Are you envious of my generosity?

“I don’t know, but I can hope.” And January 7 would come and go and, sure enough, Carol’s father would miss another opportunity to wish her a happy birthday, which would just cause some more sadness & grief to settle into her soul, and even some anger to bubble up, ultimately associated with the pain of her parents’ divorce years ago. She knew he loved her, and in many ways he was a wonderful father, but, when it came to her birthday, why couldn’t he just remember on one day of the year, only 7 days into every new year, to pick up the phone and call her?

Then, one day he did. The phone rang, “Happy Birthday, Carol” her father said with a smile in his voice. However, it was September 13th, which is her sister’s birthday — he had called the wrong daughter.

Almost 4 months later, January 7 came again; “Surely,” we thought, “with that mistake he made back in September, he will call this.” But, the phone never rang.

How many times, Lord? How many times?

“7 times?” Peter asked Jesus.

Peter was not asking for a limit of the number of times one is to forgive another.

Instead, since seven is the traditional number of perfection, the sense of Peter’s question was:

“Is perfect forgiveness expected of me?”

(Luz, U. (2001). Matthew: a commentary. (H. Koester, Ed.) (p. 465). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg. Hermeneia)

(p. 465). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg. Hermeneia)

Yes, and then some. Jesus raises the bar even more — 77 times. That is perfect forgiveness 11 times over! Wow! That’s a tall order! Jesus is rather serious about what it means to follow him. So, he uses a powerful story to get at the depth and breadth of forgiveness.

Jesus starts out by turning Peter’s question around.

Instead of asking, “How many times must I forgive?”

when the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

“How many times must I forgive?”

which becomes more of a question of following the law and keeping track of other people’s mistakes, Jesus asks the question, back to Peter through this parable,

“How much did you owe?”

Like the first slave in the story, how in debt were you? He says that the first slave owed 10,000 talents. How many $1 bills does that equal? Well,

10,000 talents = about 150,000 years’ wages

As math teachers teach, “show your work:”

1 mina = 3 months’ wages

1 talent = 180 months’ wages/12 months in a year = 15 years’ wages’

1 talent = 150,000 years’ wages

In dollars, that means:

So, if a laborer’s yearly wage is $15,000 (about 40 hrs/week at a min wage of $8.00 hr)

when the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

150,000 years’ wages = $2,250,000,000 (Two Billion, Two Hundred Fifty Million) [www.answers.com]

www.answers.com

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_is_10000_talents_worth

While the people listening to Jesus are probably scratching their heads or wondering what kind of scam or illegal behavior this guy is going to do to get out of so much debt, Jesus slams on the brakes when he says, the lord had σπλαγχνίζομαι and forgave the man’s debt.

σπλαγχνίζομαι ??

about what he means to follow him. the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

Is it simply

Pity, as defined by Cambridge Dictionary = a feeling of sadness or sympathy for someone else’s unhappiness or difficult situation?

No, σπλαγχνίζομαι = to experience great affection and compassion for someone

Then, he goes on to teach the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

— a feeling of sadness or sympathy for someone else's unhappiness or difficult situation?

— a feeling of sadness or sympathy for someone else's unhappiness or difficult situation — Then, he goes on to teach the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

Certainly, Jesus’ listeners and Matthew’s readers would not have seen that response coming.

Then, he goes on to teach the “great one” begs for patience and time to pay Lord all his debt, the Lord does the incomprehensible — he forgives the debt.

Certainly, Jesus’ listeners and Matthew’s readers would not have seen that response coming.

Equally, they would have been aghast at the way this slave then turned around and treated harshly a fellow slave who owed a mere 100 silver coins, worth around 1 year of wages.

No, in the original greek language, it uses the word σπλαγχνίζομα = to experience great affection and compassion for someone—‘to feel compassion for, to have great affection for, love, compassion.’

If we choose to live by forgiveness. If we choose not to live by forgiveness our other two choices are one complacency or apathy in which we don't care about anybody else. For two we are living by non-forgiveness which means in minimal build crutches or in the Max we carry out violence toward another more secret bandage and another

But, based on that slave’s harsh treatment of his fellow slave, the crowd would have been very understanding of the lord throwing the unmerciful slave into the prison.

It’s easy to side with the crowd in this story. It keeps the point of the story at a distance from us. So, let’s insert ourselves into the story as the unmerciful slave.

