Forgiveness

Matthew18. 21-35

Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church 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.

Seven times seventy or seventy-seven or whatever it says in your translation of the bible is a finite number...once you've forgiven 490 times, you're done. However, Jesus goes on to tell a parable, one of the most hyperbolic parables of all, to show how infinite God's forgiveness is and so should ours be. Ten thousand talents is today's equivalent of two million dollars and for most of us that would be impossible to repay. Forgiving is not about repaying because Jesus says repaying is impossible. Forgiveness is about letting go of the debt because we have been forgiven the debt.

The Old Testament law said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity forgave the debt and so must we. What if you were to be tortured until you could come up with two million dollars? And if you are lucky enough to have two million dollars to give away, what infinite amount would get your attention. Yes, this is an exaggeration, and so is God's great forgiveness.

We cannot forgive too many times is the bottom line.