For Sunday, September 14, 2014 – Matthew 18:21-35
In case we haven’t been listening, Jesus has more to say about forgiving as we have been forgiven. Wanting to be a good student, Peter ponders the math. “How often should I forgive?” he asks. “As many as seven times?” Seven—a long span, a vast number. In years, long enough for the “same old, same old” to make us itchy for change; long enough that in many states live-in partners are the same as legally married. Jesus says, “No, not seven times.” What a relief! We’re only human after all. And then the clincher: “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In other words, a vast number—repeated. He might as well have said infinity.
Do we grasp the implications of this teaching for our own lives, that when we come into membership in the community of Jesus, we forever forgive? The evidence would suggest that we do not. Globally and locally, politically and personally, most of us choose other ways. We hold grudges, we seek revenge, we harbor regret—to infinity and beyond. We practice regularly in our families, our work places, certainly within our churches, all the while forgetting that forgiveness is not an elective course; it is the core curriculum. If we do not forgive, in truth we are enslaved. Thus Jesus offers a troubling illustration of how we gravitate toward bondage rather than forgiveness.
He tells of a king who owns some slaves and orders that one be sold to pay the debt he is owed; the slave begs for patience and understanding, and the king takes pity and forgives his debt and sets him free. Does the slave, now forgiven, embrace his freedom with joy? Does he now gladly offer forgiveness to others? No, he turns on a fellow slave who owes him a much smaller amount than what he has been forgiven. In the end the forgiven one is tortured instead of freed. Isn’t this our story, too, when we seek “righteous revenge” rather than rising to the challenges of freedom? The old mind urges us to do the math and settle debts and assign blame. All the while, we miss the forgiveness, which promises risky adventure for the brave of heart. Will we leave the old land and go?
