What are our limits of forgiveness?

WHAT ARE OUR LIMITS OF FORGIVENESS?

Mt. 18:21-35

Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?  Up to seven times?"  The reply he received was not what he had expected!

When Peter suggested that he should forgive his brother seven times he knew that Jewish tradition limited forgiveness to three times and he thought his willingness to forgive seven times was much more generous - and thus surpassing the righteousness of Pharisees and teachers of the law.  But Jesus answered, “Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.”

This means our forgiveness is to be unlimited.  Peter's question indicated that he still wanted to count how many times he should forgive.  Jesus was in effect telling him to change his ways of thinking.  He then went on to illustrate His point with a parable. 

"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.  One servant owed him ten thousand talents.  Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had sold to repay the debt.  The servant begged, 'Be patient with me and I will pay back everything.'  The master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.”

The amount the servant owed his master was a ridiculously exaggerated sum of money, literally millions of pounds in today's value.  But by making this sum so huge Jesus is telling us that whatever we try to do ourselves to make amends for the wrong we do it is never adequate.  Yet God takes pity on us if we ask His forgiveness for our failings and cancels the whole debt.

The parable continues, “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.  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.'  He refused.  Instead, he had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.”

Immediately we think, how can this servant be so unforgiving and cruel to his fellow servant when he himself had just been forgiven such a great debt he owed his master?  In the light of the king's gracious treatment, the conduct of this servant towards his fellow servant was particularly repugnant:  he grabbed him and began to choke him, demanding that the whole amount be repaid right then and there.

The conduct and words of the fellow servant are almost identical to the conduct and words of the first servant with two exceptions. The first servant's promise to pay back "everything" was simply a hollow promise.  The fellow servant's plea for patience and his promise to repay the debt were at least within the realm of possibility.  Yet the irony is that the forgiven servant was not even willing to be patient - let alone cancel the debt.  Since the king forgave the first servant, there was no need for him to be so demanding of his fellow servant.  We cannot help but respond in anger to the unreasonable conduct of the first servant.

“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 cancelled 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 turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”

As we might have expected the king revokes his previous decision and condemns the unforgiving servant for his unjust treatment of his fellow servant.  When the king says "You wicked servant" we feel good that justice was now being done to this servant who had received forgiveness but refused to grant it.

But Jesus concludes His lesson with a message for each of us, "This is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

Earlier Jesus had taught His disciples to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Mt. 6:12).  Then commenting on that prayer, Jesus said, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Mt. 6:14-15).

Lord Jesus, You desire Your disciples to be perfect "as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt. 5:48).  The perfection You demand here is that of love, not only to our neighbour, but also to our enemies.  After all, Your Father "causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Mt. 5:45).  May each one of us try to be like God our Father … loving and forgiving.

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