First observations on Matthew 18: 51-35, Gospel text for 9/14/08
I used to wonder about debtors’ prison. When I was a child, it seemed such a strange concept that I wonder if I did not miss much of the story’s message.
It is a lot easier to be forgiven than to forgive. But it is a lot more difficult to ask for forgiveness. And it is very hard to keep an accurate count to 491, which is what one would have to count to if one forgave the first seventy times seven. Some newer scholarship looking at older texts suggests that the magic number at which forgiveness is not longer necessary is 78, one more than seventy-seven. But in either case counting is difficult.
Seven and seventy are, of course, “magic” numbers in the Bible. Twelve, forty, and three also seem to pop up a lot. [I heard it suggested that the traditional legal age of majority was set at 21 because it is 7 times 3. I really don’t know and I think that it is highly speculative, but it is off topic for this week anyway.]
The forgiven man was unforgiving. He paid the consequences from his forgiver. The Message notes that the king ”was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt.” [We don’t get translations so vivid all the time.]
Since God has forgiven the worst that we do, how can we not forgive the little that somebody does to us? Well, somehow don’t we all manage to do it? Even though debtor's prison seems such a bad place, we still fail.
It is a lot easier to be forgiven than to forgive. But it is a lot more difficult to ask for forgiveness. And it is very hard to keep an accurate count to 491, which is what one would have to count to if one forgave the first seventy times seven. Some newer scholarship looking at older texts suggests that the magic number at which forgiveness is not longer necessary is 78, one more than seventy-seven. But in either case counting is difficult.
Seven and seventy are, of course, “magic” numbers in the Bible. Twelve, forty, and three also seem to pop up a lot. [I heard it suggested that the traditional legal age of majority was set at 21 because it is 7 times 3. I really don’t know and I think that it is highly speculative, but it is off topic for this week anyway.]
The forgiven man was unforgiving. He paid the consequences from his forgiver. The Message notes that the king ”was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt.” [We don’t get translations so vivid all the time.]
Since God has forgiven the worst that we do, how can we not forgive the little that somebody does to us? Well, somehow don’t we all manage to do it? Even though debtor's prison seems such a bad place, we still fail.
Two questions arise: Is our forgiveness revocable? Do we wait until somebody asks before forgiving?
During this week we will be observing the seventh annivesary of Septemeber 11, 2001. What is it that we say about forgiveness? Just checking.
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