Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent -- March 29, 2011
Matthew 18:21 – 35
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive someone who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive a brother or sister from your heart.”
The text is about forgiveness and hinges on the initial question Peter asks Jesus: “How many times am I to forgive someone who sins against me?” I sense that Peter’s question arises from his own desire to know the bare forgiveness-minimum God expects of him.
I can identify with his question. If the answer is “three times,” I wouldn’t want to be caught expending energy on forgiving “four times!” Tell me the minimum requirements. I want to follow the rules, but I’m also not itching to go too far beyond the bare minimum.
Jesus shows utter disregard for counting the number of times we forgive another person. He is more concerned that forgiveness is the fabric that knits together relationship, both the Divine-human relationship and the human-to-human relationship.
Since we are the “humans” in both sets of relationships, our need for forgiveness will be constant. We cannot boundary our need for forgiveness to any capped number. In any human relationship, forgiveness had best be infinite, because our capacity to live from a self-referenced center is infinite.
Mercy had best be boundless, because we are constantly wounding and being wounded.
Pardon needs to be endless, because there will always be someone in our life-world who offends us, just as there will be people we offend.
Besides, forgiveness is never once and for all. For the deepest hurts I’ve known, each day I forgive as best I can for that day. Tomorrow I’ll forgive those persons again as best I can. Many of the people I’m forgiving today, I’ve been bringing to prayer daily for a long time.
And I hope that they – and others – are forgiving me in the same way.
Jesus, mercy me.
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive someone who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive a brother or sister from your heart.”
The text is about forgiveness and hinges on the initial question Peter asks Jesus: “How many times am I to forgive someone who sins against me?” I sense that Peter’s question arises from his own desire to know the bare forgiveness-minimum God expects of him.
I can identify with his question. If the answer is “three times,” I wouldn’t want to be caught expending energy on forgiving “four times!” Tell me the minimum requirements. I want to follow the rules, but I’m also not itching to go too far beyond the bare minimum.
Jesus shows utter disregard for counting the number of times we forgive another person. He is more concerned that forgiveness is the fabric that knits together relationship, both the Divine-human relationship and the human-to-human relationship.
Since we are the “humans” in both sets of relationships, our need for forgiveness will be constant. We cannot boundary our need for forgiveness to any capped number. In any human relationship, forgiveness had best be infinite, because our capacity to live from a self-referenced center is infinite.
Mercy had best be boundless, because we are constantly wounding and being wounded.
Pardon needs to be endless, because there will always be someone in our life-world who offends us, just as there will be people we offend.
Besides, forgiveness is never once and for all. For the deepest hurts I’ve known, each day I forgive as best I can for that day. Tomorrow I’ll forgive those persons again as best I can. Many of the people I’m forgiving today, I’ve been bringing to prayer daily for a long time.
And I hope that they – and others – are forgiving me in the same way.
Jesus, mercy me.
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