Bible Commentaries
Luke 17

Verses 3-4

Of Pardon (Matthew 18:15-35; compare Luke 17:3-4)

Here again, the thought concerns the new community established by Jesus. The question may be raised whether verses 15-17 go back to Jesus himself or whether they are the fruit of a later development In fact, the words "let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" seem to be at variance with the merciful attitude of Jesus precisely with regard to Gentiles and tax collectors (Matthew 9:10-13). The Church, living in a pagan environment, had very early to impose certain disciplinary measures to safeguard the purity of the gospel (see 1 Corinthians 5). The passage here speaks of "brothers," that is, men who have accepted the gospel. On this account their conduct is more serious.

The brother is first to be reproved by the offended party alone with all due discretion. His bad conduct is not to be publicized. If he will not listen, then two or three witnesses are to confront him (see Deuteronomy 19:15). Finally, as a third step, he is to be brought before the whole assembled community. To treat him as "a Gentile" means to cast him out of the fellowship of the Church. This means concretely excommunication. To do this is to deliver him again to the powers of evil from which the preaching of the gospel had delivered him Does he not thereby become anew the object of evangelism?

Such is the meaning of verse 18, which we have encountered before (Matthew 16:19). But what is there said to Simon Peter is here spoken to the Christian community. The Word of God, of which the Church is the depository, has power to bind and to loose. It frees him who receives it; it casts back into slavery him who resists it.

Verses 19-20 contain a great and magnificent promise with regard to the prayer of believers: where two or three are united on "anything they ask" of God, they will obtain it, because it is to the Father of Jesus Christ and in the name of Jesus Christ that this prayer is made. The "name" in biblical language expresses the profound reality of a person. To speak or to act in the name of Jesus Christ is to invoke his presence and his power, it is to call upon that which he is, to conform the will to his. This is why Jesus can say that where two or three are met "in my name" he is present in the midst of them. This is also why their prayer is certain to be granted, for he himself inspires it and prays in them. He is their guarantor with his Father.

The Apostle Peter, once more the spokesman for his brothers, raises the question about pardon (vss. 21-22). Must one pardon seven times? Jesus replies, "Seventy times seven," which is a way of saying, always. The number recalls the ancient word of Lamech who avenged himself "seventy-sevenfold" (Genesis 4:24). To the absolute of vengeance is opposed the absolute of pardon Jesus illustrates his thought by telling a parable about an insolvent debtor for whom the creditor mercifully remitted his debt but who, upon going out, refused all mercy to an unfortunate one who owed him a tiny sum. The contrast between the two sums and the two attitudes constitutes the point of the parable. The relationship is that of ten million dollars to twenty dollars! How could one to whom God has given his grace crush his brother? There is no comparison possible between the pardon of God and that which we grant to others, no matter how great the offense sustained. One who does not pardon his neighbor excludes himself by that from communion with God. Jesus several times returns to this thought He who shuts out mercy shows thereby that he has understood nothing of the love of God, of the extraordinary pardon of which he himself is the object (Matthew 5:7; Matthew 5:43-48; Matthew 6:12-15),