Forgive Seventy-Seven Times
Tuesday of Holy Week
John 13:21-33, 36-38
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033126.cfm
Jesus lives by forgiveness. In today’s gospel, he recognizes to Judas what he is about to do and to Peter what he is going to do. In the gospel of Matthew, Judas already knew what he was going to do. There was some form of premeditation. It says in John 13:2 that the devil already induced Judas and then in verse 27 that Satan entered him. The term Satan in Hebrew and devil in Greek mean the same thing, accuser. The terms were used in legal settings like the term “prosecutor.” The term was often used or associated with a false accuser. It was not always the name of a nefarious entity. That evolved over time. The serpent in Genesis was not originally understood as Satan, but the concept evolved over time. Similarly, the concept of eternal life and heaven were also later developments in the Jewish tradition.
In a way, there was a need to show that there is a part of us that accuses and how it can just come over us. That need for us to accuse is something that we can easily personify as with the devil, but it is still us. We have the ability to come up with options and choose which one to take. There are drives to follow the divine and drives to follow the accuser in us.
Jesus personifies the divine approach. Judas and Peter both were Jesus’s friends and disciples. He chose them even though he knew where it would lead him. He chose them anyway. He knew one was going to hand him over and another was going to deny and turn his back on him. Both of them had intentions of doing the right thing in their own way. Jesus forgives them both and does not hold resentment or condemnation. Jesus lets them both know what he knows, but he doesn’t accuse them. He still loves them regardless. In Matthew 18:22, Jesus says to forgive your brother 77 times. This is how Jesus treated his disciples.
With Peter, Jesus says you will not follow me now, but you will follow me later. While Peter denies Jesus in the gospel, he doesn’t remain in that state. Eventually, Peter chooses not to deny Jesus which ultimately results in his death by crucifixion as was also the case for Jesus.
Jesus lived by what he preached and he expects us to do the same. Jesus calls us to follow both his teaching and his actions as they are one and the same. His forgiveness was/is an embodiment of the divine as it is also a calling for our humanity. God does not desire us to do anything that God doesn’t already do. We may fall short, but the option is always there. God is just waiting and wanting us to fully embrace it and forgives us when we don’t. So when others wrong us or we wrong ourselves, God wants us to do the same. May we learn from it as Peter did.
