Saturday 19 November 2011
- Bible Book:
- Matthew
"Then 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'" (v. 21)
Background
Chapter 18 in Matthew's Gospel exploresdifferent ideas about what it means to live in community, how weshould deal with each other and our deep responsibility for others.Peter seems to be getting the hang of this. In rabbinic teachingthere was a consensus that someone should be forgiven a repeatedwrongdoing three times and that on the fourth there would be noforgiveness. Now Peter, beginning to understand the direction thatJesus is going, offers a more generous response than the receivedteaching: 'How about seven times then Jesus? Is that enough?'. Hehas perceived the gist but not the radical nature of what Jesus isproposing.
You forgive 77 (or 70 times 7) times Jesus replies - a ridiculousnumber. In other words, if you're counting the number of times thenyou're not doing it right.
Jesus then offers a parable that closes this section of teaching.It elaborates on his teaching about forgiveness and also echoes thewords of the prayer that he offers earlier in the Gospel: "forgiveus our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (
In the Lord's Prayer we are invited to ask God to treat us in thesame way we have treated those who have wronged us. But in the caseof the parable this dynamic is reversed. Rather than the slavereceiving forgiveness because he showed mercy to his debtor he isexpected to offer forgiveness because of the mercy he has alreadyreceived.
Holding these two teachings together it is impossible to say whichcomes first: God's forgiveness of us or our forgiveness of others.It seems that they are so intimately related as to be inseparable.A life lived within the dynamic of God's love will not keep countof the number of times we need to forgive others, neither will itcling to the number of times we receive forgiveness for our ownmistakes. Rather it will be a continual outpouring of loving grace- received and given at the same time, a well that never runsdry.
To Ponder
What do you think is the relationship between thelove and mercy we receive and that which we give?
If we are not to count the number of times weforgive someone does that mean we also have to forget what theyhave done wrong? Why/why not?