Peter, one of Jesus’ apostles, came to him and asked him a question. “Lord, how many times should I forgive someone when they do something wrong to me?”

Jesus knew that we should always forgive someone if they are sorry for what they have done. Instead of saying “always”, Jesus said, “Peter, you should forgive someone seventy-seven times!” Some versions of the bible even say, “seventy times seven”.

Then Jesus decided to tell Peter a parable to help him understand how important it is to forgive someone when they are sorry. A parable is a simple story that has a very important meaning. This is Jesus’ parable:

Once there was a king who was very rich. He had many servants who worked for him. Some servants were in charge of lots of the king’s money. They were also in charge of other servants.

The king checked to see if one of his servants cared for the money. When the king checked on the money, he discovered that his servant had not paid the bills but had borrowed the money for himself. It was not just a little money. The servant had borrowed thousands and thousands of dollars! He had borrowed so much money that he could never pay it back. This man had a huge debt.

At first, the king decided the only way to get his money back was to sell the servant and all of his family as slaves. The servant was very upset. His wife and children would all have to go and live in different places. They might never see each other again. The servant begged the king to forgive him for what he had done. He begged and begged him to not sell his family as slaves.

The king felt sorry for the servant. He decided to forgive the servant for borrowing thousands and thousands of dollars. He even told the servant that he would not have to repay the money.

Do you think the servant was happy? Do you think he was so happy that he treated everyone nicely that day? No, he did not.

When the servant left the king, he found another servant who owed him money. The servant only owed this man a few dollars. His debt was very small. Even though the king had been nice to him, the servant grabbed this man and began to choke him. He told him he would put him in prison until he paid back the few dollars.

Some of the other servants heard what had happened and went and told the king. What do you think the king thought? He had forgiven the servant a huge debt, but the servant could not forgive another even a small debt.

The king was very angry and threw the man in prison. He would have to stay in prison until the debt was paid.

Do you think Peter understood the parable that Jesus told him about forgiveness? The parable means that God has forgiven us for everything we have ever done wrong to him. He has forgiven us a huge debt! Now he wants us to forgive people when they are sorry for the bad things they do to us. God forgave us a huge debt like the king in the parable did and we should forgive others for their small debts against us. That’s what the servant in the parable should have done.

Scripture Reference:  Matthew 18:21-35