The Unforgiving Servant

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells us a story about the Kingdom of God and forgiveness. The reason Jesus tells this story is simple: Life is filled with opportunity to take offense. Actually, that’s only part of the reason. Jesus also tells this story in response to a question from Peter about the limits of forgiveness. Here is how he asked it: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21–22, NIV) Many of you know the number 7 is the number for completion or fullness in the Scriptures. It represents perfection. The implication is that Peter thinks he is being super gracious. He thinks he is being magnanimous. But Jesus does a play on words with Peter’s answer. No, Jesus says, not just 7 times, but 7 X 70 times! If you do the math, that is 490 times. So do you think the idea is that on event number 491 of a relationship, we no longer have to forgive? Of course not. The idea is, you forgive someone as much and as often as necessary. There is no limit, no finite number to describe how often we should forgive others. And then to illustrate this, Jesus begins to tell a powerful and life-changing story. Join us this weekend as unpack it together.