In today’s Gospel, we hear a remarkable conversation between Jesus and the disciples about forgiveness. This is obviously something Peter has been struggling with and so he asks Jesus, “How many times should I forgive my brother if he wrongs me?” He offers his own answer – seven times, which he probably thought was very generous as the Jewish leaders’/rabbis’ official teaching at the time was three times. But Jesus blows Peter’s offer out of the water by saying “Not seven but seventy-seven times!” – in other words the willingness to forgive should go beyond counting, it should be limitless and unconditional in us.

In order to really show the power of forgiveness Jesus then tells the story of the servant who is incredibly forgiven the debt of 10,000 talents which he owes to his King but then himself refuses to cancel the debt of a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii. It helps to know that just one talent was equivalent to 15 years’ wages for an average citizen and that the total annual revenue of a wealthy province like Galilee was only 300 talents. So this was an absolutely HUGE sum of money which the servant would never have been able to repay. In contrast one denarius was about a day’s wages, so 100 denarii was about 3 months’ wages – not an impossible sum to repay. Jesus’ point is that the debt we owe to God for all he has done for us is beyond anything we could ever repay and yet he is eager and joyful to forgive us our sins and selfishness. As followers of Jesus, we should learn from him how to forgive others. Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question says it all – if you’re counting how many times you have forgiven someone you’re not really forgiving them, but simply postponing revenge! Nothing that we have to forgive can even remotely compare with what we have ourselves been forgiven by God. As we say in our psalm today: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in mercy! Amen, amen! Lord, help us to forgive others as you forgive us!


With blessings & prayers from Fr Richard, Fr Ephrem & all the parish team
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