This week’s Gospel reading invites us to reflect on the extravagance of God’s forgiveness. Right at the beginning of the passage, Jesus makes an outrageous claim. In response to Peter’s question asking how many times he should forgive, Jesus responds: “Not seven, but seventy-seven times.
Jesus is not implying that Peter (or we) should keep a record of how many times we forgive and stop after seventy-seven times. He is calling his followers to an endless amount of forgiveness. Seven times seems generous in and of itself. When did you last forgive someone seven times in a row? But this only makes Jesus’ answer all the more mind-bending: “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
But why does Jesus mention the number seventy-seven at all?
Jesus’ remark is likely an allusion to Lamech, Cain’s great-great-great grandson and an heir to Cain’s violent, self-centred ways. Lamech boasts that he takes extreme revenge on anyone who hurts him: “If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold” (Gen 4:24). Jesus’ call to extravagant forgiveness is a direct
overturning of Lamech’s endless economy of vengeance.
Jesus’ allusion to the story of Cain and Lamech is no accident: the spirals of vengeance are seductive, wreaking havoc in human life — unless and until we create pockets of mercy, habits of mercy, whole lives of mercy: “seventy-sevenfold”!
Vengeance creates a spiral of
never-ending violence and pain. As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Jesus calls us to break the cycle of vengeance by offering extravagant forgiveness to those who have sinned against us.
What limits have you perhaps placed on your forgiveness to others? Do you have a set number of chances you are willing to give or specific criteria people must fulfil to receive your
forgiveness?
Reflections by Rev Joe Taylor
