Today, in our Gospel story, Jesus is teaching about “The Importance of Forgiveness.”  As the story goes, a master is moved with compassion and forgives a debtor his large loan.  But, the forgiven debtor goes out and does not forgive  one of his fellow servants, who owes him a much smaller amount.  When the master hears about this, he hands his debtor over to the torturers, until the debtor pays back the entire debt!

The conclusion is obvious.  God, the Father, who forgives each one of us our great debts, expects us, in return, to forgive all of our debtors all of their debts.  Jesus emphasizes the degree of forgiveness, saying that we must forgive  seventy times seven!  This is to say, that forgiveness is to be virtually unlimited!

This message was probably very difficult for the disciples of Jesus, who were raised under Old Testament law of “an eye for an eye” (Exodus 21:24). To the Disciples, this must have seemed to be a very radical teaching.  But, Jesus was in the process of introducing the terms of the New Law of Grace.  Under grace, although we do not deserve it, and cannot earn it, we are forgiven for all of our sins!