Forgiveness. Yes, but how much? Peter asks the question for all of us (Matthew 18:21-35). Eventually it’s got to run out hasn’t it? Can someone really go on hurting me and I just have to take it without end?
We want to count the wrongs done to us, tally up the hurt to seek recompense. That’s only fair. We may be less keen to count our own faults but nonetheless isn’t that what we’re asked to do when we confess our sins. We may not feel the discomfort of our childhood, when we worried about how many items we had on the list, but we still feel a need to keep count.
Why is it we think God is an accountant? Do we really imagine he’s sitting up there counting? He wasn’t counting our faults when he looked down from the cross. He wasn’t even hanging there judging us. He was asking the father to forgive us.
But what about the Gospel reading we have today? Isn’t that precisely a story about how God keeps accounts and wants to balance the books. But that’s to confuse the metaphor with the message. The message is set out clearly – there can be no limit to our forgiveness – 77 times is for ever. Even clearer is the way that Jesus reframes the issue – it isn’t about how often – we have to forgive from the heart. That forgiveness is not something that can be measured or parceled out. Just as love cannot be weighed or divided up, nor can forgiveness – it is a state of being, it is the way we live our relationships. Forgiving from the heart means that whatever has happened is gone, forgotten, no longer to be counted. That’s how God forgives.
The point of the story is not to illustrate how we need to account for our debts we owe or are owed, but the exact opposite. The king doesn’t count the debt, he has pity, he forgives. But then, if we are to live in that kingdom, the same is expected of us. We can do it. We just need to believe it is possible – and Jesus is our model and aid.