Have you had people in your life that you have a hard time forgiving? Most of us can think of a few! Our human reaction to people who have hurt us or wronged us is to feel like, “I can never forgive that person.” Jesus told a story about forgiveness that addresses this very real and valid human emotion. It is found in Matthew’s gospel.
As Jesus turned to teaching in parables in order to keep those who had rejected Him from being more accountable for rejecting more truth, He responded to Peter’s question of how many times we should forgive someone. Peter thought he was being generous by saying, “up to seven times?” The Lord increased the number to “seventy-seven times.” In the original language, this response could be translated “seventy time seven,” or 490 times.
Jesus’ point was that we who have been loved and forgiven by God are empowered to not keep a list of wrongs but freely forgive. That’s a hard one, isn’t it? How does one forgive someone who has taken the life of a loved one? How does a person not want revenge upon someone who absconded one’s life savings? Jesus tells a story to illustrate how we who have been forgiven a debt we could never repay can live in the freedom of forgiveness. Somehow a servant of the King in this story owed the King 10,000 talents.
A talent of gold in the New Testament time ranged from 75 pounds (A Hebrew talent) down to 71 pounds (A Roman talent. Using our current price of gold per ounce today of $2656, it would .