Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” [Matthew 18:21-22 (RSV)]
When writing about issumagijoujungnainermik, the Inuit word for forgiveness, I came across a word in the Tshiluba language spoken by the Bantu of the Congo: ilunga. Because isumagijoujungnainermik is made up of several Inuit words, it easily translates as “not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.” Like issumagijoujungnainermik, ilunga has to do with forgiveness but, unlike the Inuit word, it resists an easy translation. In fact, back in 2004, 1,000 linguists gave it the questionable honor of being the world’s “most difficult” word to translate!
Although the official English definition of ilunga is “a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time” seems straightforward, it misses the cultural nuance. While we might think of it as a “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” kind of person, an ilunga’s tolerance for the offense lessens with the situation and frequency. Worse, ilungas would never practice issumagijoujungnainermik because they need to remember and keep count of every offense! I wonder, do they keep a little scorecard in their back pocket? Do we?
I don’t think Hebrew or Aramaic have a word like ilunga but Jewish tradition held a similar attitude of limits on forgiveness. Although forgiveness was valued, the rabbis taught that it was reasonable to forgive a person only three times for the same offense. By the fourth offense, they believed there was no reason or need to forgive! Considering this Jewish tradition, when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive, I suspect the disciple thought seven times was more than generous. Jesus, however, rejected Peter’s calculations with His answer: “Not seven times…but seventy times seven.” Rather than setting an upper level of 490 on forgiveness, Jesus was using hyperbole. His numbers alluded to Genesis 4 in which God promised a sevenfold punishment on anyone who killed Cain and Lamech later called for a seventy-sevenfold punishment on anyone who harmed him. Jesus’ answer told Peter that our forgiveness is to be as excessive as the vengeance for which Lamech called.
To cement His point, Jesus continued with the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in which the unforgiving servant owed the King an incalculable amount of money. Even though the servant’s immense debt was forgiven by the King, he refused to forgive a fellow servant a debt just one six-hundred-thousandth of that amount! When the King learned of this, he withdrew his forgiveness and tortured the unforgiving man until the debt was paid.
Since repaying the King the equivalent of billions of dollars was an impossibility, this appears to be a reference to judgment and eternal damnation. On the other hand, it simply may refer to severe discipline from God in this life. Regardless of how this threat is interpreted, it is clear that God will not treat our unforgiveness lightly! Scripture tells us that the way we forgive is how God will forgive us; if we keep count like an ilunga, so will He! Jesus’ parable tells us that no number of offenses against us can compare with our innumerable offenses against God—anything owed to us is but a pittance compared to what we owe to Him.
In light of God’s extravagant and infinite grace to us, we are not to be like an ilunga and our forgiveness of others is not to be limited by the frequency or quantity of the offense. The unlimited forgiveness God extends to us is the kind of forgiveness we must extend to others!
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. [C.S. Lewis]
Devotions of the Heart 