Seventy Times Seven

In Matthew chapter 18 we read the account of Peter coming to Jesus and asking how many times he should forgive his brother when he sins against him. “As many as seven times?” Peter asks.
I suspect this is not a hypothetical question for Peter. He not thinking that someday some brother might sin against him repeatedly and he should be ready. No, I think Peter is living with a brother sinning against him. He is living with forgiving the same guy for the same thing over and over again.
Jesus replies; “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
Imagine Peter’s thinking; “Seventy times seven? I have to forgive this guy 490 times?”
Jesus, knowing what Peter was thinking when we can only imagine, explains by telling a parable, a story made up to make a point. The story was about a king who came to settle accounts with his people. A servant was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. A talent was about twenty year’s wages for this man. To convert it to our thinking, if you make $50,000 a year that would be $1,000,000. This was an impossible debt.
Unable to pay, the king ordered that this man, his wife, his children, and everything he owned be sold to pay the debt. The man begged his master to give him more time and he would pay him. Does this sound realistic? Does this seem like a good risk? I don’t think so. I think his master would have been ahead to take what he could get and move on.
But the king had pity on the man. He had mercy, not giving the man what he deserved or even the extension he asked for; he forgave the debt.
I don’t think we really understand how huge this was. Our possessions might be seized to pay our debt, but we wouldn’t be sold into slavery. This man received mercy beyond calculation in the debt being forgiven.
This should have changed his life. He should have never looked at anyone who owed him anything without thinking of the debt he was forgiven. But that’s not what happened.
The man found another man who owed him 100 denarii. A denarius was about a day’s wages. At $50,000 a year for six days a week that is just under $160.00. When he could not pay, the man had him put in prison.
This man would not forgive $160.00 even though he had been forgiven 6,250 times more.
What do you think? I think that what this man was despicable. Sadly, I have acted every bit as despicably.
Apart from Christ I owed an impossible debt, a debt I could not pay. Unlike the king in our parable, God didn’t just forgive my debt, He paid it in full. The debt I owed, the penalty for my sin, was eternal death. God paid my debt as His eternal Son took on himself the penalty I deserved.
If you are a Christian, if you are in Christ by grace through faith, your sin, past present and future, has been forgiven because the penalty for your sin has been paid.
Having received this great forgiveness from the One I sinned against, how can I not forgive those who sin against me? Jesus humbled himself in His incarnation and was humiliated in His crucifixion and yet, as he hung beaten and bloodied dying the most agonizing and painful death ever conceived by mankind, asked God the father to forgive those who unjustly convicted Him, mocked Him, beat Him, and nailed Him to a cross to die.
Our parable continues as some of the other servants went to their master and told him what the unforgiving servant had done.
The king called in this servant and said to him; “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” Then he threw the servant into prison until he could pay.
Jesus concludes the parable with; “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Jesus is not saying that God will condemn us for unforgiveness, He is saying our unforgiveness condemns us. Salvation is not based on anything we do, nor is condemnation. Salvation is by grace – the freely given unmerited gift of God – alone. What Jesus is saying is that if we are unforgiving we are not forgiven. Unforgiveness is a sign of one who has not been reconciled to God.
Don’t misunderstand, we get hurt by others and we get angry at others and we may struggle with unforgiveness, but if we are in Christ His Spirit is in us and we will be convicted of our sin and come to forgive those who have hurt us and those we are angry with. Those who do not are not in Christ.
I find the way to forgiveness is to consider what forgiveness cost God the Father. I find the way to let go of an offense is to consider the offense of the mocking and beating and crucifixion of the Son of God. Considering this, how can I hold on to an offense? Considering this, how can I not forgive? Considering this, I should gladly forgive my brother more than seventy times seven times.