INTRODUCTION

The Christian duty of forgiveness is a difficult one, but it is also a very freeing one. This is the center of Christian joy and peace: being forgiven and releasing those who have wronged us.

The Text: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Mt. 18:21-35).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

When Peter asked how often Christians must forgive their brothers, Jesus said, seventy times seven (Mt. 18:21-22). Jesus then told a parable to explain why He said that: a story about a servant who owed 10,000 talents to his King, and was granted mercy and the debt was forgiven (Mt. 18:23-27). But when that same servant was owed 100 pence, he refused to have compassion, and had the fellow servant thrown into prison until he paid his debt (Mt. 18:28-30). When the King was told, he confronted the forgiven servant in great wrath and commanded him to be delivered to tormentors until he paid, and Jesus explains that this is what His Father will do with us if we do not forgive our brothers from our hearts (Mt. 18:31-35).

LET’S DO SOME MATH

In the New Testament a denarius (what the KJV translates “pence”) was a silver coin that was considered one day’s wage for an unskilled worker. So if you use our US minimum wage ($7.25 @ 8hr), you’d get an approximate equivalent value of $58 for a denarius. A “talent” was not a coin proper but the total weight of 60 minas and 1 mina was 100 denarii. So one talent (of silver coins) would be about 6,000 coins or approximately $348,000. This means that ten thousand talents would have probably been the equivalent of 3-4 billion dollars in modern currency. The King forgave the servant a vast sum of money, and that servant went out and demanded 100 pence (100 x $58), almost $6,000 in modern currency from his fellow servant, which is nothing close to what he was forgiven, but is still nothing to sneeze at (about 4 months of wages). And if a year’s worth of wages was around 300 denarii or 3 minas, it would have taken 20 years to make one talent, and about 200,000 years to make (pay off) ten thousand talents.

SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN

These numbers are not merely large numbers, they are loaded with symbolic significance going back to creation and the Sabbath. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, establishing a six and seven day rhythm to human economics. Six days of labor and one day of rest is the foundation of economic fruitfulness and faithfulness. But the Sabbath laws specifically required that this rest be given to everyone around us: “thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates” (Ex. 20:10).

This principle was extended to every seventh year, where the people were required to give rest to the land (and therefore the workers of the land) and forgive debts and release Hebrew slaves (Dt. 15), and every seven seven-year cycle was an additional sabbath year (the 50 th year) called “Jubilee,” the year of release, when all debts were forgiven and Hebrew slaves released (Lev. 25). When Judah was conquered by Babylon, it says they were carried away into exile “until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years” (2 Chron. 36:21). And if you do that math, that would suggest that they had failed to keep 70 sabbath years, or 70 7s, or 490 years’ worth of Sabbath breaking, nearly 500 years.

So “70 times 7” isn’t just a big number, it is the number of Judah’s hard-hearted sin against God. “70 times 7” is the number of Israel’s refusal to forgive, release, and give rest. It’s the number of their exile; and so it is also the number of God’s forgiveness of Israel. Jesus is not just pulling that number out of the air; He’s taking it from Old Testament history. In other words, Israel is the servant in the parable who was forgiven billions of dollars. This was initially the forgiveness/release of the Exodus from Egypt, but then also the forgiveness and return from the Babylonian exile for their refusal to practice Sabbath forgiveness. The logic of the gospel was proclaimed from the Exodus: You were slaves in Egypt, therefore, release your slaves. You were in hard labor in Egypt, therefore give rest to your people. You were redeemed from Egypt, therefore, forgive debts. You have been forgiven; so forgive.

APPLICATIONS

This brings us to the duty of forgiveness. It is what we pray week after week: “forgive us our trespasses (or debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us (our debtors).” And Jesus teaches that this is basic: “And if [thy brother] trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith” (Lk. 17:3-5).

What is forgiveness? It is a promise not to hold any offense against you for the sake of Christ. Which means that forgiveness is not a feeling, although Jesus says that we must disciple our feelings so that we forgive “from the heart” (Mt. 18:35). But forgiveness is a promise that the sin will not come between you and your brother as far as Christian fellowship is concerned.

Forgiveness is not the same thing as trust. And forgiveness does not require the restoration of privileges (job, office, marriage). Forgiveness means no animosity, no rage, no bitterness, no careful accounting of wrongs.

The differences between the King and the servant are striking: the initial plan of the King is to “sell” the servant and his family, presumably into debt slavery, where he could actually work towards paying the debt (a little mercy!). The servant, on the other hand, ordered the fellow servant thrown into “prison” until he would pay – which would seem to be never. This is bitterness: putting a fellow image bearer into a prison (if only in your heart) in which you say they can pay it off but nothing would ever really be enough because your pain and wrath are too great.

This underlines a crucial aspect of the gospel: if you think about it, we can never pay for any of our sin. Even what we consider “small sin” is against the infinite goodness and majesty of a Holy God and against our fellow servants who bear the image of that Holy God.

This is why Christ suffered torture in our place and for sin. This is why He had to be both God and man. What we (and your dad, mom, sister, son) could never pay, Christ paid in His own body on the tree. When we “forgive” we are not actually taking away anyone’s sins. We are only agreeing with God that Christ has paid all our debts, and so, they are free.

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