7 Times 70
BIBLE STORY:
In Matthew 18, Jesus continues to heal and minister to his disciples and others who choose to follow him. Peter asks Jesus about how often we should forgive others and Jesus responds with a parable.
“Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Servant 1
In the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21 - 34), there's a servant who owes 10K talents (a form of currency) to his master. Lets call him Servant 1.
He begs and pleads for mercy over this debt and he will pay as soon as he is able. The Master took pity over Servant 1 and cancelled his debt completely. The end? Not quite.
Servant 1 goes out and finds one of his fellow servants who owes him 100 silver coins. Lets call him Servant 2. Servant 1 runs up on him, chokes him, and demanded he be paid back. Servant 2 begs for mercy as he will pay Servant 1 back when he is able. S1 refuses and has S2 thrown in jail. When word got back to the Master about what S1 had done, the Master became outraged and threw him into jail with orders that he be tortured until the he paid back all his debt to the Master.
Jesus ends his parable with “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
“Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ”
Thoughts:
Do unto others as you as God has done unto you. I know we can’t be like God, but we cannot ask for forgiveness from Him without forgiving our fellow man. Its important to recognize the symbolism behind the Master and the Servant. The servant begs for mercy and pity to be pardoned of his debt the same way we ask God for grace and mercy for our sins. We know the wages of our sin is death (Romans 6:23), and sin is the debt we carry everyday. We also know that we cannot repay God for sending His only son for our sins, but because of God's grace, we are able to be pardoned and freed from our sin. Forgiveness is an action word and is not of any benefit to the offender despite popular belief. When The Lord’s Prayer asks God “to forgive us our debt” it comes with a clause. It asks for forgiveness “as we have also forgiven our debtors.” There’s some work we’ve got to do there!
So is there a cap on how often we should forgive those we offend us? Nope. I know that’s a hard pill to swallow, but we cant follow the ways of this world. (Romans 12:2) The world says “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” but God says even if its seventy seven, or seventy times seven times, forgiveness is required. I’m sure I’ve asked God for forgiveness well over seventy seven times, and thank God for His Love that covers my sin everytime.
Now that you’ve read this far, what you do with this information is between you and our God. I know forgiveness is tough, but with God all things are possible.
Be blessed,
Eve