When the King Settles Accounts
Click here to listen. Or here. “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants” ( Matthew 18:23). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Having just heard Jesus’ words about winning back an erring brother, Peter asks, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive Him? As many as seven times?” Peter thinks he is being very generous. After all, the old Jewish teaching was that three times was enough, and even then you only forgave someone if he or she first apologized. And generally, it was expected that the sinner had to make it up to you somehow. But Jesus raises the bar considerably higher: “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” Some translations render this 77 times. Others make this 70 x 7 times, or 490 times. Either way, it’s a lot of times. But neither number is to be taken literally. Both of them tell us to just keep on forgiving indefinitely....