Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?"  Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven.  For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.  When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made.  So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.'  And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.  But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, 'Pay what you owe.'  Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.'  But he refused; then he went away and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.  When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place.  Then his lord summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked slave!  I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  Should you not have had mercy on your fellow serve, as I had mercy on you?'  And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.  So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."
(Matthew 18:21-35) (NRSV)

   Next!

   Whoa!  I've never had so many people in my barbershop, wait 'till I tell the Mrs.  Quite a crowd.  You must all be in town for the big trial.  I haven't seen anything like it around here before.  Newspapers, radio, television, they're all here.  Well it is a big news - but I ask you, don't you think that someone who has been forgiven everything?...  I just don't get it.

   Well you're next.  Come on; people are waiting.  What would you like, a little off the top?  You could use a good hair cut.  I'd say that you came here just in time.

   I knew the two of them when they were kids you know.  You know, the two who are at the centre of this whole mess, Nick Burns and Steve Young.  Of course, when they were younger, they were known as Nicky and Stevie.  They used to come in here for their hair cuts.  Sat in that very chair.  I tell you the two of them were inseparable as kids.  Wherever Nicky was you could be sure you'd find Stevie and that was usually in old man McCraken's apple trees.  I can see it now as if it were yesterday - Little Nicky and Stevie running down the street with apples stuffed in their shirts and way behind them was old man McCraken shaking his fist in the air warning them if he ever got his hands on them….

   But they weren't bad kids really - kind of makes you wonder about all this recently.

   As I said, they were inseparable as youngsters you know.  When they weren't in McCraken's trees they were playing together down at the creek catching frogs.  And when they got to be teenagers, well the two of them were always working in Nick's basement on some computer program or some hard drive.  Now, instead of totting apples down the street, I'd see them pulling wagons full of old computers parts, key boards, monitors, what ever they could get their hands on at the town dump.  They'd lug all that stuff to Nick's basement and somehow put it all together to make what they called the "next generation" of computers.

   When they got to their college years we didn't see them around town so much but I'd hear about them from the odd person.  It seems that they parted ways at College - Nick went to one end of the country and Steve to the other.  I heard they pursued different areas of studies too.

   Steve went into marketing and Nick went into computer programming.  Poor Steve, maybe he should have gone into computers too - he didn't do so well after college.  He tried to make it in retail - pressured by his family I believe - and, well, it wasn't his niche.  He ran into some real financial difficulty.  Lost it all, his home, his car, even his credibility.  He couldn't find a job for months.  I remember; it was a few years ago he came home here to town to live.  He was trying to get back on his feet again.  He came into the shop one day and wanted a trim.  Of course it was great to see him and we chatted about the old days.  I asked him if he had seen Nick at all recently.  He said, he'd been talking to him on the phone - but of course I already knew that.  The rumour around town was that he had been in touch with Nick asking for a loan.  I heard that Nick gave him a little, a small amount really, a couple of hundred.  Spare change to a man like Nick.  Steve seemed to appreciate it - helped him put the first month's rent down on an apartment in the city.

   Nick went into computer programming and did quite well; he got in on the ground floor of some computer programming company, before it was real big.  Somewhere along the line, when he was down in the States at College, he met this computer fella - you know the one, the one with the big glasses, got his picture in the newspapers all the time  - the two of them hit it off instantly.  They had a lot in common and Nick eventually became one of the chief officers of the company.  As I understand it, he was second or third in command.

   Naturally we were all quite proud of him around here.  There's an article about him in that old Forbes magazine you're reading.  That's him there.  Nice suit, huh?  And look at that car he's leaning up against; it's one of those foreign jobs.  Yup, he did quite well for himself.

   At least that's what we thought, up to about three months ago.  It seems that Nick was living beyond his means.  He got caught siphoning off some of the profits from the company.  I don't know all the ins and outs but it seems that Nick ended up owing a couple of million dollars to this same company that he helped start.  It was incredible because he was making a good wage and everything, but he ended up owing the company a couple of million dollars.

   A couple of million dollars, can you believe it?  I couldn't.  Well, there was no way he was going to be able to pay that back, and that's when we started having this big trial.  I know you've been watching it all quite closely.  But who could have foreseen the events of yesterday?  Wow.  I mean, for the last three months the evidence against Nick had been building and building; there was no way he was going to clear his name.  All the evidence pointed against him, and there was no way that he was going to be able to pay all that money back.  I was sure he was done for.

   But then yesterday happened.  It couldn't have written itself out more dramatically if it was a Hollywood movie.  The chief executive officers of the company flew into town and their helicopter landed in the middle of the Ball Park.  Apparently they met with Nick in the morning, and he pled with them, asked them for mercy, and promised that somehow, some way, he would pay back the money he owed.

   Then, yesterday afternoon, the court room was so full that reporters and town's folk were spilling out of the big double doors and down the court house steps.  Nick was sitting with a bank of lawyers and over there was the prosecution and, as the judge entered, everyone stood.  He was ready to hand down the verdict.  Everyone sat down and waited on the Judge's words as he began to read very slowly.  He looked at Nick and ordered him to stand.  He then said, "Nick Burns, the evidence against you is overwhelming.  Your debt to this computer company is in the millions of dollars, yet you have assets of only a couple of thousand.  I was prepared today to give the guilty verdict but, after consulting with the chief executive officers, it appears that all charges have been dropped and your debt to the company has been cancelled.  You are free to go."

   Well I couldn't believe it.  And apparently neither could Nick; his jaw was on the floor.  His lawyers grabbed him and hugged him; the crowd in the courthouse let out a shout.  Everyone was overjoyed.  People thronged Nick to shake his hand.  Millions of dollars he owed and it was all forgiven.  Nick was laughing and shouting, then laughing again, he could hardly believe what was happening to him.  And in the exuberance of the moment he got carried along in the crowd right out the door of the courthouse, through the double doors and down the court house steps.  All the while the reporters were trying to get a statement from him and, as he got to the bottom of the court house steps, who should be there to congratulate him but his old friend Steve.

   And I'll never forget that moment - it moves so slowly in my mind.  All the joy and exuberance drained out of Nick's face as his eyes locked with Steve's.  And he grabbed Steve by the neck and shook him, shouting in his face, "Give me back my money!"

   Steve began to plead with Nick, saying that he had some money and would pay him what he could.  But Nick wouldn't have any of it.  His hands were still on Steve's throat, "I want it all," said Nick.  The crowd was stunned; no one knew what to do.  And at that point, Nick, with anger written all over his face, began marching Steve up the courthouse steps - presumably to press charges.  And as soon as he got to the top of the court house steps he met the computer executives and the judge who had just forgiven his own debt.  The judge and the rest were quick to assess the situation and they pointed at Nick and said, "Let him go and come with us, we have some talking to do about a couple of million dollars you owe us."

   Now, here is the question; here's the question that everyone should be asking as a result of what happened:  "Don't you think that someone who has been forgiven everything would then be able to forgive anything?"

   Next!

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - November 2001