Peter came up and asked Jesus "Lord, when my brother wrongs me, how often must I forgive him? Seven times?" "No," Jesus replied, "not seven times; I say, seventy times seven times. That is why the reign of God may be said to be like a king who decided to settle accounts with his officials. When he began his auditing, one was brought in who owed him a huge amount. As he had no way of paying it, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that the official prostrated himself in homage and said, My lord, be patient with me and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with pity, the master let the official go and wrote off the debt. But when that same official went out he met a fellow servant who owed him a mere fraction of what he himself owed. He seized him and throttled him. Pay back what you owe,' he demanded. His fellow servants dropped to his knees and began to plead with him, Just give me time and I will pay you back in full.' But he would hear none of it. Instead, he had him put in jail until he paid back what he owed. When his fellow servants saw what had happened they were badly shaken, and went to their master to report the whole incident. His master sent for him and said, You worthless wretch! I canceled your entire debt when you pleaded with me. Should you not have dealt mercifully with your fellow servant, as I dealt with you?' Then in anger the master handed him back over to the torturers until he paid back all that he owed. My heavenly Father will treat you in exactly the same way unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart." (Matthew 18:21-35)

We are dealing this morning with a parable selection with an introduction. And it's always good to remind ourselves how one can approach individual pericipes, or individual passages in Scripture. one may look at them within themselves to see what they say, what they tell us, what things we can extrapolate from them to guide us in our own life. Or one can begin to look at them in relation to their immediate context? what goes before, what follows after. And what follows before, what comes after, sheds light on what comes in the middle, just as what comes in the middle sheds light on the surroundings of the particular passage. Or the third thing that one can do is begin to put the passage in the context of the whole of the Gospel? and see how the individual passage sheds light, clarifies the whole of the Gospel, and see how the whole of the Gospel sheds light on the part.

Perhaps we won't do all of that this morning, but let's look at the passage, because as I say it's a parable, the parable of the unmerciful, the unjust servant, with an introduction. And the introduction is probably the most important thing when we come to talking about theology. What is Jesus trying to get across to us, and because Matthew has arranged this material in the fashion he has arranged it, what is Matthew trying to tell his Christian community, and thereby tell our Christian community--you and me-- today? It isn't just a simple question that Peter asks. It's a question with a hidden meaning. What is the limit of Christian forgiveness? How many times does the Church, how many times does the individual Christian, how many times does society have to forgive? Are there any limits to Christian forgiveness? That is really Peter's question. But it's more than just a question. Peter, by picking that perfect number in Jewish thinking, number seven, Peter wants to put very definite limits to forgiveness. He wants to put boundaries to forgiveness. "I will forgive you this far, and this far only." Or "I need to forgive this many times, and this many times only. " "And if I have forgiven you seven times, then I am no longer obligated as a disciple of our Lord, I'm no longer obligated as a Christian to forgive any more. " Peter would make a darned good rabbi, because Peter is thinking like a rabbi. And what he is thinking about is that every human law has definite limits, and therefore divine law must have definite limits. And that's the question that he really poses to Jesus. Jesus is not going to be caught in that. He starts with the number seven, but he plays with the number seven, and in playing with the number seven by saying, "No, you are to forgive seventy times seven," Jesus turns the number from just a definite number into a symbol. In other words, Christian forgiveness is limitless. Just like the forgiveness of God is limitless. The passion of God knows no boundaries, knows no limits. It is compassion, and it is freely given. And it is given as long as it need be given. God cannot be caught in a trap. God cannot be restricted. God cannot be limited. God's laws are not like human laws. They operate on an entirely different plane, in an entirely different sphere. And one of the things that the disciples always fail to learn, I guess, in the Gospels, eventually they do. and we often fail to learn, but eventually we do, is that one cannot put limitations on God, and Jesus is constantly turning everything topsy-turvy.

Now let's bring it home. Each one of us has sinned against the Father, against God. Each one of us has sinned in a way that, humanly speaking, can never be forgiven. The human condition of sinfulness, what we call Original Sin, what we call Adam's transgression, active disobedience, can never be forgiven, humanly speaking. St. Thomas puts it very clearly: It is God who has been offended, and therefore the person who is going to make reparation has to be on an equal par with the person who is offended. And no one of us is divine. And because it is human beings who have offended, who have transgressed, who have been disobedient, therefore, says St. Thomas, it must be a human being who makes reparation. And yet no human being can make reparation, because the reparation is not based on the dignity of the person who has offended. Rather, says St. Thomas, it is based on the person who has been offended, namely God. So if we look at it from a purely human, purely rational point of view, we are caught on the horns of a dilemma, aren't we? How can reparation be made divinely by humans? And of course, Thomas says the answer is the Incarnation. Christ had to become incarnate, both God and man, to make adequate reparation for the sin of man. Because the seriousness of the sin is measured by the one who is offended, not the offender, and yet the offender has to be the one who makes reparation. And therefore. Thomas says, you must have a God-man making the reparation. You must have the incarnate Christ.

And this is what the parable illustrates. Here is an official who owes a limitless debt, an impossible debt. A debt that can never be repaid. The best example I can give you is, let us say this individual owes the national debt. (We hear a lot about that these days; the politicians promise us everything; theVre going to balance the budget; they're going to do away with deficit spending. I don't believe it. Frankly, I personally don't think the national debt can ever be reconciled. I might be pessimistic in this, but I honestly don't think it can. It's too large.) And that's exactly what this first official owes. It's impossible. He's caught in an impossible situation. And God in His mercy, the king in his compassion, who is God, simply wipes the slate clean. And what results is the official's situation is changed, but the official has not chanced. Compassion has been extended, mercy has been extended, forgiveness has been extended to the official, but he hasn't taken it in. He hasn't experienced it. He hasn't realized what has happened. And therefore he cannot give what he has received to another. The mercy that he has received therefore- -the compassion that has been extended to him--he loses because he can't pass it on; he can't give it to another human being who owes him perhaps, let us say, a year's wages in debt, which is payable. Now make that case our own. If, as St. Thomas says, we have been forgiven a limitless debt, an impossible debt, the debt of our transgression against God, our situation has changed. We have become, in the words of St. Paul, the children of God, free sons and daughters of God, not because we are owed it, not because we can demand it, not because we can earn it, but because God in his infinite mercy wants to wipe the slate clean. But there is a condition. Our situation has been changed, but have we been changed? Are we willing to extend the mercy, the compassion, the forgiveness we have received--are we willing to give it to others? If we are not, then we lose that which we have been given. And that's what the whole Gospel this morning is all about. God in His mercy has made us His children, His sons and daughters. And in that great act He has established His church. And it is the function of the church to show that mercy, that compassion, and let us remember that we are the church, to show it to others. But if we fail God in this, then the church will not exist, cannot exist, because God can no longer show mercy to humanity, because His channel of mercy, the church, Christians, refuses to extend what they have been given The question that Peter asked is often the question that we hear asked today. "How much longer must we tolerate the violence? How many times, Fr. Abbot, do I have to forgive my child? How many times do I have to forgive my spouse? How many times does society have to forgive criminals?" The only answer one can give is the answer of Jesus: indefinite, limitless, ever-continuing forgiveness. And if we have received it, then our duty is to extend it to others. Because it's not our compassion, it's not our mercy, it's not our forgiveness, it's Jesus' compassion, Jesus' mercy, and Jesus' forgiveness. He has chosen to act through us. You might say that Jesus has limited Himself in that way, because that's the way He wants divine salvation to be worked out. And the question is, are we willing to be His instruments?