In this season when there is so much anger in the air, and on the air, a text about forgiveness seems appropriate – and hard to deal with. Forgiveness is the center of faith for many Christians: Jesus died so that our sins can be forgiven. I don’t subscribe to that version of Christianity though I do think that Jesus’ death can inform how we live our lives. And I do think forgiveness is important. As Anabaptists that follow the teachings of Jesus closely, forgiveness is a teaching to pay attention to.

In Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches about prayer; we call it the “Lord’s Prayer.” Jesus says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Depending on what tradition or congregation you are in you might say the prayer using “debts.” Or you might say the prayer like in Luke’s version, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” And in plenty of churches you hear, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” (from the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.)

Besides the question of debts versus sins versus trespasses, there are other complications with forgiveness. There are some things we can’t imagine forgiving, like cruelty to children or dropping bombs on civilians, or knowingly polluting water sources…the list goes on and on.

And yet Jesus says, as he is dying on the cross, “Forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” Who is he asking forgiveness for? The politicians and leaders who make the decisions that allow the crucifixion? The people who shout that he should be crucified? The soldiers that carry out the sentence? Is this forgiveness for the disciples as they run away in fear?

In Matthew’s gospel (Matt. 9) Matthew is depicted as a tax collector, a sinner if there ever was one. Matthew is sitting at a tax booth when Jesus calls him to follow. The very next scene is Jesus at a meal with a lot of tax collectors. So it makes sense that Matthew’s gospel uses a financial image, debts, in Jesus’ prayer. Money is also part of the teaching in the parable today.

Yet, Peter’s question to Jesus doesn’t reference money. The question is about how often we should forgive, as if there is a finite number of times per person for forgiveness. Peter proposes a number that seems reasonable. Forgive seven times, that is a biblical number after all, the number of wholeness.”

But Jesus says seven times is not enough, it’s more like seventy times seven, sort of shorthand for “forgive infinity times.” (Jesus might get this idea from Genesis and the vengeance Cain worried about after killing his brother.)

After Peter’s question, Jesus tells this parable, found only in Matthew’s gospel, not about how many times to forgive but how much to forgive, monetarily. So is forgiveness a financial matter as Matthew depicts or a spiritual matter, forgiveness of “sins,” as Luke writes? Is forgiveness both a financial and spiritual practice? Are finances spiritual? Or are money and indebtedness just handy metaphors?

Jesus doesn’t try to answer all our distracting questions. He just tells the disciples a story. The parable begins: “The kindom of God is like a ruler who decided to settle accounts with the workers.”

A worker comes before the Ruler because a debt is owed, a huge debt. It might be hard to imagine a debt as large as 10,000 talents, equal to about 20 years of wages. The way to take care of a debt this size, in this system, is for the wage earner, and their family, to be sold into slavery. And all their possessions sold. Will 20 years of enslavement even pay off the debt? The worker pleads for mercy promising they will repay this impossible debt. Remarkably, the Ruler hears their plea – their lie really – that the worker will repay what is owed. The debt is written off and the person is set free. (Is this an example of 70×7?)

The forgiven worker goes on their merry way, and runs into a co-worker that owes them 100 denarii, one hundred days wages. The one that was just shown great mercy seems to have already forgotten that their humongous debt has been written off. The forgiven worker refuses to forgive the much smaller debt. Is it because they are starting to collect money to pay back the Ruler? Certainly the other workers don’t think so, especially since the forgiven one has their co-worker thrown into debtor’s prison.

Unjust actions like this do not go unnoticed. Word soon gets back to the Ruler who is infuriated. “Wicked, worthless, evil wretch” are some of the descriptors used by the Ruler to describe this ungrateful worker. The one who was extravagantly forgiven did not pay it forward. They are no longer worthy of mercy; they will now be sent to jail.

I wonder what the disciples think about this treatment. Is jail enough punishment? Should it be torture? (as some translations say.) Do the disciples cheer the “justice” that the ungrateful worker gets after not showing mercy? Do we, as listeners all these generations later, cheer? What does that mean for us? Are we unforgiving? undeserving?

Then we get the moral of the story. Jesus says: “My Abba in heaven will treat you exactly the same way unless you truly forgive your sisters and brothers and siblings from your hearts.” Is Jesus’ parable a warning that “what goes around comes around?” Is punishment only in this world or also in the next? Unto the next generations?

If this all sounds draconian and impossible, we might think again about how things work in this country these days. We know there are people in jail because they can’t pay bail. What is that if not debtors prison? We might remember the wage earners who are daily abducted off the streets because of the color of their skin or their perceived country of origin.  Some factions in this country believe those who are abducted “owe” something to the government, something they cannot pay. And once people are locked up, their families struggle to survive unless they receive mercy from neighbors and people contribute to their Go Fund Me accounts. Who needs forgiveness here? Who can grant forgiveness?

I wonder if Jesus had any particular people in mind when he told this parable. It certainly make me remember when Bishop Budde spoke directly to the president in the National Cathedral on January 21, 2025. The current president is a man who has great moral and spiritual debts – if not monetary debts. Bishop Budde pleaded for the president to show mercy. And yet the president continues to make fun of the very concept of mercy – or empathy. What are we to make of that attitude in light of this parable?

There are so many more questions about forgiveness, who to forgive, how to forgive. And not all of our questions about forgiveness are answered through this parable. This parable is part of a series of teachings about how followers of Jesus are to interact and treat each other, the sister or brother or sibling, in the community of faith. Peter’s question and the parable come right after the teaching about what to do if a sister, brother or sibling sins against you. (Sometimes in Mennonite circles we just use the shorthand of “Matthew 18” for that process.) Forgiveness, it seems, is the final step when there is a disagreement, when someone has done something wrong, when we have done something wrong.

Because Jesus is talking to his disciples, this parable is not in coded language like some parables. Many of the parables make sense only if you have the answer key. But this parable is pretty straightforward forward since Jesus is not trying to hide things from adversaries lurking in the crowd. The disciples, maybe except for Matthew, don’t have a lot of money though they probably have debts. So this is good news for the disciples, that debts can be forgiven, in this world and by God. They too should forgive the debts (or sins) of each other, since they have experienced forgiveness.

In our capitalist society, this kind of extravagant forgiveness is unheard of. Is this good news? Is it good news for us, in the way we do church? One very literal, practical, way we live this out is our mutual assistance fund. We offer monetary help to each other when there are expenses that overwhelm. Most often this money cannot nearly take care of the whole debt, but it does makes a difference to know that care is being offered.

I think again of the many Go Fund Me requests that come across my desk, or my phone, each week. These are for the families of those who have been taken into ICE detention. Each family is unique but many need help to cover medical expenses, or bond to get the family member out of detention or money for rent.

This parable also makes me wonder about the Mother’s Day Bailout that Life After Release has each spring. Reuniting families after time in jail, is that a way to express forgiveness, to express the forgiveness we want to live into?

During the pandemic some of us gathered on Zoom to pray two mornings a week. Those prayers from John Philip Newell taught me that each morning is a forgiveness, a new day to begin again. This is a gift we receive without doing anything. Like the ever expanding love of God, a new day is an immeasurable forgiveness that we are given and which we can never repay. All we can do is offer forgiveness to others, especially to those we love, a sister or brother or sibling, a child a spouse, a friend.

May we be given the strength and humility to offer forgiveness in this world that so needs extravagant mercy.