When was the last time you made a dumb, embarrassing, costly mistake and you were not only forgiven but helped to make things right?
Was there a time when your frustration caused you to lash out, when the expectations overwhelmed you and you responded with anger, yet your co-workers patiently gave you space to pull yourself together and move on?
Today’s parable of the unforgiving steward challenges us to embrace an attitude of forgiveness. God calls us to forgive as we have been forgiven. The number 70 used in the scriptures is a symbolic number. It means unlimited, constant without limits.
It is about an expansive love, that is willing to forgive even in the most difficult experiences. A Great example of that kind of love is in the story of the prodigal son. The son squanders the resources that his father gave him. He has nowhere to turn so he returns to see his father. His father reaches out and forgives him even before the son asks for forgiveness.
Would we be able to do that?
The Gospel today reminds us of two things, a person must be willing to forgive in order to be forgiven, and take notice of the contrast between the two debts. The first owed was close to 2,400,000 in local currency, the second was in the area of 5 in local currency.
The point is that nothing we can do can compare with what mankind has done to God, by not historically being faithful to the covenant God made with us. To restore that relationship Jesus gave his life for us.
Nothing we can forgive can compare with all that God has forgiven us.
May we take up God’s call to us to build the kingdom through our works of building peace and reconciliation.