Tuesday, Third Week of Lent

It can be helpful to pay attention to the questions that we find on the lips of the gospel characters, whether on the lips of Jesus or of those with whom he interacts. Today’s gospel begins with one such question, on the lips of Peter. He asks Jesus, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me?’ It is a question that Jesus’ teaching on the importance of forgiveness must have moved him to ask. Is there a limit to forgiveness? Peter proposes an answer to his own question, ‘Seven times’. In the Jewish tradition, the number ‘seven’ was the symbol of perfection. Peter must have been confident that the answer ‘seven’ would have been acceptable to Jesus. Instead, Jesus answers, ‘not seven but seventy-seven times’. Poor old Peter was probably sorry he ever asked the question in the first place! As so often, Jesus explains himself by telling a story. The first part of the story is one of limitless forgiveness. The amount the servant owed the master was astronomical. He asked for time to pay it back, but several lifetimes would not have been long enough to pay back this enormous debt. The master simply cancels the debt. Jesus is suggesting that there is nothing calculating about God’s forgiveness. If we ask for it, God grants it, even though our debt to God, the weight of our sin, is enormous. The second part of the parable suggests that receiving God’s boundless forgiveness requires us to pass on that forgiveness to others. In this, the servant failed. A lower ranking servant asked for time to pay off a small debt. It could easily have been paid off over time, but time wasn’t given to him. Forgiveness was denied. If God gives forgiveness when we ask for it, we must stand ready to freely pass on God’s forgiveness when others seek it from us. If we don’t, Jesus suggests that we can block ourselves from receiving the healing power of God’s forgiveness.