After listening to Jesus for a while, Peter began to wonder about the real extent of forgiveness. "Lord, how many times shall I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?" That seems like a lot until Jesus answers, "not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

To explain, Jesus, of course, tells a story. It's another "the kingdom of heaven is like" story. It's time to settle accounts up at the king's palace. One servant owed a huge amount of money, about twenty years of a day laborer's wages. Since he was unable to come up with the cash, the king ordered that he and his wife and his children and everything he had were to be sold to repay the debt. The servant faced slavery and ruin for his household.

He fell on his knees to beg the king for time and for patience. "I'll pay it all back, you'll see." Of course, he didn't have a chance of fulfilling his promise, which the king must have known. Still, amazingly, the king cancelled the debt and let the servant go.

Next scene: this very same servant comes upon a fellow servant who owes him a pittance. He grabs him, begins to choke him, and demands payment. This servant begs for patience, but the "forgiven" servant refuses.

When the story gets back to the king, he is enraged. He calls in the wicked servant and reads him the riot act for failing to show the same mercy he has been shown. The next thing we know the jail door clangs shut and horrifying sounds emerge from the torture chamber.

Jesus' conclusion cannot be clearer. "This is how my heavenly father will treat each one of you unless you forgive a brother or sister from your heart."

In the story Jesus is not merely teaching that we ought to be merciful to each other. The real point is that there is a link between the king's forgiveness and the forgiveness that is demanded of the servant. It's the same link Jesus taught in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."

How are God's forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of each other tied together? That's the key question of the story and of this lesson. We certainly don't earn God's forgiveness by forgiving others. In the story, the king's forgiveness comes first, just as God's forgiveness always comes first in our lives. So does that mean God's forgiveness is provisional? Does he withdraw it if we don't forgive others? That doesn't seem right either.

Think of it in terms of an electric current: it works only if the circle is complete and the power can flow along the line from the positive to the negative pole. In the same way the circuit of God's forgiveness flows through our hearts, and the circuit is completed when that forgiveness flows through us to others.

When we have experienced God's forgiveness, that loving forgiveness will fill us and flow through us, transforming our relationships with those around us.