Jesus' Math: Immeasurable Forgiveness

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Matthew 18:21-22 (NIV)

Arise and shine, dear one! God is with you!

I have a distinct memory from my childhood involving a typewriter. (Yes, I’m that old!) I remember sitting down at the table, sliding the paper into the roller, and taping the keys…but I wasn’t writing out sentences. I was typing numbers. (Yes, I’m that weird, too!) I was seeing how high I could count and enjoying the sound of the typewriter clicking away as the page filled with numbers.

My affinity for mathematics has continued into adulthood. As I open my Bible, when numbers are referenced, I find myself paying extra attention. During a sermon at my church a few weeks ago, I got excited as I realized Jesus may have been referencing numbers from Genesis that I never realized before!

In Matthew 18, Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?” I imagine he’s thinking he’s being generous to suggest up to seven times, a number often associated with perfection…but Jesus takes it way further and says, “seventy-seven times.” Yet, He didn’t mean to keep track of your forgiveness and stop at seventy-seven…He may have actually been alluding to a statement of revenge made long ago.

Genesis 4:23-24 says “Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”

Instead of excessive retaliation, Jesus calls us to excessive forgiveness! Some Bible translations use seventy times seven, but the idea behind Jesus’ statement remains the same. We are to forgive others abundantly, just as we have been abundantly forgiven.

What about you, dear one? Is there someone you need to forgive? Do you need to forgive yourself, knowing that you have been fully forgiven by God? The beauty of God's mathematics is that His grace is unlimited. Today, choose to let that abundant forgiveness flow through you to others, and to yourself.