Observation

Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35)
In the Section B of the paper, this was the most popular question as many candidates were attracted to it and the performance in scores to this question was average. Candidates gave relevant points to the demands of the question. However, In the Part A, the challenge most candidates had was only summarizing the response of Jesus which was to forgive ones neighbour seventy times seven times and not seventy times. The parable of the wicked servant which Jesus gave in buttressing his points was left out. This made candidates lose valuable scores. Points expected of candidates are highlighted below;

1. Jesus told the story of the unmerciful servant in response to Peter’s question on how often one should show forgiveness to his/her neighbour
2. Peter asked Jesus, if it was seven times one should forgive one’s brother
3. Jesus told him that one should forgive seventy times seven and not seven times
4. To illustrate this, Jesus compared the Kingdom of heaven to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants
5. In the process, one of his debtors who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him to settle his debt
6. As he could not pay his debt, the king ordered that he, his wife, children and all that he had be sold to settle the debt
7. The debtor then fell on his knees and pleaded with the king to be patient so that he would settle the debt later
8. Out of pity, the king released the man and forgave him the debt.
9. Interestingly, the same man who was forgiven his debt went out and found his fellow servant who owed him only a hundred denarii
10. He grabbed him by his throat and demanded instant payment
11. His fellow servant fell on his knees and pleaded for payment to be made later
12. But the man refused the request and put his fellow servant in prison until the debt was settled.
13. When his fellow servants saw’ what had happened, they became distressed and reported the case to the king
14. The king summoned the man and rebuked him for not showing mercy to the fellow servant who owed him
15. In anger, the King handed the man over to the jailers until he had settled all his debt
16. Jesus concluded that, it is the same way that God would do to every one of us if we do not forgive our brother from our hearts/God would not forgive anyone who failed to forgive others

In the B part, candidates were able to list out points about the lessons that can be learnt from Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness. Other additional points include;

1. It builds trust and confidence among people
2. It is a sign of maturity
3. It elicits repentance/remorsefulness and confession
4. It leads to rehabilitation and reconciliation
5. Facilitates prayers