forgive... or else

Matthew 18:21-35

The key word and theme in this passage is forgive. It begins with Peter asking a question about how many times he should forgive. Jesus tells a parable to demonstrate the importance of forgiveness. The subject of this passage is: why should I offer infinite forgiveness to others? The complement is: because God, in Christ, has offered infinite forgiveness to me.
This passage continues the flow of thought from Jesus' teaching in the previous sections: don't cause a humble one to stumble because they are very important to God. If a brother or sister causes the stumbling or is stumbling themselves, go and try to restore them. Then Peter wants to know how often he has to forgive his brother or sister for causing him to stumble. Jesus tells him that his forgiveness must be infinite.
Jesus uses some word/number play to make his point. First, in response to Peter's generous offer to forgive his brother seven times, Jesus tells him he must forgive him seventy-seven times. Obviously this is not meant to be a literal number. Probably Jesus is saying to Peter that he must forgive many more times. For those that attach meaning to numbers, it could mean a double completion since seven often represents completion in Scripture.
The second significant use of numbers is the contrast between the two debts in the story. The servant goes after a fellow-servant who owes him 100 days' wages. This is not an insignificant amount. However, it pales in comparison to the 10 000 bags of gold that he owed his master. The point is that no matter how great the offense that I am faced with, it pales in comparison to my offense against God.
This picture of God causes me to bow before him in worship. What forgiveness! What mercy! I, who owed so much more than I could ever repay in a thousand eternities, have been forgiven by God. My debt has been entirely canceled. My trespass has been forgiven. It leaves me speechless. My responsibility is to extend the same mercy and forgiveness to the people around me. I am terrible for keeping record of debts or wrongs. How much more free would I be if I could just let that all go?