When we think of the early Christian community, we picture it as a community of love, kindness, peace, harmony, and mutual support. It included the early disciples who had met Jesus, heard him speak, witnessed his miraculous powers, saw him after his Resurrection, and were anointed with the Holy Spirit. This Christian community was made up of people whose lives had been radically changed by the Lord and been commissioned to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel.

 

However, there must have been problems within this early Christian community. We get an indication that all was not perfect if we look at this Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 18:21-35), as well as the Gospel reading from last Sunday (Matthew 18:15-20). Both readings show us how Jesus advised his followers to deal with disagreements and problems among them.

 

Last Sunday, “Jesus said to his disciples: If your brother sins against you tell him his fault between you and him alone.” In using the term “brother,” Jesus was referring not to a stranger, but to a fellow disciple. This is evident from the fact that if this outreach did not work, two or three other members of the community were to approach the offender, and if this failed to resolve the issue, Jesus said, “tell the church.”

 

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?” Once again, the problem was with a “brother,” a fellow member of the Christian community. In suggesting seven times, Peter went beyond the three times that the rabbis of his day said a person was to be forgiven. Jesus responded to Peter by saying that a brother should be forgiven seventy-seven times, meaning that a brother or sister in faith was to be forgiven as often as necessary.

 

However, such forgiveness required that those seeking to be forgiven show their desire for forgiveness. We see that illustrated in the parable included in this Sunday’s Gospel.

 

There Jesus spoke about a servant who owed his master a tremendous amount of money. Since he could never repay it, his master ordered him, his family, and all his property to be sold to satisfy at least a portion of the debt. The servant pleaded with his master, “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.” The master not only answered his plea, but he forgave the servant his entire debt.

 

Amazingly that same man refused to show any mercy to a fellow servant who owed him an insignificant amount and who cried out, “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.”

 

His refusal to heed his fellow servant’s plea, which sounded so much like his own, scandalized and upset the other servants. They reported the man’s lack of compassion to the master, who then in anger “handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.”

 

The first servant, who was forgiven his entire debt, could not bring himself to forgive his fellow servant. Like the master in the parable, God grants forgiveness to those who acknowledge their need for forgiveness, and he withdraws forgiveness from those who fail to forgive others. As we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

 

As Jesus told Peter and he tells us, we are to forgive our brothers and sisters seventy-seven times. But such forgiveness is not meant to be automatic. It requires a request for forgiveness, some acknowledgement of sin, and a willingness to forgive others. To use a traditional term, it requires “contrition” on the part of one seeking forgiveness.

 

© 2026 Rev. Thomas Iwanowski