Can you imagine having to forgive the same person 7 times? What happened to the old “3 strikes and you’re out” rule? For some, even 3 is too many. We have another saying about trusting people that says, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” In other words, we will give someone the benefit of the doubt the first time, but once they hurt us, we’re done. Given how quickly we are willing to turn against or at the very least avoid those who hurt us, Peter’s question to Jesus seems more than reasonable.

OK Jesus, I’m supposed to give them three chances. Just to show how loving I am, I’ll forgive them twice as many times and then I’ll even throw in one more for good measure. But after seven, who could possibly be expected to keep forgiving? At this point it is more than obvious that they are simply not going to change. How can I keep forgiving when they are not even repentant?

“Not seven times, Peter,” Jesus says, “but seventy times seven.”

Ugh. Now I not only have to forgive, but you expect me to do math to. How am I supposed to keep track of 490 times for every person who sins against me?…

The next few weeks we find Jesus talking a lot about one of his favorite subjects… relationships. While we like to beat others over the head about what to think or believe, Jesus consistently says love your neighbor, love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you. He does not make exceptions for heretics or dare I say, people of opposing political parties.

When it comes to relationships. the answer is LOVE… Period.

What else is there to be said?…

“God forbid it, Lord!”

The same Peter who just declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, is now telling this same Jesus that he must be wrong. Do we hear how absurd that is? Who would be crazy enough to tell God that God is wrong?

Well… except for maybe every one of us at some point in our lives…

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Such a simple statement of faith, at least from where we sit in our comfortable and often privatized religious world. How easy it is today to say Jesus is Lord and Messiah. How easy it is to say we believe.

For Peter, this may have been a declaration of faith, but it was far more. Likely standing within eyesight of the imperial cult sites of Cesarea Phillipi where Caesar alone was worshiped as the son of God, this declaration was nothing short of treason under the penalty of death…

…Who in our lives do we see as “less than” in some way? Who do we instinctively turn away from? Who do we assume are the people furthest away from God?

Might it be that those are the very ones God has placed in our path to wake us up to our own prejudice and self-righteousness? Might it be that the very people we assume have no faith at all are the ones who might remind us what faith is really all about?