In today’s Gospel from St. Matthew 18: 21-35, we have one of Christ’s sayings about forgiveness and an illustrative parable. Simon Peter asks the Master how many times he should forgive a brother, maybe seven times. Peter may have hoped to receive praise, but our Lord does not praise Simon Peter for this. Jesus does not tell him that he has a great understanding of mercy and forgiveness. Instead, Christ contradicts Peter in these words, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:22). The numbers vary in some manuscripts, but the point is that we must be willing to forgive more times than we can count.
To drive this point home, Jesus tells the parable of the Unmerciful Servant. The parable shows that we followers of Christ should not begin by thinking about how much other people owe us. Rather, we must view everything in life in the context of what we owe the heavenly King and how He shows mercy.
Divine mercy is immense, and all human beings are sinners who must depend upon His mercy and forgiveness. We owe God everything that we are and that we might be. So we have no real claims on God; even at our best, we cannot repay His gifts. Yet, there is good news. God remains merciful, and He is ready to wipe away our moral and spiritual debts if we sincerely seek His forgiving grace and apply it to our lives.
However, the parable is also a warning. If we try to take advantage of God's mercy like the unmerciful servant in the parable, we offend both mercy and justice. If we sinners who have received such great mercy do not sincerely apply mercy to our fellow servants, we have not really understood or accepted divine mercy. So we need to remain aware of both God’s justice and His mercy (Law and Gospel).
Besides telling us about God, this Gospel has implications for us and our ordinary behavior. We must be on guard against two related spiritual dangers: trying to keep count of the offenses of others and refusing to be merciful to people who owe us something. This does not mean that we are to have low standards or ignore sin. Sometimes, we have a calling to tell people that something isn’t right. At the same time, as followers of Christ, we must keep being loving and try to give people the benefit of the doubt. This means that when a fellow servant of God asks for mercy we must try to deal with them as our heavenly King is already dealing with us. As our Lord’s Prayer constantly reminds us, we need God to forgive as we forgive others.
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