Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. 23 That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. 25 Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. 26 At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ 27 Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. 28 When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30 But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. 31 Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. 32 His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. 33 Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ 34 Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. 35 So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”
1 When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.
Peter’s question follows Jesus’ teaching about how His disciples are to respond when a brother or sister sins (Matthew 18:15–20). Peter now asks what happens when the sin is committed personally against him: “How often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (v. 21). Peter’s proposal is generous, but it still assumes that forgiveness can eventually reach a limit.
Jesus answers, “not seven times but seventy-seven times” (v. 22). He is not replacing Peter’s number with a larger number that must be counted. He is teaching a willingness to forgive without limit. His words recall Genesis 4:24, where Lamech boasts that vengeance will be multiplied “seventy-sevenfold.” Jesus reverses that pattern. Where sinful humanity multiplies vengeance, life in the kingdom of heaven multiplies grace and is to be marked by forgiveness.
Jesus then explains why forgiveness is to characterize His disciples. He tells of a king who begins settling accounts with his servants. One servant owes “a huge amount” (v. 24), literally ten thousand talents. A talent was worth about six thousand denarii, while a denarius was ordinarily a laborer’s daily wage. The amount is deliberately beyond ordinary calculation. The servant could not repay such a debt even over a lifetime.
Yet the servant falls before the king and pleads, “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full” (v. 26). His promise is impossible to fulfill. The king nevertheless responds with far more than the servant asks. “Moved with compassion,” he releases him and forgives the entire debt (v. 27). The enormous debt allows us to see the greatness of the mercy being shown. Jesus is teaching His disciples to recognize the immeasurable mercy God extends to sinners.
The servant then encounters a fellow servant who owes him one hundred denarii. This is a real debt, roughly one hundred days’ wages, but it is tiny compared with the debt he has just been forgiven. The contrast is enormous. The second servant even repeats almost the same plea: “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back” (v. 29). In his case, the request is reasonable because the debt could actually be repaid.
The first servant, however, refuses the very patience and mercy that have just restored his own life. He seizes the man, begins to choke him, and then has him imprisoned, using the full force of the law against a debtor whose request for time was reasonable. The problem is therefore deeper than the amount of money involved. The mercy he received has not changed the way he treats another person.
When the king learns what happened, he asks the question that reveals the heart of the parable: “Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?” (v. 33). The servant was not asked to create mercy on his own. He had already experienced it. The mercy shown to him was meant to become the pattern for the mercy he showed to others.
This is the same relationship Jesus teaches in the Our Father: “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). After teaching that prayer, Jesus adds, “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you” (Matthew 6:14). We do not earn God’s mercy by forgiving others. Rather, the mercy we have received is meant to enter our hearts so deeply that it changes the way we respond to those who have hurt us.
Jesus therefore ends the parable with a serious warning: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart” (v. 35). Forgiveness cannot remain only an outward statement. It must come “from the heart,” from the inner person. This does not mean that painful memories disappear immediately or that emotional hurt simply vanishes. It means refusing to nourish vengeance and asking God for the grace to desire the good of the person who has offended us. Sometimes that interior forgiveness develops through prayer as we place both the injury and the person who caused it before God.
The warning also shows that forgiveness is not optional in the Christian life. A person who insists on receiving mercy while refusing to extend mercy is refusing to let God’s grace change his heart and shape the way he treats others. Jesus had already taught, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). God’s mercy is a gift, but it is a gift meant to transform those who receive it.
Matthew then tells us, “When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee” (19:1). This customary formula closes one of Jesus’ major discourses in Matthew. Jesus now leaves Galilee and begins the next stage of His journey through the region east of the Jordan toward Judea and ultimately Jerusalem. He leaves His disciples with a demanding lesson for life in His kingdom: those who have received the Father’s mercy are called to let that mercy become visible in the way they forgive others.
Heavenly Father, help us remember the mercy You have shown us. Give us the grace to forgive those who have sinned against us, to surrender resentment, and to forgive them from the heart. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011. Matthew 18:21–19:1 and notes.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010. 39–40.
- Casciaro, Jose Maria, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008. 111–112.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. 662, paras. 116–117.
- Aguilar Chiu, Jose Enrique, et al., eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. 946–947.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, OP, and Donald Senior, CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. 3rd fully rev. ed. London: T&T Clark, 2022. 1210–1211.
- Mitch, Curtis, and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010. 233–238.
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