Jesus taught in parables or stories to teach people about the Kingdom of God. In this parable, Jesus shows us how God forgives us when do we do something wrong.
He told the story of a rich ruler. He wanted to settle accounts with his servants. One servant owed him a lot of money, around £5,000,000,000. He threatened to put him in jail because he could not pay.
‘Be merciful’ with me;, the servant begged, ‘and I will repay you all I owe you.’
But the rich ruler felt compassion for the servant and told him, ‘its OK, I will forgive you the debt of £5,000,000,000 that you owe me’. The servant was relieved.
However, the servant found a fellow servant who owed him £50 and demanded that he pay the money back immediately. ‘Pay me back the £50 you owe me’ he said, ‘or I will have you put in jail’.
The fellow servant begged him to be merciful, saying, ‘please give me some time and I will pay you back’.
But the servant who had been forgiven £5,000,000,000 from the rich ruler, had him put in jail because he could not repay him.
When the other servants saw what had happened, they went to the rich ruler and told him all that had happened.
The rich ruler said to the servant, ‘I forgave you a debt of £5,000,000,000 because you begged me to give you more time.
Then he had the servant put in jail until he could repay all the debt that he owed.
Jesus said, ‘This is how my Heavenly Father will treat you if you do not forgive one another from the heart’.
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