Peter came and said to him, Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often
should I forgive? As many as seven times?
Jesus said to him, Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the slave who sought mercy from his master the king. The
master forgave his enormous debt – more than the wealth of a kingdom – but the slave in turn
showed no mercy to someone in his own debt. A far smaller debt.
The master finds out about this uneven mercy and calls him a wicked slave for failing to forgive
as he had been forgiven. Forgiveness in this sense was shown to be open to all, but somehow
selective when someone forgiven was in turn asked to forgive.
Why do we forgive? Because someone has done something wrong. Sometimes to us, sometimes
in general. And in a very real sense, we might in our own lives cycle through asking for mercy
and being asked to grant mercy. I did something wrong, so please do not hold it against me. But
like the first slave, there is no obvious link between what has been received and what might be
given. You did something wrong, so you should pay the very last cent, you should be held
accountable, whatever that means.
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