It wasn’t that the process couldn’t work that troubled Peter. I think it was more about what if it did?

Jesus’ charge to go to a brother or sister who has sinned against you and tell them their fault (Matt. 18:15) might have made sense if its purpose was for the self-satisfaction of chewing someone out. But rebuke them for the purpose of reconciling with them? Call out their transgression so that you could continue to follow Christ together? Not only was that uncomfortable, but it was also kind of risky. What if it worked and they asked to be forgiven? Then you’d have to. Yeah, but what if they sinned against you again (a pretty likely expectation given that we’re dealing with people here)? Go again? Confront again? And, potentially, forgive again? Yup, that’s kind of the implication.

But there’s gotta be a limit, thinks Peter. So Peter probes the matter with Jesus.

Then Peter came up and said to Him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

(Matthew 18:21-22 ESV)

Seven times would be a lot. Think about it . . . a brother or sister sins against you; you go to them and tell them how they’ve sinned; he listens, she agrees, they confess and repent; and, you forgive having “gained your brother”, having won back your sister. But then, they sin against you again and you go through the process again and they listen again, and you forgive again. And then, it happens again, and the process begins again, and you forgive again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again. Seven times. Sure seems like a lot. Feels like going the “extra mile” and then some.

Peter thought seven times was a lot. Thought it would be a pretty safe limit to how much grace any one person could be expected to show to another. But Jesus says, “Nope, not seven times. Think seventy-seven times.”

Seventy-seven times? Come on! (Glad I’m reading the ESV, most other translators think the text says that Jesus responded, “Try seventy times seven times”).

Seventy-seven times! Really?

For anyone who’s done it, once can be hard enough — especially when the “sin against you” cuts deep, deep into you. Especially when there’s no setting right the damage caused by the wrong, no way to go back to how things were before. But yeah, seventy-seven (or, perhaps, seventy times seven), says Jesus. That’s the length you need to be prepared to go to for the sake of being reconciled with a brother; for, as much as it depends on you, living at peace with a sister (Rom. 12:18). That’s a lot of going, rebuking, and forgiving, all with the knowledge that it might be necessary to do it again.

How is that even possible?

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

(Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV)

Comprehending something of the depths to which we’ve been forgiven by God through the Christ who died for us is the well from which we are able to extend forgiveness to others through the Christ who lives in us.

Ever sinned against God? Ever confessed and repented of it? Ever been forgiven? Ever done it again . . . and again . . . and again and been forgiven again and again and again? Ever known Jesus paying the price for the debt of sin you could never repay again and again and again — counting on the fact that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin each and every time we confess our sin (1Jn. 1:9)?

That’s the secret sauce (not the simple or easy sauce) to seventy-seven times. It’s simple math, the more you’ve been forgiven the greater your capacity to forgive. Having known Jesus’ forgiveness seventy-seven times (more like seventy times seven times) we’re able to forgive from the measure with which we have been forgiven. Conversely, if we don’t think God has had to forgive us much — that most of Jesus’ blood was shed for others — then we’re not going to be able to tap the wells of abundant grace that can source our forgiveness of others.

Seventy-seven times. That’s a lot!

Yeah it is. But Lord, help me to forgive as I have been forgiven.

Forgiven by Your grace. Forgiving for Your glory.