Have you ever heard this warning: Be careful what you pray for – you might get it.

Is that what we really want? We know we want God’s forgiveness – of that, we are quite sure. However, we are not so sure about the second part, about the way we forgive others. We know that we are not nearly so quick to forgive others as we hope and pray that God forgives us. The Psalmist says, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.” But… when someone does us wrong, we say, “hold on a minute.” We are not so full of compassion and mercy. We are not so slow to anger and of great kindness. And yet, this is how Our Lord taught us to pray – forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Be careful what you pray for – you just might get it.

In our Gospel lesson, Peter comes to Jesus and asks, “Lord, if someone sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”
Peter always asks the questions that we would like to ask. He is so earnest and so eager to do the right thing. But Peter also always seems to be getting it wrong. Maybe it’s this fallible humanity that makes Peter an exemplar for us. He had heard Jesus talk about forgiveness, so he wants to know more. Seven times is a lot – it is a lot of times to turn and forgive someone who has sinned against you. Perhaps Peter was expecting Jesus to praise him for even suggesting such extravagant forgiveness. This doesn’t happen. Rather, Jesus turns and says, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

New Testament scholars debate whether the Greek text means “seventy-seven times” or “seventy times seven times.” But that is beside the point, because either way, Jesus is holding up an enormous number, a number so big that we can’t begin to calculate it in terms of forgiveness. As far as the east is from the west, that’s how much you should forgive.”

It’s such an enormous amount of forgiveness it would be senseless to try to calculate how much or how often.

There has been a fair amount of social science research on forgiveness of late. It turns out that forgiveness is good for you. People who forgive have lower levels of anger, anxiety, and depression, are more agreeable and emotionally stable, and may also have gained some health benefits. It’s good to know that there is some social scientific evidence that supports the claim that forgiveness is good for us, even though I’m not too sure that was Jesus’ point.

The Psalmist says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us.” It’s hard to put a number on that type of forgiveness!

We are all utterly dependent on the unconditional, unmerited grace and mercy of Christ, who has removed our sins as far as the East is from the West.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus tells Peter the story about the unforgiving servant, a story where the numbers don’t add up, because the numbers can’t be added up, when it comes to what Jesus has done for us.

Jesus reframes the whole question about forgiveness. When it comes to forgiveness, we are all like servants who owe our Lord and King more than we can imagine. Try as we may to repay our debt through our character strengths, or our virtues, or our willingness to forgive as many as seven times, we will never be able to pay back all that we owe to God. But the good news is that despite our inability ever to give back to God everything we ought, God forgives us anyway, completely.

In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has taken upon himself all our burdens and sins and debts and has forgiven them.
Completely, irrevocably, utterly forgiven and healed by Jesus. God is the God who forgives.

Forgiveness may very well be a character strength and virtue. It probably does contribute to leading good and happy lives.

But, Jesus reminds us, when it comes to our ability and need to forgive, we are, all of us, those of us who have great character strengths and those of us who do not, penitents, debtors kneeling at the foot of the cross.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Be careful what you pray for – you just might get it.

Amen