How should Christians deal with those who offends them? should they retaliate? Our world today longs for disciples of forgiveness and disciples of hope. By choosing to become disciples of forgiveness, we not only transform our own lives but also help transform those with whom we interact. By becoming disciples of forgiveness, we evolve into disciples of hope and begin to offer options to those who live with seemingly no hope in our sometimes too violent world. Today’s Gospel is the continuation of the one we read last week Sunday (Mt. 18:15-20), which highlighted the steps that should be taken in a situation in which one member of the community sins against another in order to achieve the necessary reconciliation.
Following the process of reconciliation enunciated by Jesus, Peter approached Jesus and asked “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” conversely, he wanted to know whether the process in Mt. 18:15-20 is to be followed for every offense? Biblically, the number ‘seven’ is symbolic for perfect number, which suggests perfect forgiveness. Jesus’ response to Peter, “not seven times but seventy-seven times” stretches the boundaries of forgiveness to limitless proportion. In the past, the Mosaic Law permitted retaliation and a limit to forgiveness. In Ex.21:23-25, “But if injury follows, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound……” Lev. 24:19- 20 says “Anyone who inflicts an injury on his neighbour shall receive the same in return.
Limb for limb, eye for eye, tooth for tooth…” Also, in Deut. 19:20, “Your eye shall not pity, it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”. However, Jesus Christ who came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them (cf. Mt.5:17), teaches us forgiveness in place of the law of retaliation. In Mt. 5:38-42 Jesus says “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” Also, in Mt. 6:14-15 Jesus says: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
The parable of the unforgiving servant compares God’s forgiveness and ours; it is because there is no limit to God’s generosity to his undeserving people that they in their turn cannot claim the right to withhold forgiveness from their fellow disciples. The king in the parable forgave the servants who owed him ten thousand talents because he could not pay. His decision to write off the whole debt is derived not from calculation but compassion, that quality which have seen to be the Characteristics of Jesus himself when confronted with the need of those who cannot help themselves. The parable thus speaks of the totally unmerited grace of God which forgives his people more than they could ever imagine because they are unable to help themselves. Justice is overwhelmed by the compassion for the servant and as a result he was pardoned of his debt.
What God has forgiven his people is beyond human calculation. The forgiving servant however met another fellow servant who owes him one denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘pay me what you owed me’. His fellow servant pleaded with him but it fell on deaf ears. He refused and put him in prison till he paid the debt. The unforgiving servant whose entire existence has been restored through a triumph of mercy over justice, now in a case that a little mercy would swiftly resolve, reverts with brutal effects, to an application of justice in the narrowest possible terms. The unforgiving servants has forgotten that if the Lord should mark our guilt no one would survive. In the Lord’s prayer, we pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, we are asking God to let the experience of being forgiven so transform our heart so that we may likewise forgive others. It would be a foolish person who would pray the other way around, asking God to forgive us only in the puny measure we are able to forgive others. Forgiveness must go beyond the lips saying, it must involve the transformation of the heart.
For the ancients, the heart is the centre not only of emotions and passions, but also the source of thoughts and understanding. From the heart also comes will and conscience. It is the source of obedience and devotion. It is the place where one meets God and is transformed. Many a time, it is very easy for us to revert to ways of strict accounting and punishment for failure even when one has been the recipient of lavish mercy. How many of us were happy when the unforgiving servant was thrown into the jail? Or did your heart break with compassion for him due to his actions? Can we give him the chance to learn to be transformed by mercy. We are admonished not to give up on anyone because of hurts that seem to be too old or too deep to heal. The second reading from the book of Sirach says we should remember the end of our life and set enmity aside.
The parable does not advocate unlimited forgiveness by victims for their unrepentant abusers. This parable is often misinterpreted to advocate that forgiveness over and over again is the way for a victim of domestic violence, for example, to follow the way of the cross. In contrast to Mt. 18:22, the parable actually shows that there are limits to forgiveness. The one who has been forgiven and does not in turn act toward another cannot receive boundless forgiveness. The parable admonished us not only to recognize sin in others and bring them to repentance, but to see the same in ourselves and to seek forgiveness and reconciliation.
