September 13, 2020
Genesis 50:15-21
Matthew 18:21-35
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
That is how it is recorded in the New International Version of the Bible but in the New English Bible it says,
Jesus said to him, “I tell you not up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
No matter. Forgive seventy seven times or 490 times…the point that Jesus was trying to make is that we are to forgive virtually an unlimited amount. I am uncomfortable with that and I imagine that you are too, but I am just reading the Bible and trying to understand as best I can. Just forgive a whole bunch of times is the essence of what Jesus is telling us.
I am not certain if I am ready to forgive around this anniversary of 9-11. I am not ready to forgive the attackers; I am not ready to forgive them for the lives they took; nor the fury they unleashed; though I know I should. And I think that is why this passage on forgiveness has been chosen for just such this moment. You know and I know that we must forgive. It is so much easier to forgive an angry word or a slight that has been given to us. But it is really hard to forgive 15 men for plunging us and the world into various wars.
Jesus gives us the obvious. He reminds us, and we reluctantly know that He is right…He reminds us that we must practice unlimited forgiveness or we, ourselves will retain unlimited hatred and it will eat us up.
Forgive 7 times or 77 times or 70 times 7 which is 490 times. We would like Jesus to make it easier. He doesn’t.
Some years ago in June of 2003 we took a group from our church to New York City to work in the soup kitchens and the like. It was a good work trip and helps our young people to relate to the larger world. On one evening we went to see a baseball game at Yankee Stadium.
Then came the 7th Inning Stretch…which is where everyone stands, stretches and sings “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as the words are flashed on the Sony Jumbotron Scoreboard. It’s the same in every ballpark in America…7th Inning Stretch.
But that summer in Yankee Stadium before the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”…we all rose and all the players lined the field and they played the original recording of Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” and all 55,000 sang along and their wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium.
It was moving. It was startling.
What else could Americans…New Yorkers do, but sing and remember the 911 tragedy. It was and is a tremendous calamity.
Now here, nearly 20 years on, we are reminded of the Biblical mandate to forgive in unlimited amounts.
But William Barclay, the Biblical commentator gives us an interesting background on this passage.
Peter suggests that we forgive up to seven times and when Jesus corrects Peter with the seventy times seven notion, then Peter looks pretty small, pretty stingy, rather petty with his suggestion of just seven times to forgive. But actually Peter is being quite magnanimous.
In that day and age, it was Rabbinic teaching that a man must forgive his brother three times. Rabbi Jose ben Hanina said, ”He who begs forgiveness from his neighbor must not do so more than three times.” Rabbi Jose ben Jehuda said, “If a man commits an offence once, they forgive him; if he commits an offence a second time, they forgive him; if he commits and offence a third time, they forgive him; the fourth time they do not forgive.”
That was the thinking then. Three strikes and you are out of forgiveness. Peter was quite generous to go the route of forgiveness seven times and he expected to be warmly commended by Jesus for his generous spirit and then Jesus, as He is wont to do quite often, turns everything over and says to forgive, virtually an unlimited amount of times. He then tells the story of the servant who is forgiven but then when the servant fails to forgive another, we learn the lesson which runs through all the New Testament, a man or woman must forgive in order to be forgiven. The one who will not forgive another cannot hope that God will forgive them. “Blessed are the merciful,” said Jesus, “for they shall obtain mercy.” (as recorded in Matthew 5:7)
That is a powerful statement to ponder on this weekend. I am not so certain that I am quite there.
I do not believe that God gives us tragedy and hardship to test us or so that something good can come from something horrible. But I do believe that with the help of God above and the goodness within our own hearts we have the power to turn all that is bad into something that works for eventual good. But all of that must first come from our acceptance of forgiving those who have wronged us. Then and only then can we overcome that which was done to us.
Amen