Reflections by The Ven. Dr. Deborah Broome

It’s not about the maths!

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.  For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him, and, as he could not pay, the lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”     

                                                Matthew 18:21-35

Peter’s raised the issue of how many times he’s supposed to forgive someone who’s hurt him: one, twice, maybe even seven times?  Seven’s a number that’s easy to count: colours of the rainbow, days of the week – we know when we’ve got to seven.  Actually, says Jesus, it’s seventy-seven times: forgiveness isn’t a commodity to be counted, Peter, you’re to keep on and on forgiving.  Leave the maths alone.

Then, as so often, Jesus tells a parable to illustrate.  A slave who owes a huge amount of money – gazillions, says one commentary, more than the wages of a day-labourer for 150,000 years   – has his unpayable debt forgiven, but then he refuses to give the same treatment to another slave who owes him a far smaller amount, so he ends up in prison.  Incidentally we must resist the temptation to treat this as a neat and simple allegory in which the king is God, ending up torturing the slave until his debt was paid: parables don’t work like that.  But the king in his generosity wants the first slave to see forgiveness in action and learn how to do it himself.  That’s part of what’s behind the completely unbalanced arithmetic of the two debts.

In asking if forgiving seven times is enough, Peter’s thinking of himself as the one offended against – but Jesus’ answer and the parable are inviting him to see himself as the forgiven one. The story grounds forgiveness in the nature of God: God has offered us forgiveness for all the wrong we have done, all the times we’ve missed the mark, and God wants us to extend that forgiveness to others.  Human forgiveness ultimately stems from divine forgiveness.  This is a tough lesson for Peter, and maybe for us as well. 

This isn’t something to take legalistically: we can’t earn God’s forgiveness by forgiving others, or see God as somehow unwilling to forgive our unwillingness to forgive one another.  But it does encourage us to give up on the game of innocent versus guilty and instead join the fellowship of forgiven sinners.  We’ll find Peter there, for a start.

Image credit: Nader Ayman, Unsplash