The Servant Who Had No Mercy

²¹Peter came to Jesus. He asked, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

²²Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times.

²³“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to collect all the money his servants owed him. ²⁴As the king began to do it, a man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold was brought to him. ²⁵The man was not able to pay. So his master gave an order. The man, his wife, his children, and all he owned had to be sold to pay back what he owed.

²⁶“Then the servant fell on his knees in front of him. ‘Give me time,’ he begged. ‘I’ll pay everything back.’ ²⁷His master felt sorry for him. He forgave him what he owed and let him go.

²⁸“But then that servant went out and found one of the other servants who owed him 100 silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he said.

²⁹“The other servant fell on his knees. ‘Give me time,’ he begged him. ‘I’ll pay it back.’

³⁰“But the first servant refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison. The man would be held there until he could pay back what he owed. ³¹The other servants saw what had happened and were very angry. They went and told their master everything that had happened.

³²“Then the master called the first servant in. ‘You evil servant,’ he said. ‘I forgave all that you owed me because you begged me to. ³³Shouldn’t you have had mercy on the other servant just as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴In anger his master handed him over to the jailers. He would be punished until he paid back everything he owed.

³⁵“This is how my Father in heaven will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Objects:

Dry-erase whiteboard or large piece of paper and marker.

Word of the day:

When.

Message:

Raise your hand if you have ever . . .
hurt another person’s feelings,
accidentally, or maybe on purpose, stepped on someone else’s foot,
pushed or shoved someone,
called another family member a cruel name,
made someone feel bad by treating them badly.
(Continue to ask questions until all the children have had an opportunity to raise their hands.)

It looks like it has happened to all of us. When you do treat other people like that and hurt them, what should you say? (Allow children to respond with “apologize.”) How do you apologize? (Allow children to answer.) That’s right, you say, “I’m sorry.” When we do apologize, what does the other person say? (Allow children to respond.) That’s right. The person says, “I forgive you.” Those three words are very important for today’s scripture passage. “I – Forgive – You.”

When someone hurts you and your feelings, you feel bad. I wonder how you feel when you are the one hurting someone else’s feelings. That feels bad too, doesn’t it? When you say, “I’m sorry,” and you mean it, and when the answer comes back, “I forgive you,” it feels so good to hear those words!

How many times do you think we should forgive someone? (Let the children provide numerical responses.) Today’s Bible passage asks a question. It isn’t our question, of course, it is Peter’s question. “How many times must we forgive?” Peter asked Jesus this question. In Matthew, Chapter 18, the Bible tells us that Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who wrongs me? Seven times?” “No!” Jesus replied to Peter, “Seventy times seven!” I wonder how many times seventy times seven is. Does anyone know? (Allow children to guess and provide a number.)

(Take out the whiteboard or poster paper to use to illustrate the math). I will write it down so we can find out the answer together. (Write.) 7 X 7 = 49, so 70 X 7 = 490! That’s a lot, isn’t it?

I wonder how many people in this room would have to step on my toe, say “I am sorry,” and I say, “I forgive you,” for me to come close to that number of almost 500? I don’t want to try that to find out, but the point is that Jesus wanted to make sure that we keep on forgiving others. In other words, we need to forgive others so many times that we lose count.

Today’s word of the day is “when.” When do we need to say I am sorry? (Allow children to answer.) The important thing to remember is not how many times we should forgive someone, but that we should forgive every time. When it happens, we should offer forgiveness. I wonder, when it happens to you, will you?

Let’s practice forgiving one another. I will say, “I’m sorry,” and you will respond with, “I forgive you.” We won’t try it 490 times, but let’s try it a few times. (Practice call and response. You could have children say to the congregation, “I’m sorry,” and have the congregation respond appropriately.)

You all are getting pretty good at this. The next time you need to use those words, it will be so much easier now that you have practiced.