Wednesday, May 2

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Wednesday

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”  Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.  – Matthew 18:21-22

After Jesus’ teaching on how to confront a brother or sister who sins against you, Peter asks a very logical question.  Essentially he wants to know how far we have to go with this whole forgiveness thing?  Peter thought he understood what Jesus was saying about reconciliation, and he started thinking about how to actually live out what Jesus was instructing. I imagine Peter thinking, “well that’s all and good, Jesus, but what about people who repeatedly sin against me? How in the world do I put your teaching into action with those people?”  One of the many reasons that I love Peter is that he was not afraid to say what was on his mind (even if he might say the wrong thing).

At first reading, it might seem rather odd to us that Peter would suggest that we forgive someone up to seven times.  In his NT commentary, William Barclay points out that it was rabbinic teaching of the day to extend forgiveness up to three times, but not after four.  Rabbi Jose Ben Jehuda said: “If a man commits an offence once, they forgive him; if he commits and offense a second time, they forgive him; if he commits an offence a third time, they forgive him; the fourth time they do not forgive.”

The biblical basis for this concept was taken from the book of Amos. In the opening chapters of Amos, there is a series of condemnations on the various nations for three transgressions and for four.  From this it was deduced that God’s forgiveness extends to three offences and that he visits the sinner with punishment at the fourth. It was not to be thought that people could be more gracious than God, so forgiveness was limited to three times.

So, perhaps Peter is trying to be extra forgiving when he suggests up to seven times (he is doubling the Rabbinic teaching of the day, and adding one more for good measure).  He may even have expected Jesus to commend him for being so gracious.  But, how does Jesus respond?  “No, Peter, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”  This number, as written in the original Greek, can also be translated as seventy times seven times, or 490 times!  But, that’s not the point.  If you’re counting the number of times you’ve forgiven someone, and simply biding your time until you don’t have to forgive any more, you really haven’t forgiven at all, have you? 

Peter wants to obey the teaching of his Lord, he wants to be a forgiving person, but he has a faulty assumption that forgiveness has limits.  What Jesus is saying here is that the kind of forgiveness called for in the gospel goes beyond all calculation. 

One of my favorite authors (C.S. Lewis) wonderfully articulates why this kind of forgiveness is so important.

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life - to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son - How can we do it?  Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night "Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us."  We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves.  There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.   – C.S. Lewis (Essay on Forgiveness)

Jeff Frazier