Calculating Forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35)
So, here’s the thing: If the shepherd and the king are meant to represent God in these parables, then we’re left with two choices: either God doesn’t quite get how the world operates and gets swindled by forgiving an ungrateful jerk, or God’s playing a completely different game from the one we’re used to playing.
I’m going with the latter. Whatever God’s role in all of this forgiveness stuff is, it’s way bigger, and way more absurd than you or I are liable to dream up on our own. But that, at least in part, is Jesus’ point: When it comes to forgiveness, we tend not to think big enough. We’re stuck on questions like: How often, and under what specific conditions, am I required to forgive?
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