...Like A Gentile Or Tax Collector (part 6)

Our trek through Matthew, spurred on by Jesus’ statement that concluded with “treat him like a Gentile or a tax collector,” now returns us to Matthew’s eighteenth chapter.  By this point, owing to Matthew’s clear presentation of Jesus’ treatment of Gentiles and tax collectors, we can rightly conclude that treating an at-fault brother as a Gentile or a tax collector, if he refuses to listen to the correction of an individual, to a small gathering of brothers, or to the church, does not constitute a rejection of that brother.  On the contrary, if the example presented by Jesus is of any value to those that call themselves by His name, then there should be a re-doubling of efforts, as these are the people to whom Jesus went.  The hand of fellowship and forgiveness should be extended indefinitely.  Yes, in this there is a potential risk of taking suffering, shame, loss, and humiliation upon oneself in an attempt to reconcile and restore a broken relationship, but in the end, is that not what God did for His people and His world through His Christ and the cross? 

Jesus goes on to add: “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.  Again, I tell you the truth, if two of you on earth agree about whatever you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.  For where two or three are assembled in My name, I am there among them” (18:18-20).  It is then that Peter, who is clearly presented by Matthew as making the connection between what Jesus has said about treating a brother as a Gentile or tax collector, binding and releasing and agreeing together, and the need for there to be an ongoing willingness to forgive as a marker of those that are part of Jesus’ messianic movement, asks Jesus his famous question about the quantity of forgiveness that need be on offer, suggesting that seven charitable acts of forgiveness ought to be enough.  Of course, based on what the audience of Matthew knows about Jesus’ demeanor and His dealings with all and sundry, there could be little astonishment that Jesus insists that forgiveness is to be extended “Not seven times… but seventy-seven times!” (18:22b) 

Now, some translations render Jesus phrase as “seventy times seven.”  Either way, it would have been well understood that Jesus has indicated that there is to be no end to forgiveness among brethren.  However, there are some historical considerations to be made here, which may serve to underscore an actual usage of “seventy-seven.”  We keep in mind that this Gospel, perhaps more than all the rest, reaches back into Israel’s Scriptures in order to shed greater light on Jesus’ status and His ministry.  Along with that, we know that Jesus’ words and deeds only make sense in the light of the history of Israel, as presented in its Scriptures.  Furthermore, we know that Jesus’ presumptive audience would have been well-versed in Israel’s history, and based on the construction of this Gospel, we presume the same for Matthew’s audience.  Finally, we know that when Jesus quotes Scripture to His hearers, or when the author quotes Scripture for his hearers in order to reinforce something that Jesus has said or to shape their thinking along certain lines, that those quotations are not an isolated choosing of a statement that fits a certain need, but that a single quote is designed to call an entire narrative to the minds of the hearers. 

Why make these points?  It is because of the uses of “seventy-seven” that are to be found in Scripture.  If we surmise that Jesus is careful with His use of words, if we surmise that Matthew is careful with the construction of his narrative and with those words of Jesus that he includes in that narrative, and if we also surmise the two audience’s (Jesus’ and Matthew’s) general familiarity with the Scriptures that tell the story of Israel, which gives them their sense of identity, then it is worthwhile to review those uses.  The first use is found in the foundational story of Scripture, which is Genesis.  In the fourth chapter we read “You wives of Lamech, hear my words!  I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for hurting me.  If Cain is to be avenged seven times as much, then Lamech seventy-seven times!” (4:23b-24)  Surely, this use of “seventy-seven” in connection with a wrong done and vengeance (without getting into the nature or direction of that vengeance, or the motivation for his words) would have some bearing on Jesus’ use of “seventy-seven” when speaking about wrongs done and forgiveness---dissuading any desire for vengeance. 

The second use is in the book of Judges.  In the eighth chapter, as part of the story of Gideon (which would have been a very popular story for an occupied people such as the Israel of Jesus’ day, or a persecuted people such as the early church communities), we read that Gideon “captured a young man from Succoth and interrogated him.  The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders---seventy-seven men in all” (8:14).  It was at Succoth that Gideon, with he and his three hundred men pursuing the Midianites and exhausted, requested loaves of bread for his army.  The men of Succoth refused.  Gideon vowed vengeance and eventually took that vengeance, executing the city’s men (8:17).  Presumably, those executed first, if not exclusively, were those seventy-seven.  Again, if Jesus is speaking of the need for forgiveness instead of vengeance in the face of wrongs that are done, then it is more than possible that His insistence that forgiveness be offered seventy-seven times might be offered with this story in mind as well.