(A) “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?”
Recount Jesus’ response to the above question.
(B) State three lessons that can be learnt from Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness.
(A) Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35)
Points expected of candidates are highlighted below;
1. Jesus told the story of the unmerciful servant in response to Peter’s question on how often one should show forgiveness to his/her neighbour.
2. Peter asked Jesus if it was seven times one should forgive one’s brother.
3. Jesus told him that one should forgive seventy times seven and not seven times.
4. To illustrate this, Jesus compared the Kingdom of heaven to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
5. In the process, one of his debtors who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him to settle his debt.
6. As he could not pay his debt, the king ordered that he, his wife, children and all that he had be sold to settle the debt.
7. The debtor then fell on his knees and pleaded with the king to be patient so that he would settle the debt later.
8. Out of pity, the king released the man and forgave him the debt.
9. Interestingly, the same man who was forgiven his debt went out and found his fellow servant who owed him only a hundred denarii.
10. He grabbed him by his throat and demanded instant payment.
11. His fellow servant fell on his knees and pleaded for payment to be made later.
12. But the man refused the request and put his fellow servant in prison until the debt was settled.
13. When his fellow servants saw’ what had happened, they became distressed and reported the case to the king.
14. The king summoned the man and rebuked him for not showing mercy to the fellow servant who owed him.
15. In anger, the King handed the man over to the jailers until he had settled all his debt.
16. Jesus concluded that it is the same way that God would do to every one of us if we do not forgive our brother from our hearts/God would not forgive anyone who failed to forgive others.
(B) State three lessons that can be learnt from Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness.
1. It builds trust and confidence among people.
2. It is a sign of maturity.
3. It elicits repentance/remorsefulness and confession.
4. It leads to rehabilitation and reconciliation.
5. Facilitates prayers.
Contributions ({{ comment_count }})
Please wait...
Modal title
Report
Block User
{{ feedback_modal_data.title }}