21Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"
22Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 23Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, "Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' 27Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
28"But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, "Pay me what you owe!' 29So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' 30And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 31So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, "You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' 34And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
35"So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."
There are several good lessons in this text. But first of all I was struggling with Jesus' statement that we should forgive seventy times seven times, meaning an unlimited number of times. The reason I struggle with this is not because I don't think that we should forgive an unlimited number of times, but because the previous verses just said to confront your brother, then bring witnesses, then take it to the church. If he still does not hear, let him be to you like a heathen or a tax collector. That doesn't sound like forgiveness. It almost sounds like the previous verses are saying there are times you don't have to forgive.
So I went back through and read these verses over again. Actually, forgiveness needs to be asked for. I wonder if in the first text when He says if he still does not hear, He means he still thinks he did no wrong and still does not ask for forgiveness.
So where does this question of forgiveness come in? The previous verse continued on saying that what we bind will be bound in heaven and what we loose will be loosed in heaven. So what we forgive will be forgiven in heaven. But I also had a question about the wording of the last lines, when Jesus said if two of you agree concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. Here I think He is saying that if your brother who sinned against you asked for forgiveness and two of you agree, it will be done for them by our Father in heaven. But forgiveness needs to be asked for.
So then comes the next natural question by Peter: But if they keep asking for forgiveness, how many times must we forgive them. And Jesus answers an unlimited number of times, just as our Father in heaven will forgive us an unlimited number of times. We are all sinners. We all need forgiveness. Because we all continue to ask for forgiveness, we must also continue to forgive others who ask us for forgiveness.
But another interesting point of this parable is what the servant does even after he was told that his debts were forgiven. He had wanted to pay is debts to the king and had asked the king to be patient. Even though his debts were already forgiven it seems that he was still going to try collecting the money owed to him, money which he no longer needed as his debts were all forgiven. Was he still determined to pay the debt that was forgiven?
That is something I know I struggle with. I ask Jesus to forgive me of something, I am told He will forgive me, but I still feel I need to make up for my sin. Sometimes it is very hard to simply accept that forgiveness. But in not accepting the forgiveness, we may end up like this servant and get ourselves into even more trouble.
There is no sin too great for Jesus to forgive. He already paid the price. We simply need to ask and we will be forgiven. And when we are forgiven, we need to accept that forgiveness. The best way to accept it is to pass it on to others. When someone asks us to forgive them we need to remember the great price Jesus paid to forgive us and realize it is such a small price for us to forgive our brother. And we need to remember that no matter how many times we get asked for forgiveness, we need to forgive, just as we need Jesus to continue forgiving us. Jesus will forgive us to match our willingness to forgive others. And I need Jesus to be very forgiving of me.