One day, Peter approached Jesus and asked him:
Lord, how many times will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?
Peter asked the question above Jesus thinking that the Master would agree with Him.
But Jesus must have surprised him when he said:
I do not tell you: up to seven times, but: up to seventy-seven times.
What we must draw from that biblical teaching is the need that each of us has to forgive someone who makes a mistake with us. Forever and ever.
Just as we know that we can apologize to the Lord God whenever we want, and we will be forgiven by Him.
Then, to explain this biblical passage, Jesus tells us this story:
"That is why the Kingdom of Heaven has become similar to a man, a king, who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves.
Jesus tells us that this man sent a man who owed him 10,000 denarii.
It was a pretty high value. And the man could not pay what he owed at that time to the king.
Then the king commanded that this man, his wife, and all things I had, be sold and paid.
That king, acting in that way, seemed ruthless. But, in the course of history, we can understand that that king was kind.
The debtor prostrated
Upon hearing this, the debtor prostrated himself before the king and practically humiliated himself saying:
Be patient with me, and I'll pay you back.
Upon hearing this, the king penalized because of the critical situation of that man, canceled his debt. And then he allowed her to leave without paying anything to the sovereign.
The debtor must then have left happy the presence of the king. Happy to have your debt forgiven by the kind monarch.
But guess what happened to that man days later!
Well, that man looked for another man who owed him 100 denarii.
The former debtor of the king now ruthlessly seized his poor debtor and began to strangle him saying:
Pay back what you owe!
But, just as he had done before the king, his poor debtor prostrated before him and began to beg him saying:
Be patient with me, and I'll pay you back.
But the ruthless creditor did not accept his pleas.
And without mercy he ordered that he throw his debtor into jail. Until he paid him back everything he owed him.
However, other men saw what he did with his debtor. They were sad. Disgusted. And they went to tell the king everything that had happened.
Imagine what the king did!
The king called his former debtor
He sent for his former debtor back. This is the one that had his debt forgiven by the king.
Then the king said to him:
Iniquitous slave, I canceled all that debt, when you begged me. Should not you, in turn, have had mercy on your co-slave, just as I also had mercy on you?
After that, his master, now very angry, handed him over to the jailers, until he paid back everything he owed.
As Jesus explains in his biblical teachings:
"In like manner deal with you my heavenly Father, if you do not forgive each one of your brother's heart".