Forgiveness
“Forgiveness” by Pastor Ryan Leak
October 6, 2019
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. For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’
- Matthew 18:21–33 (NASB)
When Jesus describes the Kingdom of heaven to his disciples, he is explaining what it means to be a part of God’s family, to live in God’s house. Jesus is telling Peter that, at our house, we forgive. At our house, we do not hold grudges. We let things go.
At this point, there was already great debate in the Jewish culture as to how many times one should forgive a person who wronged them. The rabbis came up with the number three. In other words, after three strikes, you had a legal right to hate someone or to hold a grudge.
When Peter asks Jesus if forgiving someone seven times was enough, this was more than double the amount traditionally taught by most rabbis. However, Jesus says ‘no’, we should forgive seventy times seven. The author of this story, Matthew, was a tax collector who quickly determined that seventy times seven is four hundred and ninety.
The issue with forgiving someone four hundred and ninety times is that if you were to keep count, you would eventually lose track of how many times someone had sinned against you.
In this scripture, Jesus is saying that he wants us to lose count of how many times someone has sinned against us. Imagine what our lives would look like if we stopped counting the offenses of others.
Here are three ways we can start to walk in forgiveness:
1. Recognize your own need to be forgiven. Whenever we are hurt, we see ourselves as the victim, and we forget the ways that we may have offended or hurt other people. We must understand that hurt people have also hurt people.
2. Extend the same grace that has been extended to you. Forgiven people have a responsibility to forgive. It’s not your forgiveness; it is God’s.
3. Decide to forgive people before they hurt you. Before we get offended, we must make the decision to forgive. It’s OK to get offended, but don’t stay there. The Bible says that we should have grace for each other and forgive, just as we’ve been forgiven (Colossians 3:13, NLT).
Forgiveness does not mean that what someone else did wrong was right; forgiveness is no longer holding someone else responsible for our wholeness. Forgiveness means acknowledging that only God can make our broken hearts whole again. No one else has the ability to make us whole; only Jesus can do that.
Discussion/Reflection Questions:
1. Is there someone that you need to ask to forgive you for a past offense?
2. Is there someone that you need to forgive?
3. Take a moment to pray for the person that needs to forgive you or that you need to forgive. Reach out to them and seek forgiveness or tell them that they are forgiven.
4. The Bible says that we should pray for people that have hurt us (Luke 6:27–28, NLT). Make a list of people who have hurt you or broken your heart, and start praying for them every day.