The reading from Matthew 18 contains two very hard thoughts. The first is to be able to forgive ‘seventy times seven’. That is virtually saying, always forgive! At the end of the passage, we read that if we do not forgive God will hand us over to be tortured! Could this be true? Read Matthew 18:34-35. What are you thinking Jesus? Certainly you can’t mean to apply that to me? Does forgiving other really matter that much to God? In their wonderful book, The Book of Forgiving, Desmond and Mpho Tutu write, ‘We would like to share with you two simple truths: There is nothing that cannot be forgiven There is no one undeserving of forgiveness. It is a challenging word, but then so if the Gospel.