The Lost Art of Forgiveness

The Lost Art of Forgiveness
Read Matthew 16-20
“Then Peter came and said to Him, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
Our society continually affirms that we are to stand up for our rights and oppose those who wrong us in any way. When someone mistreats, hurts, or wrongs us in any way, our society states that we are to stand up for ourselves and our rights. To not do so is a sign of weakness. Not only has forgiveness been withheld, but we see it as a sign of powerlessness. The Jews regarded themselves as more pious than others and stated that we should forgive a person up to seven times. Beyond that, a person was under no obligation to forgive.
We are no different today. We quickly judge and condemn others for only slight wrongs they have done against us. The  greater the offense and the more severe the hurt, the more likely we are to withhold any forgiveness. This was equally true in the time of Christ. When a person was deeply offended, the more they demanded some form of restitution. Thus, Peter raises the question of the degree of forgiveness we are to offer. How often can a person wrong us before we need to stand up for our rights and demand some level of restitution and repentance?
In a surprising twist, Christ shares a parable that turns everything upside down. In the parable, a servant is indebted to his master for ten thousand talents. Each talent represented 15 years of income for the average laborer. In other words, the slave owed a debt that would require him 150,000 years to pay off. The point is that the wrong and the debt are incalculable, yet the master shows compassion and forgives him of the debt. Rather than be humbled by such forgiveness, when the slave departed, he encountered a fellow slave who owed him a hundred denarii. A denarius was the typical wage a laborer received for a day's work. Thus, the debt was equal to 100 days of labor. When his fellow slave pleaded for patience, the forgiven slave felt no compassion and threw his fellow servant into prison. The whole point of the story is to illustrate that in our relationship with God, the offense of our sin is far beyond our ability to repay. Yet God, in an incredible display of mercy, forgives our sin through the work of Christ. How much more should we then be willing to forgive others of any offense they have done against us? When we hold a grudge, when we fail to forgive others, when we demand some level of restitution, we are demonstrating our failure to understand the forgiveness given to us and the depth of our sin. We have no justification for holding a grudge against others, for their offense against us is incomparable to our offense before a holy and righteous God. Forgiving others starts by recognizing our own need for forgiveness and the depth of our own sin. If you have a difficult time forgiving others, then no longer look at them and their offense; rather, take a look inward and see the offense and sin you have committed against a holy God.