Parable of the Bak Chor Mee

Yesterday evening, i went to the 85 hawker market in Bedok for dinner. I ordered the famous Bar chor mee. When the hawker arrived with the mee, i paid him a $50 dollar bill. He said he didnt have the change and will return shortly with the change. After say 20 minutes, i was really getting worried.

Where is my $50 change for a bowl of $3.50 Bar Chor Mee!?!. I paniced and walked to the stall. I asked the attendant for my change. The uncle gave me a blank look and retorted, "SINCE WHEN?". Even the boss who is inside the stall cooking, peeped out and warned me not to fool around.

In a very serious and pissed off tone, i said, "Uncle, this is hard business for you, selling mee. I also understand it is hard earned money. But so is my money. I honestly have no reason to cheat you of $50.". After much hestitation, he finally decided to return me the change. Morale of the Story: If you have a big change to pay the next time, pls follow the attendant back to the stall to collect your change; or otherwise break your cash into smaller change of $10 bills b4 u decide to eat at a hawker centre.

This episode really invoked some thinking. The Bar chor Mee uncle is a debtor to me. If he had refused to pay up the change, should i forgive him?. Wah.it will be heart wrenching to pay $50 for a $3.50 bowl of mee leh!. BUT in Mathew 18:21-35, Jesus told a parable about a servant who owed a great debt, which was forgiven of him by his master. He then went out and demanded repayment of a smaller sum of debt owed to him by his fellow servant. The master who originally forgave his debt punishes him, not for being a debtor but for being unforgiving.

32"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, '

I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.

33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'

34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured,

until he should pay back all he owed.

35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you

unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

The servant owed his Master ten thousand talents[in modern day weighting, this sum= millions of dollars] (Mathew 18-24) & he was forgiven of this sum by his master. But the servant went on to pursue a debt of a hundred denarii[in modern day weighting, this sum = a few dollars] (Mathew 18-28) owed to him by his fellow servant.

If Abba can forgive us of a GREAT DEBT(i.e. of all of your SINs), wah and yet we can't forgive people of a debt smaller in scale owed to us. Jesus wants us to forgive...