Peter came to Jesus and asked him how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven?
Jesus tells Peter not just seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Jesus then tells a parable. He said the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who wanted to settle debts with his servants. One servant who owed him 10,000 bags of gold was brought to him. The king sentenced to sell his wife and kids and put the servant in prison to repay the debt.
The servant begged the king to be patient with him and he promised to pay it all back. The king had pity on him, canceled his debt and sent him on his way.
However, when the servant went out he saw a man who owed him 100 silver coins. He choked the man and demanded his debt be paid. The man begged this servant to have mercy on him and he promised to pay it back.
The servant refused and threw the man in prison. The other servants who saw this were outraged and went to tell the king what had happened.
The king had the servant brought in and told the servant that the mercy shown to him, he should’ve shown to the man. In his anger, the king sentenced the servant to torture in prison until he could pay off his debt.
Jesus finishes by saying that this is how God the Father will treat each of you if you do not forgive your brother and sister from your heart.
Jesus is sharing with us the fact that if we cannot learn to forgive each other, God will not forgive us. We have experienced grace even when we didn’t deserve it from a God who didn’t have to give it. How can we expect forgiveness, and in return not forgive someone else? God takes this seriously as Jesus refers to the fact that the king was angry. It makes God angry when we can’t learn to forgive one another. Who do you need to forgive today? Who do you need to go and apologize to today? Do we really want to hold on to grudges and keep God angry at us? Absolutely not! It’s time we get over ourselves and love one another enough to forgive one another as God has already done for us.
A Journey With Jesus 