Learning to love Jesus

Now that you've been in school for a few weeks, you know which subjects you like and which you don't. You've probably made fun of some teachers already and complained about science or English.

Jesus met a lot of people who had already decided what they liked about Him and what they didn't. In this week's Gospel (Matthew 21:28-32), He gives them some advice by telling a story.

"A man had two sons," Jesus said. "He told each one, `Go work in the fields.' One said, `No,' then changed his mind and went. The other said, `I will,' but didn't go. Which son did what his father asked?" Jesus' listeners replied, "The first." Jesus said, "In the same way, people you call `bad' will enter heaven before you."

Even before you started school, you probably talked to other kids about which teachers and subjects would be hard. But once you started, you might have found out you liked a subject after all.

Jesus' followers did the same thing. In the story, the man with two sons is God, telling people to follow Jesus. One person didn't like Jesus; but later, he saw that God sent Jesus to teach us to love each other. Like you, the man found something to like after all.

Sometimes, you start school thinking you'll like everything. You get ready to have fun with every subject - and then you find out some things are hard! "I hate school," you decide.

That's just like the second man in Jesus' story. He liked following Jesus, until he heard he'd have to do hard things like loving his enemies. Then he decided he wouldn't listen to Jesus at all.

It's easy to decide you love school or hate it, or love one subject and hate another. Jesus' followers often said since they didn't like everything He said, they wouldn't follow Him any more.

If you give school a chance, you might find out it's kind of fun to learn about electricity or poems. Jesus' followers found out that even though He gave "tests" (like loving their enemies), following Him could be fun. In school, you get to learn a lot and meet other kids. But if you like Jesus, you get to go to heaven!

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