Suppose you are sitting at dinner wearing an expensive shirt, that has just been laundered. The person next to you picks up the ketchup bottle and accidentally splatters ketchup on your clean shirt. You react with anger, but then, realizing this was an accident, you forgive her. Now, let’s change the scenario. The person next to you is angry at something you said, and squirts ketchup deliberately on your shirt. Now, how to you feel? Doubly angry! Yet this person quickly repents for what she did and asks forgiveness. You forgive her, but it is not so easy this time. Now, scenario three. The “squirter” deliberately splatters ketchup on your new shirt and is glad she did. She seems to get satisfaction at watching you be upset. There is no repentance at all. Do you forgive or do you grab the ketchup bottle and do to her what she did to you?
If, by a miracle of grace, you are able to turn to the person, and with a loving look in your eye, say, “I forgive you,” then you have achieved the greatest of all human accomplishments. You have done something that is impossible for human beings to do.
Jesus talks to Peter today about forgiveness. Have you ever noticed that God always asks people to do the impossible? Moses was told to confront Pharaoh—impossible, considering he was a criminal and had a speech defect. Jonah was told to preach to the Ninevites—impossible, because these were his worst enemies. The apostles were told to feed five thousand people—impossible, they had only five loaves of bread. Listen to the impossible challenge Jesus gives Peter (Matthew 18:21-35).
“Peter approached Jesus and asked him, ‘Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I say to you,, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’”
Peter was catching onto Jesus’ message. He knew that if his brother, Andrew, squirted ketchup on his clean shirt, he was required, as a disciple of Jesus, to forgive him—even if Andrew did it deliberately. So Peter expanded on Jesus’ teaching by suggesting that to be perfect, must he continue to forgive Andrew even if he does it six more times. He proposed a preposterous case. No brother could be that mean. After seven times, Peter reasoned, he could dump a bottle of ketchup on Andrew’s shirt. Jesus must have been proud of Peter to think of doing the impossible—forgiving seven times! Peter smiled and waited for Jesus to compliment him on having such a merciful attitude. Sorry, Peter, no compliment.
“Jesus answered, ‘I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.’”
Whoa Jesus! Peter couldn’t even count to seventy-seven. Jesus was expecting a feat that no human could ever accomplish. Forgiving once would be heroic. Forgiving seven times was over-the-top. Seventy-seven times! Come on Jesus you are asking the impossible.
Jesus drove the point home by telling the parable of a king and his servant. In his kindness the king had lent the servant a large amount of money over the years. Now came the time for the servant to pay his debt.
“When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way to paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold…At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.”
What an act of forgiveness! The master knew that the servant’s empty promise to pay back the “huge amount” in full was impossible. He didn’t fall for the servant’s plea and extend the payment time. Instead he did what any reasonable business man would do. He planned to sell the servant, his family, and possessions in order to recover at least some of the money owed him. Then, moved by compassion, he did the unthinkable—he forgave the servant the entire debt! No human master could be this compassionate. The servant had been the recipient of the greatest act of mercy ever known on earth—a mercy that extended beyond what humans can give.
We know the rest of the story. After being given this blessing of infinite mercy, the servant quickly sought out a fellow servant who owed him a pittance of money. Instead of forgiving the man, he seized him and tried to choke him demanding that he pay back what he owed. When his “brother” begged mercy, the ungrateful servant had him imprisoned.
Don’t you feel angry at this thankless servant? Wouldn’t you like to smack him as hard as you can?
Now, we are the forgiven servant who has received the abundance of God’s mercy. Yes, it is almost impossible, to forgive someone who has deliberately hurt us, even knowing how God has forgiven us.
So we pray, “Come Holy Spirit. Empower me with the very mercy that comes from God’s heart, so I can accomplish the greatest of all human feats—completely forgive every debt and every hurt that has ever been leveled against me. This way I can be the pure presence of Christ’s mercy in the world today.”
“In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord” (Ps 25:7).
