Peter must have felt pretty satisfied with himself. When he asks Jesus how many times you must forgive the offending brother/sister he suggests, “Seven times?” His willingness to forgive seven times exceeded what the Law and religious teachers of his day required. How surprised he must have been to hear Jesus’ answer, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Peter’s willingness to forgive seven times indicates he was beginning to learn what Jesus required of his disciples — forgiveness. But Jesus doesn’t put a limit on forgiveness as Peter is learning today– “seventy-seven times.”
So startling is Jesus’ statement that he follows it immediately with a parable meant to illuminate and support his demanding teaching. He leads into the parable by saying, “That is why the kingdom.,”–as if to say, “This parable will illustrate the reason for my radical teaching on forgiveness.” It’s clear from what Jesus has instructed about love of neighbor and even enemies, that forgiveness must be the hallmark of his disciples. But as important as this teaching is, that doesn’t make it easy to put into practice. Is there anyone in the pews, or in the sanctuary, who doesn’t know about the necessity for Christians to forgive? It’s one thing to know what we should do and another thing to be able to do it! Hence today’s striking parable.
The sequence in today’s story is important. It begins with the servant owing his master an amount so huge that he cannot possibly repay. Still, he begs for forgiveness, promises to repay (not possible) and he gets it; not by reason of personal merit or the promise to repay, but because of the king’s extraordinary generosity. The servant who owed the debt to the king didn’t earn forgiveness by anything he did first. Forgiveness is what happens first, gratuitous forgiveness when requested by someone who can’t claim to deserve it or earn it. There’s the heart of the gospel message.
The parable makes it quite clear that once forgiveness was given something was expected of the released servant. If we haven’t been changed by forgiveness and then forgive others in turn, we haven’t fully accepted and acted upon the gift we have received. Like the unforgiving servant, in the end, we are not released from our debt. To put it in street jargon we might say, “How can you be so cheap with your forgiveness when you got such a huge dose of it yourself?” It’s as if the king said, “Don’t you realize the treasure I gave you by forgiving you? How come you weren’t changed by it?”
In Jesus’ teaching it is quite clear we must be known by our forgiveness, based on our realization of how much and often we have been forgiven. God has forgiven us without reservation or limits. If we hold back forgiveness from others then this is a sign we have not accepted it ourselves from God and allowed it to enter our hearts to change us.
This matter of forgiveness isn’t only about what happens between two individuals. Today’s gospel message is from chapter eighteen in Matthew and is addressed to the community of disciples. Mutual forgiveness among us is a sine qua non in the Christian community. The inability to forgive and the holding of grudges are destructive forces in our family, social organizations and, especially, in our church. It not only divides us into feuding camps, but prevents our community from being a sign of God’s forgiving light in a world darkened by conflicts and vendettas which come, as Sirach tells us today, from hugging tightly to “wrath and anger.”
Run a fast glance over the map of the world. Can you find any place where forgiveness shines? How many places are in conflict because of religious, ethnic, tribal, racial, economic and environmental differences? What difference would a good dose of forgiveness play in these situations? That’s something to pray for at today’s Eucharist, isn’t it? After that prayer keep your eyes and ears open for signs of reconciliation popping up in surprising ways. After all, the parable’s key element is at the beginning of the tale: the king’s surprising gift of forgiveness. When such “surprises” happen in our lives and the world, then we know their source and we have a reason to say “thank you” at the Eucharist, our great prayer of thanksgiving.
Forgiveness begins with God, but it doesn’t stop there. We are expected to reflect that divine gift in our lives. Today we look over our past and present lives. Against whom do I hold on “tightly” to resentment or hatred? Whom have I not forgiving? Who is waiting for me to say to them, “I forgive you?” Whom have I offended and need to ask forgiveness? Probably we have had trouble bridging the “unforgiveness gap” that separates us. We may even have wished we could stir up the will to go over to their side and begin the process of reconciliation.
The world certainly isn’t a model of forgiveness for us, where shall we turn for help? We are reminded today at this Eucharist that on our own we cannot become forgiving people — not in the way Jesus expects of us. But we are not on our own for Christ is in our midst whose words of forgiveness can transform us and empower us to forgive. He is the one who does first what he asks us to do — forgive “from your heart.”
Lest we forget, as if we could, there is the need some of our church leaders and clergy have for forgiveness for their awful and sometimes criminal cover-ups of sexual abuse. It’s a need for forgiveness that stares us in the face. Some have acknowledged their failings and wrongdoing and our compassionate God has forgiven them. Some have refused to admit the wrong they have done. By not admitting their need and asking for forgiveness we all have suffered.