Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. - Matthew 18:21–22

Oh, Peter.

Here’s the deal about Peter. He usually says what we are all thinking. That’s not a virtue, by the way, but it does allow us to see Jesus’s response to our dumb questions. This dumb question is a tough one too. Forgiveness is hard when we focus on how we were wronged. But let’s back up …

Matthew 18 starts with another dumb question. The disciples ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” They wanted to know what they needed to do to get to the top, which is a perfectly reasonable question in a world full of achievement and success. But the kingdom of God is not like the kingdom of the world. Jesus is constantly taking our worldly beliefs and flipping them, revealing our heart at the same time.

Jesus ends his speech about what the kingdom of heaven will look like by giving the disciples instructions for when a brother wrongs them. Today, we use his instructions as a blueprint for conflict management and church discipline. Peter probably just heard it as a lot of work for something that probably isn’t going to restore his hurt feelings anyway.

So he asks his dumb question. He wants a definite number. Basically, what he’s saying is, “OK Jesus, I’ll try the forgiveness thing like you said. But surely I don’t have to keep it up, right? So give me a number, preferably something reasonable. How about seven times? I’m pretty sure I can keep forgiving someone seven times. But beyond that? Forget it.”

Jesus responded like He usually does. His response not only answers Peter’s question, but also exposes the heart behind it. Seventy-seven (or you might also see seventy times seven) isn’t an exact number, like you don’t have to forgive the seventy-eighth time. No, Jesus was saying you forgive and keep forgiving. I’m guessing He saw the look on Peter’s face when He said that, so he told a story to emphasize why that shouldn’t be difficult for anyone.

Here’s a modern retelling of The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.

A CEO of a large tech company wanted to clean up the accounting for his organization so he could make his quarterly update to investors. While he was looking at expenses, he saw one of his employees had spent $100billion of the company’s money. (In case you think that’s an exaggeration, the parable says 10,000 talents. A talent is equal to 20 years wages for a laborer. 20x$50,000/yrx10,000=$100billion. Wow.) Of course, the CEO wasn’t happy and picked up the phone to call the police and have the man thrown in jail for the rest of his life. The employee, we will call him Peter, begged and pleaded for pity. The CEO, showing extreme mercy, forgave Peter the $100billion debt.

Grateful, Peter went home to hug his wife and kids. On his way, he saw his neighbor outside mowing the lawn. He loaned his neighbor the money to buy that lawnmower a few weeks ago and the guy had the guts to be out there mowing with it like it didn’t belong to Peter! So he marched right over to his neighbor and demanded his $300 back. The neighbor didn’t have it and begged Peter to give him a couple of weeks to come up with it. Well, Peter was having none of that, so he called the police and accused the neighbor of stealing the money for the lawnmower! The neighbor was arrested and thrown in jail for life.

When the CEO learned what Peter had done, he was in disbelief. He told Peter, “You are a horrible person! I forgave your MASSIVE debt and you turn around and have your neighbor arrested for a measly $300?!? For that, I’m definitely going to have you arrested!”

Jesus ends his parable with this:

“And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” - Matthew 18:34–35

What’s the point of the story (because Christ’s parables always have a point)? The point is Peter was asking the wrong question. Christ forgave us so much that the little offenses that we may have against others should be no problem at all! There’s no reason for us NOT to forgive. More than that, we should have a heart attitude of forgiveness because of the magnitude of Christ’s forgiveness of our sins.

Think about this for a minute. Every sin you commit. Every. Little. Sin. Is a sin against God. Every sin against another person is a sin against God. Every impure thought, every angry or jealous or spiteful thought, is a sin against God. That’s a LOT of sin. And God forgave them all when Christ died on the cross. Clean slate. Account settled.

For us to hold even a slight grudge against someone else is just crazy in light of what Christ did for us! So yeah, Peter asked the wrong question. What he should have asked was, “How can I have a forgiving heart so I can forgive as much as you forgave me?”

By Rob Trahan