“The one to whom little is forgiven loves little” (Luke 7:47, NRSV).

     Ernest Hemingway once told the following true story. A teenage boy and his father had a terrible argument. They spoke terrible words to one another. Hemingway claimed that no one really knew why the young man had run away. Perhaps he didn’t. Maybe he was kicked out of the home by his father. Either way, Paco found himself wandering the streets of Madrid, Spain with hopes of entering a profession that would most likely get him killed‒‒bullfighting. Paco’s memory of his mistakes and guilt over what happened blindly drove him into this one-way street to suicide. But that was the last thing his father wanted, which is why he tried something desperate he hoped would work. Paco’s father had little chance of finding his son as he wandered the streets of Madrid. So, he put an advertisement in the local newspaper, El Liberal. The advertisement read, “Paco, meet me at the Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday. All is forgiven! Love, Papa.” Paco is such a common name in Spain that when the father went to the Hotel Montana the next day, he was surprised to find 800 young men named Paco waiting for their fathers…and waiting for the forgiveness they never thought was possible!

     In contrast to Hemmingway’s tale, Jesus told a story about a servant who was forgiven of a huge debt‒‒a debt he could never repay. Yet, this servant refused to forgive his co-worker of even a modest debt owed by his co-worker. The reason the first servant couldn’t find it within himself to forgive his co-worker is because the first servant never trusted the king had forgiven him completely from the beginning.

     For some, the belief that we are totally and eternally forgiven is a hard thing to grasp. Even were we to stand before God’s throne and hear the King declare, “You are forgiven,” doubt can linger in our hearts. And the issue is not whether God’s forgiveness of sin is too small. The problem is that the faith of the sinner isn’t great enough.