How Many Times
November 17, 2024
Matthew 18:21-35, Matthew 6:14-15, Colossians 3:12-14
Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?”
Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-22
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Seventy seven or more accurately 70 x 7 times. In one humorous telling of this story, Peter continues the conversation…
“Seriously Jesus, first you tell me to forgive the one who sins against me and now you’re going to make me to math too?!”
Taken literally, I suppose that means we only have to forgive someone 490 times, but if we’re counting that high, I’m not sure genuine forgiveness is really on our minds.
Seven is commonly used in scripture as a number of completeness or fullness. In other words, we are to forgive the full or complete number of times… which would be every time. At first glance, this seems a bit unreasonable, until we understand the parable that follows.
A servant owed the king 10,000 talents. I have seen several different calculations on what this would look like in 21st century American dollars, but needless to say, they are all exorbitant amounts. There is no way this debt can ever be repaid, and yet the king releases him of the debt rather than forcing him to pay for the rest of his life.
Of course the servant is beyond grateful, until he comes across someone else who owes him a much smaller amount, perhaps only a few dollars by comparison. In turn, he refuses to forgive the debt owed to him. When the king learns of this, he is furious. He reinstates the tremendous debt and throws him into prison.
Perhaps one reason we struggle so much with forgiveness is because we don’t realize just how much we have been forgiven. We don’t appreciate the value of the forgiveness and mercy we have experienced in our lives, not only from God but also from others.
It’s amazing how stark this truth becomes when we look at it in the financial terms Jesus lays out. Forgiveness sometimes feels abstract. We can’t always put a price on how much someone has hurt us. But when money is involved, we know exactly how much we are owed and how much we owe others. When we see others in debt, we can be quick to judge. We don’t ask what happened that led to such debt, what tragic circumstances or exploitive systems may have led them to being in over their head. We simply demand that they pay up, just like the man who the servant refused to forgive. Yet when it comes to our own, though we my do our best to pay, there may very well come a time when we ask for mercy, for an extension, for a reversal of unfair fees, or some other relief during a hard time when other expenses overwhelm us.
When Jesus forgives those who hung him on the cross, he declares that they do not know what they are doing. Perhaps that alone is a good reason to forgive. We simply don’t know what’s going on in the other person’s life. Maybe they don’t fully understand what they have done. Maybe a bit of mercy will help them turn things around. May we forgive as God has forgiven us.