Seventy times seven

For the full context of this post read Matthew 18: 21-35.

During the COVID pandemic many people have stored up as much toilet paper as possible. A roll of toilet paper seen in the store is a roll of toilet paper bought! We bring it home, and carefully store it away in a dark closet in the basement because some day we’ll need it. Some of us store up offences like we store up toilet paper. We see an offence and we take it and store it away in a dark closet in the basement of our hearts until we need it again. We even inventory our offences. “I have 92 offences from so and so. I have 58 offences from what’s his face, but I am sure when I see him next I’ll get a few more offences.” We collect these offences as if they were toilet paper needing to be stored. Here’s what Jesus had to say about offences:

21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

(Matthew 8:21-22, NLT)

When I heard this passage of scripture as a kid, I honestly thought that we could count up offences and only forgive people 77 times. Thanks to the good teaching of Pastor Dad I learned that what Jesus was saying to Peter was that he should not keep a record of wrongs. No one can really keep score to count up 77 offences. Jesus told Peter to forgive. Don’t count; forgive. Jesus wants us to forgive people seventy times seven times. But what do we do when we only have one offence?

Recently, I have been reading Jesus’s words from a different purview. I can practice forgiving most people of all things until I’ve lost count. But what do I do with that one offence that I can’t let go of? Have you ever been hurt so deeply by someone or something that you can’t let go of that one offence? It’s stored in the basement of your heart like a roll of toilet paper? You don’t have to count seventy times seven, or forgive until you can’t count anymore, because there is only one offence, and that offence is so big that you can’t get past it? I can count and remember one, so can I keep it? What if Jesus wants me to forgive the same offence seventy times seven times? What if he wants me to release that one thing, and forgive it daily until the offence is gone?

If you are like me, you might hold onto that one offence. Here’s what I’ve decided to do with mine. I’m picturing it as a roll of toilet paper. Each day, I’m going to choose to forgive that same offence by unraveling that roll and giving God a square or two of toilet paper. It’s a mega roll, so it might take me awhile, but at some point, the basement of my heart will be free from TP. That offence will be in a landfill where it belongs, biodegradable, so that it can return to the earth and be used as nutrients to bring new life. Seventy times seven, I choose to forgive.