“Peter said unto Jesus, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?”
This exchange with Peter and the parable of the unforgiving servant come at the very end of chapter 18 of Matthew’s Gospel. The whole chapter is about relationships between Christians. We might call this chapter “The Great Community” or even “Politics in the City of God.” It begins with a question from his disciples:
“Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
Moralists in antiquity would have trotted out well-know heroes or statesmen: a Greek teacher might cite Plato or Aristotle; a Jew might say Moses, or Solomon or Joshua. But instead Jesus called a little child over and placed him in their midst, apparently right next to himself:
“Unless you repent and become like these children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. “
This is the place to start in order to understand Jesus’ politics. How will Catholics live out their heavenly citizenship on this terrestrial globe? Well, what does Jesus mean?
How are children humble? Jesus doesn’t bless our modern romanticizing of childhood. He is not saying that little children are natural geniuses or naturally Christian, or naturally good or pious or any of that. What is humble about a little child is that he has no status and he is completely powerless. Jesus picked him up and put him down in the midst of the adults. That is the nature of a child; he may be picked and put down whether he wants it or not. A child is completely dependent because he is completely powerless and that is what Jesus is saying about heavenly citizenship.
His disciples thought the same rules applied in the Church that applied in the world – it was all about power and status. “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom” is another way of saying, “Who is the most powerful in the Kingdom?” Jesus turned the table. So let me see if I can make this as offensive as Jesus did: unless you see that you are helpless, weak, defenseless, feeble, frail, vulnerable and fragile as a little child you will never see the Kingdom of Heaven. “Becoming as children,” means assuming a child’s low and dependent status, which is in fact being in touch with Reality.
Jesus says that people who have no status, no power, no precious things to hold back from Jesus – that person is the best model of citizenship in his Kingdom. “Nothing in my hands I bring, but simply to thy cross I cling,” is a first principle of Jesus’ politics. If you cling to the cross you have to let go of everything else. If you try to hold on to anything else – status, power, self-esteem, even anger or grudges or unforgiveness, it will be impossible to cling to the cross of Christ.
“Peter said unto Jesus, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?”
Peter assumes that being sinned against makes him powerful. He thinks the power of absolution is his personal prerogative. And he wants to know when he can withhold that grace that he thinks is his personal possession. But Jesus pulls no punches:
“Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but Until seventy times seven.”
Peter didn’t stand a chance of being a disciple of Jesus Christ without the unlimited forgiveness that was offered to him by the Father through his Son. Nor do any of us. I want you to see that Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question is all politics. The word “politics” is based on the Greek word polis, which means city. Politics is like the word polity, which refers to “citizenship.” Jesus turned Peter’s question into a discussion about how citizens of the Kingdom are to live. The parable of a servant who had been forgiven all his debts by his King, but then went out and refused to forgive a fellow servant his debts is a matter of politics. The parable makes it clear that before I go confronting my brother and sister about their sins, about what they owe me, I must remember that I have been forgiven for my sins, my debts to God. That makes me a member of a community of forgiven sinners. The question is not “do we hold one another accountable,” but rather “how do we hold one another accountable in the City of God?” To know how accountability works in the Kingdom requires that we know how we became citizen of the City of God in the first place. We did not earn that citizenship. In fact when we were helpless, utterly dependent little babies, responsible adults saw to it that we were freely given that which by nature we did not possess. We were baptized into citizenship in the Kingdom of Christ, we were regenerated, we were given the Holy Spirit, we were grafted into the Body of his Church and we were infused with heavenly virtues that we might live according to that great gift of grace.
Here’s a thought: think of the parish church as a foreign consulate representing another King and his citizens. Parishioners are resident aliens in a foreign land and the Church reminds us of our true citizenship through the Liturgy, through confession, and by placing icons of the martyrs and saints all around us. These are they who love Jesus above all else including their own lives. They may look powerless, but they unmasked the lies of this world and its politics of power, hate and fear and revenge. These are God’s children, free men and free women, saints of God, citizens of heaven.