And let’s think about it in the context of a faith community.

When have we mistreated another person in the faith community based on a relatively small offense? In my 27 years of pastoral ministry, I have heard of people who were

not allowed to collect the offering because they did not have a suit coat on.

Who were insulted because of their preferred style of music

who were offered two pieces of bread at communion because of the size of their body

…and that’s without even getting into hot button issues.

Yet, how many of us have had a huge debt paid off by Jesus dying on the cross? Everyone of us!

If we choose to live by forgiveness. If we choose not to live by forgiveness our other two choices are one

So we have a choice this day.

Will we choose to live by forgiveness, being so grateful that we look for opportunities to share forgiveness with another person, hopefully freeing them to experience God’s forgiveness in Jesus and then share forgiveness with others?

There really are only 2 other choices:

apathy — choosing not to care about or for others, especially by simply not offering forgiveness, or

to use a Greek saying in Jesus’ day: “κλείω τὰ σπλάγχνα” which means to close one’s heart toward; to not have compassion for — in other words, hold a grudge.

It’s pretty simple — the more you hold a grudge, the less you can hold your brother or sister in Christ, or anyone that you encounter.

So, one day, the phone rang. It was Carol’s dad. It was neither the 13th of SEptember nor the 7th of January. Instead, it was the day that Carol’s dad informed us that he had been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that gradually hardens a person’s lung tissue until they basically become like dried out sponges. He was given 3-5 years.

I would have fully understood if my wife chose to hold onto all those January 7ths when the phone did not ring.

If we choose not to live by forgiveness our other two choices are one

I coudl have understood if she had just said, “You know, I just don’t care anymore.”

But, instead, I got to admire her faith to choose to forgive her father for thoes forgotten birthdays. Because by letting go of those past hurts, we got to spend those next few years intentionally driving the 3-1/2 hours to his house to visit, embracing the time we had left with him, calling him weekly — being intentional about sharing forgiveness and embracing life.

Which will you choose?

κλείω τὰ σπλάγχνα

σπλαγχνίζομαι

intentionally withholding forgiveness, also known as holding a grudge, or, in th,e Greek language of Jesus’ day, .

we choose not to live by forgiveness our other two choices are one

complacency or apathy in which we don't care about anybody else. For two we are living by non-forgiveness which means in minimal build crutches or in the Max we carry out violence toward another more secret bandage and another

10,000 talents = about 150,000 year’s wages

“

Calculation:

1 mina = 3 months’ wages

1 talent = 180 months’ wages/12 months in a year = 15 years’ wages’

1 talent = 150,000 years’ wages

So, if a yearly wage is $15,000 (about 40 hrs/week at CA min wage of $8.00 hr

150,000 years’ wages = $2,250,000,000 (Two Billion, Two Hundred Fifty)

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_is_10000_talents_worth

1 talent =

Then, how much did your brother owe when he put the flowers on the wrog side fothae altar?

Prayer

Calculation:

1 mina = 3 months’ wages

1 talent = 180 months’ wages/12 months in a year = 15 years’ wages’

1 talent = 150,000 years’ wages

So, if a yearly wage is $15,000 (about 40 hrs/week at CA min wage of $8.00 hr

150,000 years’ wages = $2,250,000,000 (Two Billion, Two Hundred Fifty)

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_is_10000_talents_worth

Then, how much did your brother owe when he put the flowers on the wrog side fothae altar?

This happended withCar

Take a note of the strobe light frequency νν \nu . In my case, the fidget spinner appears stationary at a frequency of 13.3 Hz. As we mentioned before, the wheel appears stationary only when the frequencies match. So, the frequency of the strobe light is the rotational frequency of the wheel. So, I can say that my fidget spinner makes 13.3 revolutions per second. And of course, it's rpm would be 798.

ol andher dadd. Parents divorced when she was yoiung. Was therein some waTa

. Carol forgvae him and chosse ot sta rt relating in a different way intentionally better.ke a note of the strobe light frequency νν \nu . In my case, the fidget spinner appears stationary at a frequency of 13.3 Hz. As we mentioned before, the wheel appears stationary only

when the frequencies match. So, the frequency of the strobe ligdht is the rotational frequency of the wheel. So, I can say that my fidget spinner makes 13.3 revolutions per second. And of course, it's rpm would be 798.

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