No special rules for us

Did you ever feel like it's okay for you to do something wrong, because you a have a special reason?

You think, "It's okay to say I didn't ride my bike in the road, because I did it and didn't get hurt." Or, "It's okay to sneak out of the house even though Mom said not to. My curfew is unfair, so why should I listen?"

Jesus wouldn't agree with you. In this week's Gospel (Matthew 18:21-35), He says we all have the same rules to live by: No one is too special to listen to Jesus!

Peter asked, "Lord, if someone hurts me, how many times should I forgive them? Seven?" Jesus answered: "No, 77 times!" Then He told this story: "A man owed a king money and couldn't pay it. The king forgave him. Then the man went to a servant who owed HIM money and said, `Pay me now!' The servant couldn't, so the man threw him in jail. The king heard about it and told the man, `I forgave you, but you wouldn't forgive him!' And the king threw the man in jail."

Wrong!

The man in Jesus' story felt like you. He got away with not paying money he owed, but he felt like it was okay to put someone else in jail for the same thing. The servant owed the man money, so the man thought it was okay not to forgive like the king did.

The "king" is really Jesus. Jesus expects us all to live by the same rules, like the Ten Commandments: no lying, killing or the rest; and respect your parents. That means it's not okay to decide that if don't like their rules, you don't have to listen.

If you already goofed up because you thought you had a "special reason," Jesus said you can always be forgiven. But He also reminded us what happened to the man who wouldn't forgive.

Deciding it's okay to do something wrong isn't worth going to jail!

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK: Jesus, teach me that it's never okay to make up my own rules just because I don't like someone else's. Amen!

(09-09-99)