Paraphrasing from part of a sermon I heard the other day:
So Jesus and his friends were sitting around talking, and Jesus starts saying we should forgive each other, because we all fall short of God’s expectations and all that, so we need to allow ourselves to be human. Peter is having none of it.
“Wait, what?” Peter cries out. “You’re saying if some clown hurts me seven times, I should forgive him each time? That’s nuts!”
Jesus smiles patiently, because Jesus is as patient as the day is long.
“Look, Pete,” he says gently, “if you really want to know, I think we need to forgive that clown 70 times seven times, if that’s what it takes.”
Peter does the math — that’s pardoning an offender 490 times — and he’s kind of speechless, but he has no good answer, either.
We have built a religion around this Son of Man who preached forgiveness. It is said he allowed himself to be sacrificed on a cross — killed — to pay the price for our sins, and for that reason we are forgiven. That doesn’t mean we are allowed to turn around and do stuff that forces people to forgive us 490 times. Rather, getting in touch with the concept means forgiving and being patient with one another.
The idea really goes against the contemporary grain, doesn’t it? I used to joke about the Church of the Perpetually Offended, because you don’t hear the call for forgiveness in the air very often anymore. “You’ve sinned against me — fix it!” “You offended me — you should be prevented from ever saying any such thing again!” “An eye for an eye, and throw in a tooth!”
We have built a huge industry to manufacture the means by which those who have sinned against us may be punished by death. We have weapons that could wipe out our trespassers — or the whole world — 70 times seven times.
Those of us who think Jesus had a better idea have a whole lot of work to do convincing the rest of us. In fact, you yourself might be reading this and thinking I’m nuts. That’s OK; I forgive you.
