Then Peter came up and said to him: ¨Lord, how many times is my brother to sin against me and am I to forgive him? Up to seven times?¨ Jesus said to him: ¨I say to you, not, Up to seven times, but, Up to seventy-seven times.¨ Matthew 18:21-22 (Reference Bible)
How many times must we watch Jesus do this same thing with His followers? People come up to Him with questions or requests firmly grounded in our shallow earthly thought and purposes. Jesus must then somehow try to help us make the jump from the limited worldly visions of our race unto the limitless, galactic sized understanding of the divine and spiritual.
Now we humans are remarkable in a lot of ways, but just because we get puffed up on the amount of things we have managed to study or figure out, this does not mean that we see it all or know it all. Research any scientific point in-depth and you will run across speculations, questions or improbabilities that have not yet been explained to us. The scientist is the first person who should be able to admit that there is still so much for us to learn.
Peter had something right and the genuine Christian will too, in that they would approach Jesus for insight and answers. If there are questions or doubts, could there exist a better source to begin our inquiries?
On this occasion in Matthew 18 verses 21 to 35, in response to Peter´s question, Jesus gently shows him the vast difference in human thought and ways to what the Lord would have for us. We talk of a situation or conflict between us and a brother and want a cut and dry letter to follow as to the limit of our mercy and patience. But Jesus wants us to see that the answer is not grounded in human ways but in heavenly ways.
God is merciful. He is patient and kind. His grace does not flow to us out of our merit, but out of credit to Him.
Those who care enough to look from ourselves and see this about God, would also like to follow in those footsteps. We would like to share those qualities of our God and be like Him. The only way this is possible is if He magically infuses this part or quality of Himself inside of us.
Jesus went on with the story of the pardoned man. This man owed much to his Master and so do we. However the Master was gracious and pardoned His servant. He let him go, but the man went out of the presence of the King without having learned the important lesson of love and compassion.
When this man went back out into his own reality he found someone who owed him something and rather than see things as his Master had done, he immediately demanded his due. We may feel sad when we hear this story like the other servants we read of, but the most depressing thing to consider is that the story is of us.
Jesus tries to show us through parables, that if some great work of grace is effectuate inside our hearts, the fate of the man in the story is the story of our fate too. Somehow, we need to be so affected by the realization of our ways and our lack of ability to have that kind of compassion, that we do whatever it takes to receive it from our Lord. We must pray that His mercy and His love flow into us in sufficient amounts as to change our way of being.
Dear Jesus, You are our Master and have pardoned our great debt. Show us how to learn of Your ways and have Your nature flow into us. We will need to have the kind of love and compassion for those around us as You have had towards us. Only You have that and can share that with us. So pour out Yourself into us that we are transformed and enlightened. In this way we shall be able to forgive our brother as You have, until 77 times and over.
Amen
Searching For Christ 
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