Then Peter came to him and said, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother who sins against me? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy-seven times! “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. As a he began settling his accounts, a man who owed ten thousand talents was brought to him. Because he was not able to repay it, the lord ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, children, and whatever he possessed, and repayment to be made. Then the slave threw himself to the ground before him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you everything.ʼ The lord had compassion on that slave and released him, and forgave him the debt.” (Matthew 18:21-27 — New English Translation)
Forgiveness is a foundational teaching of Jesus, and if we are going to follow Him, we have to forgive… period. This is not an option for Christians. When Peter came to Jesus asking how many times he should forgive a person, he must have thought he was being extremely generous and spiritual by suggesting seven, but Jesus told him that he should be prepared to forgive seventy-seven times — this could also be translated seventy times seven — the point being that there can be no limit to our forgiveness. Not only did Jesus teach this, He lived it out when He forgave the people that had whipped and crucified Him. He made it a point to forgive those lying, proud, evil people before His last breath, setting an example for us all.
Forgiveness is a sign of God’s presence in us, just like unforgiveness is a sign of the presence of demons.
In the time of Jesus ten thousand talents was an enormous sum of money. A denarius was one day’s wage for a laborer. A talent was worth six thousand denarii. Ten thousand talents would be sixty million day’s wages! …a staggering amount of money that could never be repayed. The situation of the slave in Jesus’ parable was hopeless. He would never climb out of the hole that he had dug for himself, and when he falls at the king’s feet and asks for mercy, it is shocking that the king would forgive him such an enormous debt.
But of course, the slave with the debt is you and me, and the king is God. Our sin is the enormous, unpayable debt, and God is ready to forgive us when we fall at His feet and cry out for mercy. No matter what we have done, no matter how dirty our lives are, there is no hole so deep that God’s mercy and power cannot reach us. There’s just one catch, God’s forgiveness hinges on our willingness to forgive others.
Forgiveness does not mean that we condone what people have done to us. It simply means we’re not going to allow it to eat us up, to burden us, to make us bitter and angry. Forgiveness is more about us than it is the other person. Forgiving frees us to think and concentrate on God and our future.
If you’ve had trouble believing that God could forgive your past, this passage is a direct challenge to your worldly way of thinking. God’s forgiveness is extreme, and our acceptance of it must also be extreme. Accept His forgiveness, enjoy the freedom, and get busy living the life He wants you to live.
We’ll talk about the last part of this parable tomorrow…
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