“Enough is enough!”
The loud, exasperated parent’s voice carried long and far through the local Kmart.
Just in case we didn't quite catch it the first time, mere seconds later came the follow-up "I said NO! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"
This brief conversation between Peter and Jesus gets quite a bit of attention:
"At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, 'Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?'
Jesus replied, ‘Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.’” (Matthew 18:21-22, The Message)
Consider this thought-provoking comment, made by a young girl at Communion. Picture a cute-as-a-button girl with beautiful braids reaching up to take a piece of the Communion loaf — a BIG piece.
Her mom whispers, “No, honey. That’s too much; just take a SMALL piece – that’s enough.”
Her answer carries back several rows, “But Mom, I didn’t think you could ever get enough Jesus!”
The disciples are more in the first scene, in the parent’s frame of mind. How much IS enough?
Jesus, however, is more in the little girls’ frame of mind. Call it a “God frame of mind.”
How many times is God willing to forgive? More than I can think of. Jesus himself is the demonstration of that. Forgiveness is allowing another (or one’s self) to be human, imperfect and fallible.
Isn’t it interesting that (OK, be honest now) many times we really resemble the forgiven servant who turned around and refused forgiveness to others.
It’s just not that easy to forgive, is it? Many times we confuse forgiveness (allowing that we are all human) with forget-ness (refusing to learn from our experiences).
Perhaps better than the commonly expressed, “forgive and forget,” the instruction for human beings should more accurately be, “forgive and learn.”
Well, the truth is that we’ll never have the forgiveness capacity of God (and thank goodness we’re NOT God), but we are called to get better and better at forgiveness as disciples of Christ. Better and better.
So, as the disciples ask, is that seven times? That’s tough enough, but Jesus answers with a much higher benchmark – 70 X 7.
Jesus calls us to a life of persistent, growing maturity in our faith – a faith lived out every day in all the situations and relationships of our lives.
So just how do we get from where we are (most of us are far more like the parent in the local Kmart than the little girl at Communion) to where Jesus is calling us?
We intentionally build our connection with God as disciples of Jesus.
We study the Bible – on our own, just us and God – and with others (for example, Bible study and discussion groups).
We spend time in regular prayer.
We get away for intentional time growing and enriching our faith.
So wherever you are, whether it’s trying to forgive for the first time, the seventh time, or (bless you) somewhere between that and 490th (70 X 7) time, study, prayer and intentional retreat time spent on your faith journey are precious – and necessary. It’s a matter of priorities. Eternal ones.
Take the time. Make the time. Keep trying — 7 times — 70 X 7 times — whatever it takes.
God will never, ever give up on you. God will never, ever have “enough” of you. Ever. Even far beyond 70 X 7.