Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came and said to him,"Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?As many as seven times?"18:22 Jesus said to him,"Not seven times,but,I tell you, seventy-seven times.
If we take this text out of the context, it may look like as if forgiveness does not have limits, and Christians must have forgive everything to anybody anytime and anywhere.
However we have to place the text into context, even if the context in this case is not completely a conventional one but it regards the very religious-tradition the Apostles had, which is the Jewish tradition. According to their tradition the forgiveness and repentance is mandatory.
Mandatory, but not unconditional. Forgiveness may be given only to somebody who deeply regrets his or her wrongdoings, confesses his sins, repents, makes proper amendments and asks for forgiveness saying a genuinely meant sorry.
Accidentally or not, the interdenominational lectionary reading about Peter’s question to Jesus coincides with the Jewish New Year, as it falls on September 18, in this year. The Holiday starts a 10 days of period, the so called Days of Awe, which eventually culminates into the Yom Kippur, the so called Day of Atonement, one of the Holiest Day in the Jewish calendar.
It is in the tradition that on the Day of The New Year, called Rosh Hashana, every year, the Angels open the Book of Life in Heaven, and a decision is made by God that who will live in the next year and who will not. However the decision has been staying open for the next ten days, and it is sealed only on Yom Kippur, the Day of the Atonement.
The Ten Days of Awe before the Yom Kippur is a serious period of self-investigation, during these ten days a Jew tries to amend his or her behavior and seeks forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other human beings, offering also public and private petitions and confessions of guilt.
At the end of Yom Kippur, one hopes that they have been forgiven by God, and their names are inscribed in the Book of Life. Of course, repentance, amendments, seeking and giving forgiveness are better to be done every day, because we do not know whether we will be alive tomorrow or not.
Although forgiveness ultimately effects one’s pursuing of happiness on Earth, yet it ultimately effects the life in eternity, because whosoever does not repent his or her sins on Earth today and does not seek amendments, that person will not enter Heaven in the Afterlife.
It must be seen that there are two levels of sins. The ones, committed against man, and the second ones, committed against God.
In both cases the procedure is the same:1) One must deeply regret, what he did wrong. It is like an aching pain in the heart. 2) One must take a sacred oath that he will not commit the same sin again.
3) One must seek amendments for what he did. 4) One must asks forgiveness from the very persons he wronged, saying a heartfelt sorry, if its a human, from a human, if it is God, from God.
A great example is the case of Zacchaeus, found in the New Testament. His name ironically means innocent or pure. Definitely, before his meeting with Jesus he was considered a great sinner.
As a tax collector, he was despised as a traitor (working for the Roman Empire not for this Jewish community), and as being corrupt and arrogant and even violent like hell.
The Roman Empire levied inhuman taxes on their subjects in the land of Judea, but usually they hired locals to be their tax collectors, in a system that they were third party contractors. The Romans estimated the taxes of a town, and they gave the tax collecting rights to the contractor who paid the amount in advance to the Romans, or who paid the most for it, in an auction.
After that the appointed tax collector was able to collect as much taxes as much he was able to squeeze out of the population. The Romans aided the tax collecting procedures with soldiers and wealth investigators. The tax collectors especially attacked the widows and orphans who did not have male relatives and were defenseless. Most of the time, Zacchaeus and alike, confiscated the houses, the land and other properties of the people, if they were not able to pay the insane tax allocations and assessments.
He was feared and hated, despised and cursed, and the people in general they have a great contempt for him. He was on his way to enter the deepest Hell in the Afterlife.
However he met Jesus, who invited him to dinner, actually he invited the sinner to repent. And it changed the life and the path of Zaccheus as it is written in the Gospel of Luke:
Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much." Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."
The forgiveness he received met with the conditions. Zacchaeus regretted deeply what he did to the people. He repented and wanted to turn back to God. He took the oath to not fall into this sin again. He made amendments by giving away half of all of his possessions, and by reimbursing for times the people he wronged.
Without meeting the conditions aka having genuine regrets, repentance, improving behavior, seeking and making amendments, saying a heartfelt sorry and asking for forgiveness, even Jesus would not have had the power to make Zaccheus clean from sins and save him from Hell.
Thus forgiveness is conditional. However, according to the tradition that when someone, who trespassed against us, is seeking to reach forgiveness, and he meets all the requested conditions, then forgiving him is obligatory without an excuse, and even seventy times seven occasions.
If we want to enter Heaven, but we maintain somebody’s fault against us by not forgiving him, when he meets all the requirements, with that we commit sin, and the not forgiving somebody’s fault, will eventually prevent us to enter Heaven.
This rule is so significant that it can be found even in the Lord’s Prayer that “ Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”
14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don't forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
That is why practically Jesus answered Peter in that way, that does not matter how many times your bother is looking for your forgiveness, you must forgive him countless times whenever he meets the requirements of forgiveness.
Also it is written that reconciliation is a must, because the consequences of not seeking reconciliation are very serious as it is written in the Sermon of the Mount:
“If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him in the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor (Angel) deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. Most certainly I tell you, you shall by no means get out of there, until you have paid the last penny.”
However it happens very often that some of the requirements are impossible to met. Then the forgiveness is impossible. Either because people committed deadly sins or making amendments is impossible like lives are lost, or irreversible injuries happened, or the consequences of somebody’s actions made the life of whole communities miserable, those people will be dealt with the divine judgment here on Earth and in the Afterlife. This is called divine justice, where the good are rewarded, but the wicked are punished.
As the disciples of Jesus we must seek reconciliation and forgiveness, because we do not want and even do not wish the perdition of the wicked, but want them to repent and to amend their lives, as it written in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 18: “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die.”
“ BUT, if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Yahweh; and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?” AMEN. May The Lord’s Name Be Blessed.
