Matthew 18:28-34

St. Matthew 18:35 & Isaiah 55:7

St. Matthew 6:14-15

Psalm 51:1-3

II Chronicles 7:14