Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Scott Tunseth.
Today we continue looking at Jesus’ teaching about forgiveness from Matthew 18. The disciple Peter approaches Jesus, asking 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. (18:21-22)
Some Greek manuscripts say “seventy times seven” times. In the Bible seven is considered a perfect or complete number, so the implication is that we are to forgive a perfectly uncountable number of times. We don’t get to seventy-seven and call it quits because that’s the limit. No, we keep forgiving as if our life depends on it.
In one of his sermons preached in 1524, Martin Luther spoke about this passage from Matthew:
God’s kingdom, the forgiveness of sins, has no limit. . .. The debt we owe God is a million dollars, which means that it is infinite. It is so great we could not pay it with all our possessions and with all our powers, for we cannot blot out even the smallest sin. And since God in God’s kingdom forgives us so much out of sheer grace, we ought also to forgive our neighbor a little.”
Notice how Luther equates God’s kingdom with forgiveness. In the same sermon, Luther goes on say that the forgiveness of sins is the Christian church. Or we might say, forgiveness is the defining action that sets us apart as the followers of Jesus.
To make this point even clearer, Jesus continues by telling a parable that starts in a familiar way: “The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.” One slave can’t pay his debt, so he begs the king to forgive his large debt. Mercifully, the king does forgive the debt. But the slave does not show the same mercy to a fellow slave who owes him just a fraction the debt the first slave was forgiven. So, he has his fellow slave tossed into prison. When the king finds out, he chastises the first slave, saying: “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?”
The slave’s unmerciful action bears harsh consequences. He is thrown into prison and tortured till he can repay the king. And to punctuate his point, Jesus says, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from the heart” (18:35).
Strong words. It may surprise you to know that Matthew’s Gospel is the only one that contains this Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Its inclusion in the Gospel punctuates just how important practicing forgiveness is to Matthew. In fact, God’s very kingdom is built on the foundation of forgiveness.
We find it right in the center of the prayer Jesus taught: “Forgive us our sins, as WE forgive those who sin against us.”
Forgiving another is sometimes very difficult, in some cases for good reason. But when we find it hard to forgive, we also can fall prey to guilt and shame and draining anger. At such times, it is important to remember that God even forgives our failures to forgive. This is a promise that can make this day, and every day, a new day.
O God, empty me of angry judgments,
and aching disappointments,
and anxious trying,
and breathe into me
something like quietness
and confidence,
that the lion and the lamb in me
may lie down together
and be led by trust
as straightforward as a little child. Amen
(From Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle (Augsburg Books, 2005))